Scrap Metal Processing For Recycling Steel And Other Materials
Scrap metal yards that recycle steel and other metal often take older cars and trucks if they have been processed and may pay a small amount for the metal. The scrap metal yard is a middleman in most cases and will purchase steel scrap at a low price and resell it after it is sorted and processed in order to reuse it in other industries.
Automobile Recycling
Old cars and trucks often end up in a salvage yard when they no longer run. The salvage operator will remove all the good parts from the vehicle over time, then prepare it to go to a scrap metal yard where the rest of the steel can be used in recycling plants to create new materials —allowing industrial services to use fewer raw materials.
Scrap metal yards collect steel and other metal from auto wrecking services, salvage yards, and many private citizens, then sort it to maximize the profit they make from the material. These yards often look disorganized and messy, but most have a system that allows them to sort valuable materials from common steel or scrap metal. Scrap metal yards then load it onto trains or trucks when it is time to sell it.
Often scrap metal yards will crush the material into large bales that can weigh several tons but are compact and easier to transport. While it may look like the yard operator is just piling up old metal, there is a method to the stacking and sorting that makes intake and selling easier for that particular operation.
Metal Shredding
Metal scrap yards use several methods of reducing the scrap in the yard for easy sale and transport. Some operators use a shredder instead of a crusher to reduce cars and other large items for easier handling.
The shredders used in metal recycling are huge and use a blade system much like a paper shredder but on a scale large enough to destroy an engine block if you put it in the machine. The result is a pile of shredded metal that can go into hopper trucks or train cars using a crane with an electromagnet.
Shredding can sometimes result in mixed metals if the car has not been stripped completely before it arrives. Scrap metal yard operators will only take cars down to the frame and have no interior, suspension, or running gear under them to avoid mixing metals during the crushing or shredding process. Crushing the car down as flat as possible makes grinding it easier, and is an excellent way to ensure the materials on the scrap car are all steel and will not contaminate the steel.
To learn more, contact a scrap metal yard in your area such as TNT Auto Salvage.