Steinert boosts Japan’s automotive shredder residue sorting

Japanese metals recycler Matec has upgraded its advanced processing plant for automotive shredder residue (ASR) in Tomakomai.

The facility is one of the largest of its kind, with an annual throughput of 30 000 tonnes. Matec has installed sorters from Steinert to more efficiently recover end-of-life vehicles.  

Capturing the smallest fractions

Matec’s car recycling hub collects and refines shredder light fractions and Zorba materials from six other locations. It features two new sorting lines: the first targets stainless steel and heavy metals, while the second line is focused on separating metals from a light fraction.

This means that even particles smaller than 6 mm are processed and fed into the recycling process.

The plant in Tomakomai operates 10 Steinert sensor sorting systems, six non-ferrous metal separators and two electromagnets. The primary objective of the plant is the recovery of stainless steel and copper cable materials from the shredder residue.

Targeted approach

The heavy fraction line processes the material in various grain sizes and passes it through several sorting steps. Matec combines induction, 3D and colour detection technology to get the best results. These systems are used in succession to ensure efficient separation in the 30-60 mm and 60-120 mm size ranges.

For fractions of 6-30 mm, Steinert ISS and KSS CLI systems are used to isolate the cable fraction.

Fraction sizes below 25 mm and above 25 mm pass through non-ferrous separators and induction sorters, which reject all metals. These metal concentrates are then processed in a downstream system with X-ray transmission (XRT).

The remaining fractions, consisting of plastic, rubber and similar materials, are used as fuel for the local cement industry.

New industry standard

Zenki, known for its plant solutions in steel construction, supplied the structure on which the sorting systems are based. ‘By combining their expertise in steel construction with our experience in recycling, we were able to build a plant that sets new standards in the processing of shredder residues,’ says Armin Vogel, Steinert’s sales director for Asia.

‘Steinert has consistently provided reliable, high-quality products and excellent technical support. Their machines are robust and the most reliable in the market,’ comments Serhii Govorovskyi, global relations manager at Matec.