Equipment Spotlight | AUG 2022 Tire Recycling Equipment

by MARY M. THORNTON

Slow to decompose and toxic to the environment, rubber is an especially important material to recycle, due to the large volume generated annually. The most common form of this material is tires of various types. The following companies offer products to meet the needs of the rubber recycling market.

Granutech Saturn Systems makes a number of different products that are used in the recycling of rubber. The firm boasts over 50 years of experience in manufacturing size reduction equipment for the recycling industry. “We have primary, dual and single shaft shredders, our Grizzly line of grinders and granulators, as well as our powderizers and G4X Refiner mills. Which product, or combination of products, we would recommend depends on the material that will be processed and the final product size required,” explained Greg Wright, vice president.

He also noted that as there are different types of rubber that are recycled, sometimes the material is a clean product, such as EPDM, or scraps from rubber molded products. Recycling such products is a little easier than recycling something like tires, which require a lot more equipment to clean the steel, fiber, and road contaminants from it.

“One of the top challenges facing equipment suppliers and therefore rubber processors continues to be issues related to supply chain shortages and ever increasing costs.

“Lead times are growing longer and costs are rising. Some small parts that you would never expect to be an issue are now sometimes problematic. Depending on the final product size required, the processing volume of our machines may range from 1,000 lbs. per hour to 20 tons per hour. With the spike in steel prices, transportation costs, and other inflationary pressures; equipment pricing is significantly higher than it was just two years ago. While we place a lot of orders well in advance in an attempt to keep our lead times as short as possible, we also encourage operators to place orders for their consumable parts much sooner in advance, and to consider stocking some on their own too. The high price of oil makes recycling rubber more economical as opposed to virgin rubber. When oil prices soar, technologies like pyrolysis always begin to gain steam again. A majority of the equipment we’ve sold in the last couple of years has been used to make rubber mulch and crumb for sports fields and rubber mats,” Wright concluded.

Keith Ely is recycling sales manager at M&J recycling and he noted how an estimated 250 million tons of scrap tires are generated annually and how many states and landfills do not accept whole tires. “Disposing of and/or processing them for other uses can be a costly process and solutions for this problem all start with shredding. An M&J Recycling 4000 can utilize a variety of power units and knife configurations. Once shredded, tires can be legally landfilled or further processed, depending on the intended end product desired. Our 4000 model is available as a stationary shredder or built on tracks for moving the shredder to a processing point, it is equipped with an optional 320 drive configuration and can process up to 22 tons per hour of passenger tires. For shredding and separating to recapture metal and rubber, a multi-layered process is involved. Further reduction can be achieved by using the M&J Recycling F-120 fine shredder, which provides a uniform output size and the first stage in separating out metal from the rubber and processing the shredded tires into the ideal size for granulation,” Ely said. He added, “M&J Recycling has decades of manufacturing experience, our U.S. based staff and our expanding and experienced dealer network can assist you with a simple size reduction plan to process tires to acceptable landfill material or taking the materials to the next level of fine shred and beyond.”

High-torque tire shredders and systems manufactured by Shred-Tech are capable of processing automobile, truck, and off road tires at rates in excess of 20 tons per hour. Tire shredding systems may be stationary or mobile, electric or hydraulic, and may be custom designed. “We deliver the highest knife tip cutting force in the industry, the most convenient equipment to service and maintain, and we provide the most durable, cost-effective tire shredding systems available. Our systems can include infeed/outfeed conveyors and classifiers designed to ensure 2” minus absolute sizing. Shred-Tech Pronar mobile shredders are engineered using only high-quality materials to provide users with the ability to render tires and other types of rubber products into scrap for easier processing and recycling. With maximum throughput capabilities, the Pronar 2.85 can handle up to 20 tons per hour and Pronar 2.1010 can process up to 30 tons per hour. Our slow speed shredders can be used to reduce waste volume by as much as 75 percent. We offer customizable programs to allow for full processing control and a guarantee of maximized shred size and efficiency. With superior versatility, these shredder machines can be maneuvered around a job-site, allowing for direct access to the pile of rubber waste that needs shredding, which saves a lot of time and labor for processors,” Stefin Sobel, processing business manager, stated.

He continued, “Shred-Tech’s stationary shredders have the torque and strength to easily rip through tires and reduce them into piles of rubber scrap, ready for the next step in processing. Our ST-100, ST-300, ST-400 dual-shaft and STQ-100 four-shaft shredders are equipped with highly durable and powerful knives that ‘bite’ into tires. They can easily handle large loads of the rubber material in a variety of sizes. Our CAMEC CR2A single-shaft stationary shredder, also engineered to handle the heavy duty material, produces a heavy duty throughput of more than 3 tons per hour. Each of these stationary shredders can be installed onto your facility floor so your operation can integrate improved efficiency in tire and rubber waste shredding.”

Published in the August 2022 Edition of American Recycler News