Ideal for use in the recycling industry, the eddy current separator (ECS) machine uses powerful, permanent magnets that produce repelling forces for separation of various materials.

Marshall Gralnick is president of the Magnetics Division of Global Equipment Marketing, Inc. According to him, “The popularity of eddy current separators has increased considerably in the past few years. As recycling trends have grown, so has the need for this product. Originally, the ECS was designed for the separation of large pieces of nonferrous metal with a size in excess of .5” – items such as aluminum, copper and others. Today, the need for separation of smaller ground or shredded pieces of nonferrous is a requirement that most ECS manufacturers are able to accommodate, including our company, Mastermag.”

Mastermag is the brand name for the corporation’s ECS products. Gralnick said that during the past 18 years, the company has offered a growing range of ECS systems, for any type of product and volume throughput.

Their new product line includes an ECS with 12” diameter concentric-designed rotors and 24 poles. According to Gralnick, it is one of the most powerful rotors to be offered in an ECS anywhere in the world. The ECS units also offer vibratory feeders for even distribution onto the ECS belt – which is made of abrasion-resistant PVC material.

Mastermag offers a Belt Change Jacking System, which is designed to speed the belt-changing process so downtime is reduced. All units include variable speed motors for ECS rotors and conveyors. Rotors can be operated in forward and reverse modes.

“Another product addition, the rare earth magnetic drum, is integrated into our ECS system and includes chutes for discharge of any separated ferrous metals. This is critical for any ECS unit, because if too much ferrous material is exposed to the rotor, the resulting damage will eventually destroy the rotor – the heart of the system. A rotor cannot be easily repaired without a total rebuild, at a cost that can approach 45 percent of the total system, depending on the size and type of rotor,” Gralnick said.

“The smallest ECS systems made today are used for the separation of aluminum beverage cans. This is the easiest separation for an ECS. The rotors used for this application range from 4” to 7” in diameter. At Mastermag, production and sales of all types of ECS systems have increased 71 percent in the past 12 months, worldwide.”

He added, “ECS systems are evolving into full-scale separation systems, handling all types of ferrous and nonferrous metals and further integration with other separation systems that may handle glass, plastics and other materials. This is extremely important when dealing with e-recycling – a fast-growing segment of the recycling industry.”

ECS manufacturer Eriez claims to offer the “original” eddy current separator. Mike Shattuck, project manager for Eriez, said that their products offer superior separation and are the right solution for any industry that requires an eddy current separator.

Products are available in feed widths of up to 80” and are available for use in various applications. Eriez’s FERRITE series is a basic economical rotor which removes larger, nonferrous metals in light-duty applications such as separating aluminum cans from trash.

REA is the company’s most popular rare earth rotor, which removes small to medium-size nonferrous metals from e-scrap, plastics, glass cullet, foundry sand, wood waste, MRFs and municipal solid waste plants. Eriez’s REO line utilizes a more powerful rare earth rotor, and is the company’s heavy-duty model. It is used to remove large nonferrous metals in high capacity auto shredding and municipal solid waste applications. It generally provides higher recoveries, which result in a quicker return on investment.

XTREME™ is the machine with the most versatile rotor. The powerful, heavy-duty unit features a long throw to recover very small and very large nonferrous in high-capacity applications. Long throw improves separation, delivering a better grade product. SUPER, the machine with Eriez’s most powerful rotor, includes large magnetic poles that are used in select, high-tonnage applications, where maximum recovery is required.

The newest Eriez ECS is the RevX-E™. It employs an eccentric magnetic rotor for separation of nonferrous metals and is designed with an eccentrically-mounted magnetic rotor within a non-conductive, larger diameter shell. “This eccentric rotor concentrates eddy current forces into a zone of separation at the end of the belt. By focusing the function in this way, the machine process ignores ferrous items in the flow of material. The eccentric rotor design reduces long-term wear due to heated ferrous build up,” Shattuck explained.

Henry A. Wiltschek Inc. is the manufacturer of the “CanSort,” a turn-key rare earth neodymium eddy current separator. The CanSort offers concentric or eccentric rotors, depending on the application involved, whether it be ASR, fines metal recovery or electronic scrap sorting, with adjustable splitters. Units are also available with lower-priced ferrite eddy current rotors for UBC sorting.

Henry Wiltschek, company owner and president said, “Machines are available from 24” to 70” width options, with various belt cleaning systems. The control cabinets for our products are equipped with digital read-outs for conveyor belt speed, rotor RPMs and brake resistors for the eddy current motors. The bearings are easily accessible for greasing.”

The company also offers compact and versatile eddy current units, material in-feed conveyors, equipped with magnetic pulleys of varying strengths or a choice of magnetic crossbelt conveyors, which remove magnetic metals and slightly magnetized stainless steel, prior to eddy current separation. The discharge chutes of the eddy currents have sufficient height for easy removal of the sorted materials by either conveyor or Bobcat, according to Wiltschek.

He also noted, “The metal and scrap metal industries have been hit hard by the recession, as most other industries and businesses, but the economy indicates a slow recovery and conditions will likely improve by next year. Equipment buyers have been holding back because of economic uncertainties and this will also change.”