Alutrade, the UK’s largest independent aluminium recycling company and extrusion specialist, is the first company in the world to reap the benefits of the sophisticated new sensor-based sorting solution. The new X-TRACT™, TOMRA’s most advanced x-ray metals sorting unit, has enabled Alutrade to achieve 99% pure aluminium for secondary aluminium production.The new X-TRACT™ unit was installed in March 2021 at Alutrade’s Oldbury recycling plant in Birmingham, which processes 42,000 metric tons of waste annually. The plant’s infeed material comprises metal extrusions from different types of post-consumer construction waste, such as windows and doors and aluminium cans.When the infeed material arrives at Alutrade’s Oldbury plant, it is pre-shredded into smaller pieces around one to two meters long before being further shredded by a hammer mill. Magnets and eddy current separators are then used to separate the metals into ferrous and non-ferrous metals, removing contaminants in preparation for the subsequent sorting stage. Following magnetic separation, a combination of TOMRA sensor-based sorting units is used to process, sort and recover the target fraction of aluminium. Two earlier edition TOMRA X-TRACT™ units installed in 2017 and 2018 are programmed to capture a more significant aluminium fraction of >30mm. The new machine targets a smaller 10-30mm aluminium fraction, removing any heavy metal content from the aluminium. Both the earlier and new edition X-TRACT™ units sort metals based on the difference in atomic density, separating any heavy metals. Alutrade’s customers are remelts based worldwide who demand the highest purity grade of aluminium product for their remelting process, as any heavy metal content affects the melt specifications.
Alutrade, the UK’s largest independent aluminium recycling company and extrusion specialist, is the first company in the world to reap the benefits of the sophisticated new sensor-based sorting solution. The new X-TRACT™, TOMRA’s most advanced x-ray metals sorting unit, has enabled Alutrade to achieve 99% pure aluminium for secondary aluminium production.The new X-TRACT™ unit was installed in March 2021 at Alutrade’s Oldbury recycling plant in Birmingham, which processes 42,000 metric tons of waste annually. The plant’s infeed material comprises metal extrusions from different types of post-consumer construction waste, such as windows and doors and aluminium cans.When the infeed material arrives at Alutrade’s Oldbury plant, it is pre-shredded into smaller pieces around one to two meters long before being further shredded by a hammer mill. Magnets and eddy current separators are then used to separate the metals into ferrous and non-ferrous metals, removing contaminants in preparation for the subsequent sorting stage. Following magnetic separation, a combination of TOMRA sensor-based sorting units is used to process, sort and recover the target fraction of aluminium. Two earlier edition TOMRA X-TRACT™ units installed in 2017 and 2018 are programmed to capture a more significant aluminium fraction of >30mm. The new machine targets a smaller 10-30mm aluminium fraction, removing any heavy metal content from the aluminium. Both the earlier and new edition X-TRACT™ units sort metals based on the difference in atomic density, separating any heavy metals. Alutrade’s customers are remelts based worldwide who demand the highest purity grade of aluminium product for their remelting process, as any heavy metal content affects the melt specifications.
