How to get rid of your engine..........

[steve_m]

Curious. All seem to be ali blocks and heads and why strip and clean them before smashing them.

Containimation. The engines are removed from the scrap car, stripped down to the different material types, washed and shredded.

The aluminium chips that result from that shredder will be melted down into ingots and bought by foundries to cast into another engine block, or some such part.

Why don't they melt them down in the first place ?  What do they gain from smashing them first ?

[Martin Keene]

I don't really know, but if I had to hazard a guess I'd say more yield from the furnace.

A block has nearly as much air in it as metal, therefore 50% of your furnace will be air, where as chipping it will improve the weight of aluminium you can get in a furnace.

Whilst on the subject, you want to see the places where they strip then engine to the bare block...

A sh*tter job you will not find. The guys are generally on minimum wage, or not much more and have strict targets for engines / day. The only get something crazy like 15 minutes, I can't remember the exact number but is truely ball breaking work, to strip the whole engine to it's block.

ETA: Iron foundry's have been doing the same thing for years as well.

[Blatman]

QUOTE

A block has nearly as much air in it as metal, therefore 50% of your furnace will be air,

Same goes for transportation. Chipping makes best use of available space on the lorry and reduces the number of trips required...

[blankczechbook]

speed of melting - the ratio of surface area to weight is raised when it's chipped, so it'll need less time to liquifiy.  less time - less lost heat from the furnace too..

mechanical chipping looks brutal and is - but it is still quite low energy compared to the furnace :-)

[Martin Keene]

speed of melting - the ratio of surface area to weight is raised when it's chipped, so it'll need less time to liquifiy.  less time - less lost heat from the furnace too..

mechanical chipping looks brutal and is - but it is still quite low energy compared to the furnace :-)

Interesting. I hadn't thought of that, makes sense when you think about it...

[Stuart]

We got one of those at our place in Newport.  But it's a bigger one and can process about 60 tonnes per hour of waste electronics.  Shredding everything is a big part of our business - we can do a whole Tranny van in about 15 seconds.  Not on the Hammel though - on a proper shredder with a 9200hp motor.  The one that was on the Discovery Channel if anyone saw it

Edited to add that the whole metal recycling industry exists for only 3 reasons.  Cleaning, densification and separation.  Smelters don't want dirt in their furnace feed. Aluminium smelters don't want steel it's a contaminant.  Steelmakers don't mind aluminium as it oxidises and goes to the slag under melting, but why would the scrappy send aluminium to a steelmaker when it's worth 8 times as much as steel.  Furnaces obviously need heat; the smaller the space the less heat they need; the denser the scrap the smaller the space can be.

[markcoopers]

I wonder what size toffee you would need to stop it?