Separators

Preparing Waste for a Separator

The job of separation begins with the collection of waste materials by waste management companies. Waste produced by paper and clothing companies is normally sent to a different collection point than that which is produced by heavy manufacturing.

Waste from heavy industrial manufacturing requires a more complex set of methods, which rely heavily on the use of separators to categorize and organize the many varieties of waste matter.

In the initial separation process, aluminum cans, shredded paper, and clothing are usually at the beginning and end of the process. These materials are already in a form to be sent on as raw materials for repurposing and reprocessing since they are not mixed with other components. In the case of larger products, such as cars, machines, equipment, and electronics, separators are necessary since these complex pieces of machinery contain several different forms of materials as part of their construction.

Before complex equipment can be sent on to a separator, they have to be crushed to form small bits and pieces. Crushing is completed by a shredder with huge metal teeth designed to tear into any item regardless of its size, dimensions, weight, shape, and composition. The shredding process produces a pile of mixed raw materials that can go through separators. In the separator process, the small bits and pieces are removed from the giant mass and placed in categories that can be used as raw materials.

The Separator Process

The metal bits from shredding contain ferrous or non-ferrous material, which are mingled together in a huge lump. When examining the massive pile, it may seem to be impossible to separate the individual metals. To that end, engineers in the recyclable machinery business have developed a variety of ways of using a separator to pull out metal particles using magnets. As the pieces of metal travel along a conveyor belt, a magnet, located above the belt, separates the ferrous pieces from the non-ferrous ones. After which, the ferrous metals are sent on for further processing.

The well-designed methods for separating metals do not solve the problem of separating non-ferrous and non-magnetic materials. A non-technical way for separating non-magnetic waste is by picking, a manual process, where separating, sorting, and categorizing waste materials is done by hand. As logical as it may seem, it is time consuming, labor intensive, and expensive.

Modern Separators

As the recycling industry has developed and grown, it has designed and engineered a variety of technologically advanced methods for separating and sorting waste materials. One of the more advanced of these processes is the optical sensor process that is designed to spot and remove certain materials. Programmed sensors identify the targeted materials, activate a mechanical arm or air jet that removes items from the conveyor belt.

Other separation methods involve the use of flotation, eddy currents, air classifiers, and screens. The recycling industry has a wide and varied number of choices for sorting what we may call garbage into raw materials for remanufacturing and reprocessing. They are constantly searching for ways that will make use of useless items.

The key to any waste management operation is the separation of reusable waste to be transformed into raw materials. This ongoing effort is another part of industry’s efforts to preserve the environment.