Copper Wire Granulator - Page 2

Thanks Charlie, actually quite clear. The reason I ask is I have a large hammer mill sitting here doing nothing. Think I'll fix it up in the near future and give it a shot to see what happens.

Originally Posted by miked

Devo, if you have the time and material to waste it sounds like a great project. There's a lot of info online and youtube has a lot of videos. Some I found imformative were of "water separation tables". Thery are similar to the ones gold prospectors use. A combination of water and vibration causes separation. Lots of the videos on youtube of the wire granulators would make you believe that you get nearly 100% recovery which is not true. It seems to take some practice to get the set up right. HighVoltage has the real knowledge on this stuff. Like most things knowledge is not free. Keep us posted on you progress, Mike.

Thanks Mike, I will indeed keep you guys posted. While I actually have neither the time , the money or the materials to waste right now, I know I need to plan for the future if I plan to do this as a business.

I haven't looked into the separation aspect yet, but my gut tells me it should be possible to do without an engineering degree. The copper should weigh a lot more than the plastic so it should be possible to recover a lot with the right "vibration" set up. That said I'm sure I'll end up being shocked at how difficult it really is to do.

I like the idea of having a hammer mill, since it could be used for many other things as well - shredding aluminum, plastic volume reduction etc.

Originally Posted by miked

Lots of the videos on youtube of the wire granulators would make you believe that you get nearly 100% recovery which is not true. It seems to take some practice to get the set up right. HighVoltage has the real knowledge on this stuff. Like most things knowledge is not free. Keep us posted on you progress, Mike.

Originally Posted by High Voltage Processing

Charlie unless you are using a very special separation or are stripping you will be surprised as to how much copper sits in the waste. I have seen, I.e. toured, plants where they told me their machine gets 99.9% of the copper. I asked them to stick their hand n the waste bin. Never fails, every time a big old electric should shock.

Expect your system to have 2-5% copper in the waste. After looking at many systems I have yet to be surprised at less.

Thanks for the input guys. It seems that the two of you have spent quite a bit of time watching youtube and visiting the machines that our suppliers competition produces....this may have jaded your views. You've seen the rest, now take a look at the best! Lol.

In all sincerity though - Miked - it does take practice to get the right set up. Fortunately this company has been designing and producing these machines since 1980 and at this point, they have it figured out.

High Voltage - These machines do in fact utilize very special seperation techniques. The pulverizer (turbo) is patented and can be found in no other granulator machine. This allows for optimal seperation. As I stated earlier, there is dust that is produced but 2-5% is nowhere near an accurate estimate. I'm a little confused by the electric shock comment....would high levels of copper dust in the waste bin cause a shock? I spent about 20 hours on two different machines in scrap yards last week: routinely scooped handful of "fluff" out of the back to see if I could find copper dust, never once got shocked?

I am aware that there are other systems with a turbo incorporated. I was under the impression that there is a patented portion of the turbo in the machine we distribute though. It may just be the Zig Zag feature that is unique however. I am still learning so take it easy on me. It's funny that you mention that little story about Guidetti because I have heard from several people that Mr. Guidetti was an employee of our manufacturer until he decided to start his own company many years ago.....interesting discrepency and I'm not sure which if any are true! hahaha.

So the Guidetti machine has a zig zag feature? I have yet to personally see their machines in action but all of the videos I've seen do not have this feature. It's a feature that allows larger granules to exit the machine after leaving the granulator. The material that is still attached to insulation and finer wire is sent on to the turbo for further processing and then onto the seperation board. In the end, there are three products: the larger granules of copper from the zig zag, the finer copper from the seperation table and the fluff. If there are other machines with this feature, I'd be very interested in learning more about them. Do you know where I could find more info? Thanks Rewire.

Guess I should have researched a little more before typing....just found the Wire series that has a "Zig Zag gravity seperator where heavy chops are seperated from the tailings".

Rewire - do you own one of these machines or have you seen them in action? I'd be interested in hearing about your experience.

Truck mount the granulator and offer it as a service like paper shredding...

This is some good info. Thanks.

To those of you that are operating granulators... Are you buying the insulated wire "as is" from other dealers and estimating the recovery? Or are you chopping and then charging a chop fee, cents per lb. or something like that, and then buying the recovered copper from the customer/dealer? I'm sure some are doing both as the guys we sell our insulated to are doing this with us. What is the best way to handle this?

We are considering getting into this because we are tired of baling the insulated and sending it off to a chopper- we are fairly certain that the chopper is getting the better end of the deal $. We probably purchase about 100,000 lbs of No 1 insulated a year so would need to step that up to justify a granulator--buy from other local dealers, etc. Thinking about one of the smaller/medium sized hand feed MG systems (500 lbs/hr)... Anyone have any info on those systmens or other manufacturers? How much electricity does a small/medium sized sytsem use? Any info is appreciated. Good, Bad, Ugly...

Thanks in advance.

Would a 'floatation pool' work in separating the plastic from the copper?

Its a small pool/drum/container full of slightly soapy water.
As the copper/insulation mix is fed into the pool, compressed air is forced up into the water & as the mix hits it, the copper drops as its heavy & small & the plastic floats as its larger & light & a higher surface area.

The bubbles to attach to the plastic, making it even lighter.

HIGHVOLTAGE do u buy bare bright or just insulated.