Higher Voltage

During most of 2003, scrap recyclers engaged in processing wire and cable were openly worried about the future of their recycling sector. At the time, brokers representing consuming mills and smelters based in China were making generous offers for copper wire and cable and gaining access to material that formerly went to domestic wire chopping lines.

Fortunately for domestic wire chopping operators, trading patterns have shifted in 2004. Customs, trade and environmental regulations in China have combined to slow down the formerly frenzied buying pace of brokers representing that nation’s consumers. Wire processors are reporting that scrap dealers in the United States are re-establishing trading ties and shipping material their way.

The renewed business—and the renewed confidence—has allowed some wire processors in North America to begin shopping for equipment and system upgrades to keep them competitive and to ensure that they can produce the clean metal choppings desired by consumers of processed copper and aluminum extracted from scrap wire and cable.

RECOVERY ROOM. Companies processing wire and cable have several goals in mind, including recovering as much metal as possible, achieving the purest shipments of metal possible and doing both of these effectively while keeping costs down.

"The goal is lower cost per unit; the lower we can keep our costs, the more competitive we can be," says Larry Mallin of Mallin Bros. Co. Inc., Kansas City, Mo.

Recent gains in volume have allowed Mallin Bros. to upgrade to a larger American Pulverizer shredder on the front end of its production line. Mallin says the company also had to increase its conveying capacity to match.

In terms of additional upgrades, Mallin says that power consumption is less of a cost factor with wire processing than it is for auto shredding or high-volume baling, where power costs can vary greatly depending on the types of engine or motor used, the amount of horsepower (for shredders) or compression force (for balers).

But wire processors are on the lookout for labor savings that can be put in place with automated processing and material handling systems.

With shredding being a key part of wire chopping operations, the cost to replace worn blades is also monitored.

At Shine Bros Inc. in Spencer, Iowa, Toby Shine says the pre-choppers and granulators made by France’s MTB Recycling in use at his facility have demonstrated considerable cost savings because of the extended blade life inherent in the machines.

After material has made its way through the shredders and granulators, a variety of equipment—gravity or air density tables, washing systems, fluidized bed units—can be used to further ensure that metallic choppings shipped to consuming mills are free of plastic

Mallin says that even with the importance of "lowest-cost-per-unit" goals, processors cannot lose sight of product purity benchmarks. "A good system is not judged on how fast it’s running, it’s a matter of how well it’s run for purity," he remarks. "With our quality control, we insist that the product has to be 100-percent pure."

Shine says his company employs a "state-of-the-art washing plant" that gets the "last copper out" of the mixed material stream going through the Shine Bros. wire processing system.

COATINGS QUESTIONS. For wire processors, marketing the copper and aluminum found on the inside is where the money lies.

Whether anything can be done to find a recycling home for the polymer exterior coatings is a matter some wire processors have looked into with mixed results.

In Kansas City, Mallin says flatly of markets for the various materials used on wire and cable exteriors, "We’ve been trying for all these years, and we’re forever looking."

In Iowa, Shine says his company has markets for some types of coatings. "There are a variety of coatings," he notes. "Some we can market, others we can’t."

Processors and recycled plastics brokers who represent them have often approached manufacturers of molded parts as a potential end user of the recovered coatings.

Although extruders may decline to experiment with a product that cannot promise 100 percent purity, makers of molded parts may have some leeway to use the material, and are often willing to take a look at an affordable feedstock.

Auto and truck parts makers have proven willing to use recycled wire coatings in such applications as sound deadening panels, mud flaps and floor mats, according to the American Plastics Council.

ON-SHORE FUTURE. After the frenzied competition for recyclable wire and cable that occurred in 2003 and early 2004, wire processors in the United States are still focusing on the future of their industry.