Steinert Installs Meatball Extraction Unit

Sorting equipment provider Steinert has announced the installation of its first XSS-F unit designed to extract copper-bearing “meatballs” from shredded ferrous scrap.

The Cologne, Germany-based company has issued a news release saying an XSS-F unit has been installed in-line at a German shredding plant. The unit can process high volumes of post-shredder scrap, Steinert adds.

The XSS-F “utilizes high speed X-ray fluorescence (XRF) technology provided by Olympus Innov-X, allowing the separation of scrap based on the chemical composition,” the company says.

“This installation in Germany is now the first one worldwide that is installed in-line and operating continuously,” says Dr. Uwe Habich, chief technology officer of Steinert. “This is a huge step, and Steinert is excited about the opportunities for the industry and particularly for our customers.”

The new sorting device features Olympus Innov-X’ X-Stream technology, described by Steinert as “a high-speed XRF sensor unit capable of elemental analysis in millisecond time scales, engineered into an industrial grade system that has been the hallmark of other Steinert sorting systems.”

The XXS-F is capable of a throughput of more than 100 tons per hour and features a 2-meter belt width and an average end product containing less than 0.20 percent copper, Steinert says in its news release.

“The standard [XXS-F] system model is composed of a conveyor-mounted spectrometer module, typically containing multiple tubes and detectors to provide the ability to detect and analyze every single piece of scrap material,” Steinert says in its news release. “In only a few milliseconds, customer-defined sorting parameters will determine whether or not to divert that piece out of the main stream. Diverted material is ejected using Steinert’s high-powered compressed air valves.”

More information on the new device is available at http://steinertus.com/Products/meatballs.html.