Page 75 from: Recycling Technology 2016

75
2016

Application: INNOVATIVE SORTING

ner Austin AI, S2S-Toratècnica believes it has
taken another step down the path that leads to
the future of scrap metal sorting.

Melt-ready packages for smelters
Skrotfrag wanted to be able to remove

specific alloys from its Zorba material to pro-
duce a purified metal extract that matched the
daily market changes in demand/price for the
heavier metals. Also, by extracting other, less
desirable heavy alloying elements, Skrotfrag
wanted to produce scrap aluminium pack-
ages with specific melt characteristics. For
example, through a reduction in the iron,
zinc and copper fractions, the resulting alu-
minium fraction would be more attractive to
a secondary smelter producing a 3000 series
product than, say, a standard Zorba product.
If the aluminium fraction melts closer to the
desired end product’s chemistry specifica-
tions, the smelter spends less time correcting
the melt and thereby increases throughput
and reduces costs. This advantage for the
smelter increases the value of the ‘adjusted’
aluminium fraction in relation to Zorba.

S2S-Toratècnica has introduced its new
S2S XRF-Sense for this exact purpose, com-
bining other sophisticated technologies such
as its S2S Qolor-Sense optical sorter. The in-
telligent plant design foresees that the eddy
current separator rejects pass the S2S Qolor-
Sense 1200 machine first (a CCD Camera
sorting machine) and create a highly-concen-
trated copper fraction. This uses highly-sen-
sitive RGB camera technology with 5000*3
pixels for excellent resolution and colour de-
tection. Even difficult colour deviations in the
copper are identified in the dark grey mate-
rial mass. Employing the RGB sorter prior to
the XRF sorter enables the operator to extract
a high-quality, copper-rich material stream
and thereby to increase his income while also
regulating his material stream entering the
XRF sorter.

Quick return on investment
In combination with S2S-Toratècnica’s

XRF-Sense 1000, Skrotfrag is able to pro-
duce very attractive melting packages for the
smelter. By reducing heavy metals such as zinc

to below 1% and regulating the other heavy
metals in the Zorba and Zurik, its products
are improved and its revenues are increased
on a short return-on-investment period. The
S2S XRF-Sense has a working width of 1000
mm and is capable of running up to 5 tonnes
per hour of Zorba material.

For the future, S2S-Toratècnica’s down-
stream technology is already being designed
and developed to create full, melt-ready pack-
ages so that the smelter only needs to melt
and pour – with no corrections required. This
demands additional sensor technology even
beyond XRF for incorporation into one truly
advanced scrap metal processing line.

S2S-TORATÈCNICA: THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX
By pursuing new concepts and developing
innovative sorting machines, S2S-Toratècnica
can downsize shredder operations consider-
ably, reducing the number of sorters needed
and the footprint of sorting lines.

S2S-Toratècnica delivers state-of-the-art
turnkey process solutions for recycling applica-
tions, with a product offer that includes Sense-
2Sort sensor-based sorters of its own fabrica-
tion based on induction, camera, near infrared,
XRT and XRF sensor technologies, as well as
combinations thereof. To complete the list of
products available to recycling plants, Toratèc-
nica also supplies magnet-based sorters such
as eddy current separators, drum and overbelt
magnets as well as peripheral devices such as
screens, feeders and conveyors.

The basic objective of S2S-Toratècnica’s plant
engineering is to downsize shredder operations
and the subsequent downstream sorting line
by facilitating plant designs and reducing the
number of sorters applied. This is achieved
through compacting plant design and special
sorting machine designs with small footprints
as well as through, quite simply, its business
know-how and experience acquired over more
than 30 years.

In this context, S2S-Toratècnica has developed
its S2S Sensor Fusion sorters to reduce the
different sorting steps to a single machine per
size fraction. This patent-pending innovation
allows operators to significantly reduce invest-

ment costs, energy use and space require-
ments while optimising sorting results.

And also with the aim of downsizing sorting
plants while improving an operation’s
profitability, Toratècnica is offering what it
describes as a ‘waterfall-like’ sorting process.
Sorting from top to bottom is nothing new for
Toratècnica, which invented and introduced its
internationally-sold EcoTower Sort in 2006. The
concept has been improved and redesigned in
recent months and this new sorting innova-
tion carries the name S2S TowerSense. All of
Toratècnica’s products can be implemented
within the S2S TowerSense concept.

Meanwhile, manual sorting operations can be
efficiently automated with one of S2S-Toratèc-
nica’s latest developments, the robotic sorting
installation known as S2S RobotSense which
operates 24/7 at up to 200 picks per minute. It
is also eminently suited to pre-sorting applica-
tions, leading to a reduction in shredder opera-
tions and energy consumption, and can be
fitted with any one of the company’s range of
sensor technologies for accurate and low-cost
picking intelligence.

Furthermore, the problem of sorting black
plastic has been truly resolved with the S2S
Black Magic. And in close co-operation with US
partner Austin AI, S2S-Toratècnica has further
developed sorting solutions for extracting
magnesium from Zorba light material and for
separating wrought and cast scrap aluminium.

Eva-Maria Gerosch, S2S-Toratècnica, S.L.
Eric van Looy, S2S-Toratècnica, S.L.
Rick Comtois, Austin AI (without foto)

Website: www.sense2sort.com

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS

Company
S2S-Toratècnica, S.L.

S2S-Toratècnica XRFSense
The S2S XRF-Sense 1000 for sorting two
different size fractions of Zorba – 10-30 mm
(3/8”– 1 1/4”) and 30–100 mm (1

1/4”– 4”) – with
a zinc content of approximately 3 % and with
the option to regulate the quantity of other
heavy metals.

S2S-Toratècnica Qolor-Sense
The S2S Qolor-Sense series applies highly-
sensitive RGB camera technology with
5000*3 pixels for excellent resolution and
colour detection.

3D illustration of S2S-Toratècnica QolorSense.