Full metal recovery: Steinert systems help General Iron Industries recover formerly lost metal.

Scrap recyclers who operate auto shredders have become experts in recovering ever-increasing amounts of metal from the resulting shredded stream.

Adam Labkon and his team at General Iron Industries Inc., Chicago, came away impressed not long ago with what equipment supplied by Steinert US, St. Petersburg, Fla., was able to do. "We saw the Steinert equipment performing at another shredder location and we were amazed at its ability to pull heavy ferrous from great distances," he comments.

General Iron subsequently purchased and installed several Steinert units in its downstream separation system, including two Steinert drum magnets that have replaced new drums of another brand, two Steinert NES eddy current separators and the company's new ISS (Induction Sorting System), which recovers stainless and other nonferrous metals that were previously lost.

"With our previous drum magnets, there was approximately 30 percent ferrous loss, and the gap from our conveyor belt to our drum magnet was about 11.5 inches," says Adam. "With our Steinerts, our gap is 15.5 inches, and our loss is less than 1 percent."

The Steinert eddy currents have also been impressive, he says. "Our two eddy currents have been amazing. They have almost 15,000 hours and we have done almost no maintenance on them except greasing. We are able to make a 90-percent-pure product with very little loss other than stainless and wire."

And the revolutionary Steinert ISS helps General Iron recover the stainless and wire. "Since installing our 80-inch ISS, we are recovering about five tons of nonferrous daily, most of which is stainless steel and some wire and other hard-to-get metal, such as breakage or balled-u p non-ferrous," says Adam.

With the ISS, General Iron is recovering more nonferrous metal while using fewer hand-pickers. "We used to hand-pick about three tons per day with three pickers and we we re missing two tons per day," says Adam. "The ISS is getting all the material previously hand-picked plus the two tons we were missing. Now we have just one picker who is picking a few hundred pounds per day."

Adam is succinct when pointing to the benefits of the Steinert equipment. "The purpose of the installation was to get all the metal. With the Steinerts, we get great yield and a clean product."