Bring shred closer to prime with Eriez Shred1

After several years on the market, the Shred1 Ballistic Separator from Eriez has demonstrated its ability to offer return on investment (ROI) quickly and in numerous ways.

The foremost ROI factor is the Shred1’s ability to create an upgraded ferrous shred product with a low enough copper content to fetch a $40-per-ton premium, according to a white paper by Eriez Market Manager-Recycling Mike Shattuck.

In a market that in the last several years has seen prime grades (busheling and other factory scrap) sell for $100 per ton or more than shredded scrap, closing the quality and price gap is in the best interest of auto shredding plant operators. This is especially so if they wish to sell shred to mills that produce sheet steel or otherwise have stricter chemistry requirements.

The Shred1 works its magic after being “positioned after the primary scrap drums, placed just before a picking station,” Shattuck writes. “A unique magnetic element at the end of the separator attracts the more magnetic pieces of steel and drops them behind a splitter,” he adds.

The pieces directed behind the splitter—typically about 75 percent of the ferrous shred—is the low-copper stream that can be marketed as No. 1 Shred, Shattuck says. “This material is conveyed to the stacking conveyor with no further action required,” he adds. (Additional low-copper scrap from the other 25 percent fraction can be added to the No. 1 Shred via an Eriez polishing drum.)

The deployment of the Shred1 at an existing shredder yard “allows shredder yards to provide a more desirable scrap to steel mills seeking a low-copper scrap,” Shattuck writes. “These steel mills gain a competitive cost advantage by using less pig iron/DRI (direct reduced iron) and prime scrap, and more low-cost, low-copper shredded scrap in electric arc furnace (EAF) sheet steelmaking.”

Eriez, which operates a sophisticated test center of its own in Pennsylvania, has tested some 1,000 tons of shredded material under a Gamma Tech bulk analyzer to verify the Shred1 difference in quality.

The average copper content of tested post-Shred1 material was below 0.2 percent. That compares with a significantly higher percentage found in a “control” group obtained from multiple shredder yards. The higher value Shred1 fraction was harvested before any hand pickers were involved, yielding another form of ROI.

By installing a Shred1 Ballistic Separator scrap yards can provide premium low-copper shred to steel mills, fetching up to $40 per ton more, while reducing labor costs. That, concludes Shattuck, is the magic of the Shred1.

The complete Eriez “Producing Low Copper Shred for Steel Mills” white paper can be viewed at www.eriez.com/LowCopper-SteelMills.