Scrap metal is not a single category. A twin-shaft shredder optimized for 30 mm thick copper plates will behave very differently when fed thin aluminum foil or bundled steel wire. The variables that determine a successful configuration are:
- Material form and thickness: Determines cutter profile, shaft speed, and torque requirement.
- Target output size: Whether for smelting, densification, or further separation.
- Downstream process: Magnetic separation and eddy current sorting must match the shredder's discharge characteristics.
GEP ECOTECH approaches each metal recycling inquiry by first establishing these three parameters. The project examples below illustrate why this matters.
Project 1: 30 mm Copper Plate Shredding Project in Guangdong, China
A Guangdong technology company needed to process thick copper plates into blocks suitable for copper oxide smelting. The material was not scrap wire or thin sheet—it was solid copper plate at 30 mm thickness, a material that rapidly dulls conventional cutters and stalls underpowered drives.
Equipment configuration: The core unit selected was the GD13 dual-shaft metal shredder, equipped with 2 × 160 kW high-torque motors and a 1300 × 1300 mm cutting chamber. Operation is PLC-controlled with automated reversing logic to clear jams without manual intervention.
Result: Output of 6–8 tons per hour, reduced to approximately 200–300 mm blocks. The customer had previously tested multiple domestic shredders and rejected them due to insufficient durability under the thick-plate workload.
Procurement insight: For dense, homogeneous metal plate, motor nameplate power is less important than cutting chamber geometry and cutter alloy. The GD13's chamber dimensions directly accommodate the plate width, avoiding the bridging and secondary cutting that reduce effective throughput on undersized machines.
Project 2: 10,000 TPA Aluminum Scrap Recycling Project in the Middle East
A Middle Eastern aluminum building materials manufacturer with 45 years of operation sought to recycle its own production scrap and post-consumer aluminum. The material mix included foil, sheets, profiles, and cans—a broad spectrum of shapes and bulk densities.
The selection problem: The customer initially tested hammer crushers but encountered jamming with whole-bag feed, uneven output size, and high energy consumption per ton. They required a system that could accept mixed aluminum scrap without extensive pre-sorting.
Equipment configuration: The line centers on a GD9Q double-shaft shredder, followed by screening, magnetic separation, and eddy current sorting. The shear-shredding principle was chosen over hammer crushing because it processes packaged material directly and produces a more uniform discharge for downstream sorting.
Result: The system processes 4 tons per hour of mixed aluminum scrap, with purified fragments ready for smelting. The customer reported satisfaction with both efficiency and output quality.
Procurement insight: For aluminum scrap with variable bulk density and contamination risk, the shredder's ability to handle unopened bundles without pre-processing often determines whether the line runs at rated capacity or becomes a bottleneck. The GD9Q configuration prioritizes feed flexibility over maximum single-pass reduction ratio.
GEP ECOTECH focuses on the recycling and disposal of waste metal resources, providing a complete set of solutions for waste metal shredding, sorting, and assembly lines, suitable for various types of waste metal materials such as scrap steel, scrap iron, scrap aluminum, copper, cans, scrapped components, and metal packaging materials. Relying on self-developed shredding, fine shredding, magnetic separation, eddy current sorting, and intelligent sorting systems, we complete shredding, impurity removal, metal separation, and controllable particle size discharge, achieving precise separation of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, and improving the purity and added value of recycled materials. The equipment is stable and the solution can be customized. It is widely used in renewable resource bases, steel mills, and scrap metal recycling enterprises, helping to efficiently recycle scrap metals and empowering the development of circular economy.
If you have similar scrap metal recycling lines, please feel free to contact GEP ECOTECH to get your customized solution and quotation.
Related Projects and News:
1. https://www.gepecotech.com/project/30mm-thick-copper-plate-shredding-project-in-guangdong-china.html
2. https://www.gepecotech.com/project/1373.html
3. https://www.gepecotech.com/project/scrap-metal-recycling-and-disposal-projects-in-north-america.html
