Equipment Report

Tomra technology targets magnesium

Tomra Sorting Recycling says it has enhanced its X-Tract X-ray-based sensor sorting units to remove magnesium from aluminum in products such as zorba and twitch. According to a news release from the company about the new technology, consistently high purity rates in line with Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) specifications have been achieved in field tests.

Brian Gist, the U.K.-based global sales director at Tomra Sorting Recycling, says by incorporating this technology, auto shredder operators with downstream nonferrous sorting operations won’t just be able to add a couple of cents per pound to their aluminum by producing twitch rather than zorba, they also will be able to move their stock domestically.

The system uses the Tomra’s XRT technology but with enhancements to the software, firmware and hardware to sort material of different densities and separate magnesium from aluminum to create furnace-ready products, including low-magnesium twitch, across the full zorba size spectrum from 0.2 to 4.7 inches.

Tomra says the technology “offers a reliable, robust and cost-effective alternative to sink-float separation.” Additionally, the degree of fines separation consistency the unit provides cannot be achieved using dense media plants. Because magnesium is similar in density to aluminum, existing sensor-sorting technology could not recognize the difference between the two materials until now.

“With X-Tract for magnesium removal, we have greatly reduced the commercial and operational barriers to sorting this material and can offer a proven alternative to replace dense media plant technology for separating magnesium from aluminum,” Gist says. “The field test results to date have been extremely positive with regard to machine reliability, robustness and sorting stability.”

Tomra Sorting Recycling is part of Tomra Sorting Solutions, which is owned by Norwegian company Tomra Systems ASA.

Lefort America dealer network expands

Lefort America, Sunrise, Florida, has added two dealers/distributors to its network: Kuhn Equipment and Sargents Equipment and Repair.

Kuhn Equipment, Summerville, South Carolina, will support Lefort America’s customers in the Carolinas and Georgia. Kuhn has decades of experience in the scrap industry, with a wide base of existing customers and a group of experienced service technicians, which will enable the company to put boots on the ground at a customer’s location very quickly in its region, Lefort says. Additionally, Kuhn Equipment offers repair and rebuild services and used equipment.

Sargents Equipment and Repair, South Chicago Heights, Illinois, will support Lefort’s customers in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. Mike Sargent and his team have decades of experience in the scrap industry, Lefort says, and a large group of service technicians and service trucks. The company also has a large maintenance shop, cranes and rigging equipment. Sargents’ services include used equipment rebuild and sales.

Lefort America provides balers, shear/baler/loggers and side-compression shears to the scrap recycling industry.