Rising to the occasion

Bano Recycling prides itself on developing innovative solutions, and a recent project the company completed for a U.S. customer exemplifies that.

The customer asked Bano Recycling to automate a shredding plant for copper cathodes, with the safety of the operator being a primary consideration.

Simone Bano, the company’s sales manager, says Bano Recycling needed to combine its electronics, automation and mechanical skills, as well as input from its research and development and engineering departments, to design and manufacture a fully automated process that also safeguards the operator during the copper cathode shredding process.

The system that Bano manufactured shreds cathodes, high-purity copper plates that are produced using an electrolytic refining process, to 30-millimeter (roughly 1-inch) pieces in a single step.

Overcoming challenges

“One of the challenges of this special project was to integrate the shredding system with the loading system,” says Bano Project Engineer Matteo Schivo.

The textured surfaces of the 15-millimeter (roughly half-an-inch) thick cathodes required Bano to develop a robot that uses a compressed air restraint system in combination with a suction-cup system to transport the cathode to one of two shredders, he explains.

“In this project, the main challenge was to synchronize the loading of the cathodes in the two main machines,” says Alessandro Frau, a programmable logic controller (PLC) programmer for Bano Recycling. “To do this, we synchronized the handling of the robot with the waiting times of the shredders.”

This means a new cathode is not loaded until the shredder has processed the previous cathode, avoiding issues with overpressure or blockages, he adds.

Bano Recycling also needed to take space constraints into consideration when designing the system.

“The two single-shaft shredders were custom-designed and engineered to meet specific space requirements at the customer’s site,” Bano says.

Additionally, the final product needed to be free of iron contamination. “We had to integrate several magnets into the line to ensure this,” he says.

Taking a trial run

After the machines were completed, the entire line was assembled at Bano Recycling’s facility in Padua, Italy, Bano says.

The company asked its customer to ship its cathodes to Padua for a trial run and also invited the customer to perform a test run in person at Bano Recycling’s plant.

“We checked all the safety requirements that we had originally been asked for,” he says. “We also checked the hourly capacity of the plant, which we’ve not only reached but almost doubled what was originally requested,” resulting in a satisfied customer.

“We are very proud to have been able to participate in such an innovative project,” Bano says. “This has allowed us to enrich our background, enabling us to potentially take on new challenges in the future.”

Bano adds, “This project embodies the true strength and spirit of our company, namely our ability to transform a challenge into a new, innovative, tailor-made product that meets our customer’s needs.”

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