QUALITY OF METAL SCRAP: SITUATION IN UKRAINE

Every steel mill is looking for a metal scrap with highest possible quality. But not every scrap supplier can meet such requirements.

What parameters should have metal scrap to achieve quality standards? Most experts agree that it should have high density (not less than 0.8-1.3 tons per cubic meter) and be cleared from any inclusions (non-ferrous metals, plastics, dust, rust, etc).

Currently the metal scrap is losing its density – suppliers deliver less weight with more volume. Some experts say t is because of shortage of heavy industrial scrap and increasing amount of household thin and light scrap.

Methods of metal scrap recycling

For the moment there are four ways of recycling which are being used in the world practice: shredder recycling, baling, recycling by means of baler-shear and welding torch cutting.

Shredder recycling is the way that gives the best result in terms of purity of the scrap and its readiness for usage in steel mills. But shredder equipment costs high and 90% of metal scrap recyclers is not able to buy it. Also it needs high per cent of old cars scrap and household scrap, and as to Ukraine we cannot boast that we have a lot of it so far. 

Second way of recycling is baling. It is widely used for many years all over the world. But it still has some hidden dangers. It is difficult to check the content of the bales received from scrap suppliers. Over recent years there is a tendency when the per cent of non-metal inclusion is getting higher in bales. Steel mills are forced to reduce the amount of baled scrap in their activity.

But the most effective way in terms of price/quality ratio is recycling with baler-shear. The process includes primary pressing of the metal scrap in pressing chamber and then the cutting according to fixed standards in the cutting device of the baler-shear. The baler-shear can recycle large volume heavy scrap as well as thin household and mixed light scrap. The capacity of the baler-shear can vary from 8 to 50 tons per hour. Also during the process in baler-shear there is so-called purification of the metal scrap because when it is being pressed and cut the dust, rust and other non-metal particles get off the scrap (up to 4.7% of the total weight) and steel mills (it is most important!) can check the quality of the supplied material right away.

Some 10-20 years ago the future of baled metal scrap seemed very promising. But now it turned out that before baling there should be implemented an additional process of clearing the scrap from dangerous particles (for example, non-ferrous metals). This labor consuming process aroused difficulties for the scrap recyclers all over the world and still waits for its solution. Statistics show that year by year the per cent of baled scrap in comparison to scrap after baler-shear is getting smaller. As to our production we move with the times. We propose to our clients budget variant of baler-shear model Wanshida-Light Q43A-3150 at 55 000 USD