Leading the way in green metal recycling

The president of Japan’s Suzuyu Shoten initiated a complete redesign and modernisation of his recycling yard in 2020. Recycling equipment manufacturer Zato was chosen as the main supplier.

Zato’s relationship with Suzuyu Shoten goes back to 2020 when we installed a Blue Devil GF4000 Twin Shaft Shredder at its yard at Japan’s coastal city in Ishinomaki. One year later, a Zato Blue Shark Hammer Mill followed. The combination of a Blue Devil pre shredder and a Blue Shark 1614 hammer mill with downstream separation allowed president Yoko Suzuki to get the maximum value out of his ferrous and non-ferrous scrap, reduce overall operation costs and increase overall safety and efficiency.

Time was of the essence so, to minimise disruption and downtime, we set ourselves the ambitious goal of completing the installation process, including testing and training in just 18 days. In order to meet the challenge, it was necessary to pre-assemble the entire system at our factory before disassembling it again for shipping.

At Zato, we pre-assemble and test all of our products before shipping. Only then we can we be sure that the shredder meets our exacting quality standards and that there won’t be any nasty surprises or delays when the shredder is installed on the customer’s yard.

The process

The Suzuyu plant represents the latest in leading-edge design when it comes to scrap metal densification and separation technologies. First, the scrap is pre-shredded by a Zato Blue Devil twin-shaft rotary shear. Pre shredding increases the density, neutralises any potential explosive items and enables the removal of unshredables before they have a chance to damage the hammer mill. 

The pre-shredded scrap is then placed into the autonomous feeding chamber of the Blue Shark hammer mill where an intelligent pusher system constantly monitors the rotation speed and optimises the amount of scrap being fed to the shredding chamber. The processed material (about 25 tonnes per hour with a density of 1.2 tonnes per cubic metre) is then transported via conveyor to a comprehensive cleaning line.

The Blue Devil/Blue Shark combination allows scrap metal recyclers to achieve high standards of productivity with very low operating costs. The material coming from the Blue Devil makes processing by the Blue Shark hammer mill much easier, reducing wear and tear, increasing output, eliminating explosions and lowering the overall energy and wear part costs.

The downstream separation line sorts the material into streams of high purity and high value which are melted by foundries into new steel at a fraction of the energy required to manufacture the equivalent amount of ‘new’ steel.

At Zato, we are proud to have contributed to this project and are pleased that, together with Suzuyu Shoten, we have designed and manufactured a new, state-of-the-art, multi-faceted recycling system. The Blue Devil-Blue Shark combination goes a long way towards achieving the lofty goals set by the steel industry of producing carbon neutral ‘green’ steel.