by MARY M. COX
Manufacturer List
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The process of recycling metal for profit can take many forms. When scrap metal is gathered for reduction and then resale or re-use, an incinerator or furnace may be part of that particular process.
The staff at Mansell and Associates offers 45 years of experience in the secondary aluminum business. Ed Mansell, president, observed early in his career that a well-designed, rotary melting furnace makes a much better sweat furnace than the typical dry hearth design also seen in the market.
“Our ‘Plug and Play’ rotary sweat furnaces are a complete, packaged unit ready to hook up and put to work. No manual labor is involved. The rotation of the barrel eliminates raking by hand. Our patented barrel design allows for ‘angle of repose’ when tilting to pour, by retaining iron solids in the barrel while pouring off the molten material and so outperforming old, ‘box’ type furnaces. Iron is separated from aluminum with a quarter of the labor typically spent with other methods, while processing engine blocks, transmissions and more,” Mansell explained.
He said the use of rotary melting furnaces in the aluminum industry goes back many years. Sweating of aluminum from iron contaminants is done by simply melting the aluminum without melting the steel or other heavy metals present and then separating the molten aluminum to a holding chamber. This type of scrap processing was limited for many years, due to the use of conventional dry hearth sweat furnaces, involving low processing rates and high labor and energy costs.
In contrast to that, Mansell’s furnaces are available in two configurations, a traditional straight tilter or their patented SuperMelt rotary furnace, which is mounted on a swivel base. This configuration allows the furnace to rotate around the furnace base so it is possible to pour to several locations. This capability produces a faster cycle time while reducing the possibility of iron contamination in molten aluminum. Their furnaces meet all federal regulations as a sweat furnace operated with an afterburner.
The furnaces can also be used as an incinerator for all types of material, including pathological varieties. “These units are very user friendly, easy to operate and require very little maintenance. Units are skid mounted and shipped in one piece. Installation costs are minimal, units can be placed on a variety of surfaces and installation time rarely exceeds eight hours. Users can set the unit, hook up their gas and electrical connections and they’re ready to go!” Mansell said.
Recycling Services International (RSI) has been servicing the recycling industry with special furnace processes since 1990. “We provide high efficiency operations with all the pollution controls to provide a safe, economical, and environmentally friendly furnace operation. Our furnace types include burn off ovens for decontamination of certain scraps, high temperature afterburners for burning off PCBs, aluminum sweat furnaces, and precious metal reclaiming furnaces. Our US Furnaces MAX-4000 aluminum sweat furnace has been the work horse of the industry for the past 16 years. Using the latest available technology we have been successful at keeping fuel costs down to $.02 per pound of aluminum processed,” reports Dave Conway, owner.
Aluminum processed weights can be up to 2,000 pounds per hour depending on recovery of metal processed. Conway said the Clean HMS1 or HMS2 produced after the aluminum melt can also be factored in with cost to profit factors. All ash is aluminum bearing and if processed further, can be added to the profit factor, due to the recovery of aluminum from ash so there is no waste product. The RSI afterburner system provides twice the minimum retention time of exhaust gas per EPA requirements.
“We provide permit assistance in assuring your equipment will be environmentally compliant at the federal and state levels. We provide service after the sale to ensure your equipment is running at the optimum level for the best production rates while also remaining compliant. Installation and training is included in the purchase price of all our new equipment. On occasion, we have used furnaces for sale. Rebuilds, upgrades, parts and service are the heart of our business. Due to the reduced volume of alignment being exported, any of our process furnaces will provide a viable option for increasing your profit margin. Aluminum ingot, clean steel, clean copper, as well as any metals processed in our furnaces is the preferred product sent to the mills. The demand for our services has increased considerably over the last year and we are gearing up to meet even more demand in the upcoming years. As always, we will strive to provide the best available control technology (BACT) for fuel and emission control efficiency,” Conway stated.
Published in the December 2018 Edition