Challenge
In auto shredding facilities, scrap material comes in all shapes and sizes. One main component that tends to be a costly maintenance issue are Pokers – 18”+ long cylindrical metal pieces. Pokers can cause downtime, added maintenance costs and material handling issues. Bridging in storage piles or silos, jamming at 90 degree transitions, damaging optical sorters, belts, and more are just a few of the many problems Pokers present. Safety even becomes an issue as Pokers enter the high speed belt portion of the sorting process and literally become projectile hazards, damaging equipment and more. Increased savings and uptime could be achieved if Pokers were accurately removed from the other metals and processed separately.
Approach
General Kinematics developed a unique version of the patented FINGER-SCREEN™ technology to remove the Pokers from more uniformly sized materials. In addition to producing a product that is easier to convey, process and sort, this machine would reduce maintenance costs in the facility from Poker damage.
Solution
GK’s engineers designed the FINGER-SCREEN™TM with Orientation Lanes up front to position the Pokers lengthwise. This enabled the ‘fingers’ to scalp them off effectively permitting the shorter, more uniformly sized materials, to be presented to the openings and drop through to the lower deck. By arranging the fingers in rows, one step followed by the next, the vibratory motion of the FINGER-SCREEN™TM caused the material to freely cascade down the unit, turn them over, and improve classification efficiency.
Results
General Kinematics routinely provides unique solutions for the customer, implementing engineered solutions for their most critical process needs. This machine has not only eliminated Pokers from invading the main stream of scrap, but more effectively classified the entire scrap materials. The simple jam-proof movement of the unique FINGER-SCREEN™ technology has proven highly successful in this auto shredding facility.
Do you have a question about GK equipment? Contact us today!
