Shredded zinc

Scrap Wiki

Shredded zinc refers to zinc alloy or pure zinc scrap obtained after crushing and sorting. Typically, they exist in small pieces or granules. There are two main sources of shredded zinc. One source is the waste from shredded zinc alloy castings, which undergo crushing and subsequent sorting to obtain relatively clean shredded zinc. Another source is the heavy bottom fraction (copper-zinc material, referred to as "Heavies") obtained from sorting the bottom-heavy materials from crushed automobiles and electrical appliances.
The image below shows common shredded zinc primarily consisting of zinc castings.

Common Classification

The common classification methods for shredded zinc include sorting by the size of the shredded material, such as 5cm or 10cm, and by the degree of impurity, such as 1% impurity or 3% impurity.
The image below shows shredded zinc with approximately 2% impurities.

Shredded Zinc with approximately 2% impurities

Common Sources

The primary sources of shredded zinc are shredding plants and sorting plants. They either shred and sort zinc alloy castings or sort the mixed bottom material from automobile shredding plants. The former has more zinc alloy material, while the latter has a higher proportion of pure zinc.

Value Points

The value points of shredded zinc lie in thorough sorting, clean raw materials, and low impurity content. It can be directly graded or requires only simple elemental adjustments for use in zinc ingot production.

Processing Methods

The processing of shredded zinc primarily involves smelting. There is no need for extensive pre-processing.

Detection Methods

The detection of shredded zinc primarily relies on crucible sampling and analysis, with a certain amount (dozens to hundreds of kilograms) of sampling. First, the metal recovery rate is calculated, then the material is melted in a crucible and analyzed by spectroscopy to determine the elemental content.

Matching Direction

Shredded zinc is suitable for matching with factories that produce zinc ingots.

Special Attention

Particular attention should be paid to the impurity situation. Impurities not only refer to the content of non-metallic impurities and iron impurities, but sometimes low zinc content and high aluminum content should also be given greater attention. Although the price difference between zinc and aluminum is not large, for factories that purchase shredded zinc for zinc ingot production, an excessive aluminum content can also be a loss, potentially leading to claims.

Gallery

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