Efficient recycling of electrical waste thanks to pre-shredder

October 2020

The reference at a glance

Project

Installation of a pre-shredder for electronical waste (Triade)

Technology

BHS pre-shredder type VSR 1512

Operating site

Rousset, France

Industry

Recycling

Application

Electronical waste recycling

Solution

Efficient pre-shredding to facilitate a separation process

Recycling of electronical waste often makes pre-shredding necessary - but batteries and capacitors must not be damaged in the process. At the French Rousset facility near Marseilles, Triade Électronique, a subsidiary of Veolia, operates a recycling plant for electrical and electronic scrap. A customized pre-shredder from BHS-Sonthofen is used to facilitate efficient shredding. The built-in counter-crossbeam simplifies manual sorting and thus increases the share of saleable recycling materials.

The Rousset site processes “PAM” (petits appareils en mélange – various small appliances) electronic waste. This special category of electronic waste, which is common in France, includes vacuum cleaners, toasters, small heaters, radios and microwaves. As an efficient solution for pre-shredding, the BHS pre-shredder was chosen and adapted to the feed material by pilot trials done at the BHS test center.

The machine is a slow-running, high-torque twin-shaft crusher. Two rotating shafts capture the material that is fed from above. Instead of a tearing table, a crossbeam is located below the two rotor shafts. This ensures that the material only exits the machine when it has reached the desired size of under 200 mm. Shredding takes place between the rotating tools on both shafts as well as between these and the crossbeam.

Compared to the previous solution, the material is now broken down much more intensely. The good liberation of the individual components of the feed material makes the following work steps much easier and creates the basis for an improved yield of recyclables. After that, the employees remove the undamaged batteries and capacitors and separate further recyclable materials like circuit boards, cables and metallic components in the sorting cabin.