[Article from ScrapBook Autumn 2010]
Sepchat group specialises in the recovery of ferrous and nonferrous metals by offering a complete solution, containing services and waste recycling, to companies, communities and individuals. During 2005 Sepchat decided to expand its activities to include cable recycling, which was an area that had not been explored by them before.
Customer Requirements
During 2005 Sepchat decided to expand its activities and acquired the a facility in Bonneval. They decided to invest in cable recycling, which was an area that had not been explored by them before. At this time there where no competition within this field in the area.
The company wanted a flexible plant which also could process other things than just cables. The company wanted to process different kind of copper and aluminium cables, as well as light iron and aluminium scrap. All the material is to be fed with grab. The planned process capacity was about 150-200 tons per month (2,5 tons of input per processing hour). The desired output size was maximum 1-5 mm. They had heard good things about the Super Chopper, and were very interested in that as well.
Eldan Solution
During the exhibition Pollutec in Lyon, 2005, Sepchat got in contact with Eldan Recycling, and soon after a visit to one of the reference factories in Denmark was arranged. After having seen the reference factory they decided to “upgrade” the line that they first had in mind. They wanted stronger machines (a HPG instead on a Rasper1207), to have the opportunity to process heavier materials. They acquired one Cable Shredding Plant and one Cable Granulation/Separation Plant was ordered. These two plants are two stand alone units, but are also built to work together.
The cables are first processed in the Cable Shredding Plant (type A-SC1412) which basically chops the cables down to smaller pieces, shreds. The input material consists of mixed dry copper cables with diameters up to 100 mm. The input load is up to approx. 10 tons per processing hour. The output is cable shreds between 0-300mm. The size reduction makes them easier to process in the Cable Granulation/Separation Plant, and therefore increases the plant capacity.
The cable shreds are then processed in the Cable Granulation/Separation Plant (type E2500C) where the material is downsized in 2 steps into pieces with a approx. size of 4-7 mm. The input capacity is up to an approx. 2,5 tons per processing hour depending type of cables. The plant type E2500C is a standard plant tailored to suite recycling of cables. The plant includes for example a Heavy Pre-Granulator (type HPG125), an over band magnet, a Fine Granulator (type FG952), a Separation Table (type C22), various conveyors and filters. The Heavy Pre-Granulator is made of wear resistant steel, has screens with different hole sizes and the high inertia gives an even load of the machine. It ensures individual size reduction down to approximately 15-25 mm fraction sizes. The Fine-Granulator is a single shaft Fine-Granulator for final granulation of the cables. Fraction sizes are typically between 4-7 mm granulate. The Separation Table is the equipment for the final separation of material into a 99,5% (or better) clean metal fraction. The plastic fraction contains typically 2-5 % metals and is subject to further cleaning, dry or wet.
Comments
Sepchat chose Eldan as its manufacturer due to the fact that they had equipment which fulfilled their expectations. “I believe that the visit at the reference factory was the deciding factor in this case. They were impressed by their composition of machines, and it had a big influence in their decision making process” says Christian Duffau, commercial director for Eldan France.
“We have felt satisfied with Eldan during the entire project phase” says Mr. Sautier, purchasing manager at Sepchat. “Even though we had no experience ourselves from this kind of mechanical processing, it is easy to feel secure with a manufacturer with so much experience. Eldan taught us much about recycling, and recycling equipment”.
“We are very impressed by the professional attitude that Sepchat has when operating the two Eldan lines. They are careful with the pre-sorting of the input material to secure the quality of end products.” says Bertil Eklöv, product manager for WEEE and Cables at Eldan Recycling. “They have a division of labor where one person handles all tasks in the granulation / separation plant from the weighing and feeding of the input material to weighing of the output fractions. Three people sort all the cables and operate the SC1412 line for preparing the cables going into the granulator/separator line. Sepchat has well functional routines that secure the quality of the end fractions”
