‘Pure Rubber, Clean Steel’

Recycling machinery maker Eldan Recycling A/S delivered and installed its first complete tyre recycling plant back in 1991. Almost 20 years later, company representatives told Tyres & Accessories that Eldan has developed and optimised its process to “obtain the best possible purity of the rubber granulate.” This means granulate that is 99.9 per cent free of liberated steel and textile. According to the company, this purity is obtained through specially built equipment such as classifiers and aspirators that operate by means of the “air flow” principle. Another reason for the positive results is said to be the company’s emphasis on modular design.

Eldan’s modular approach aims to cover all customer requirements for equipment at different stages in the process – namely production of shreds, chips, granulate and powder. The company focuses on offering so-called “multi-size” plants with the intention of giving the customer total control over the production of a various range of output sizes. According to the company, this is achieved by the “simple and quick changing of the screen combination in the machines when you wish to produce a different range of output sizes.”

Over the years more and more applications for rubber have been developed and at the same time requests for higher purity have also increased. That’s why Eldan Recycling A/S developed what it calls “quality upgrading modules,” which offer improved purity of both the main fraction and the undersize fraction.

After separation/cleaning in the plant the main fraction is passed through an additional separation process, where pure ”black rubber” is separated out and the ”light fraction” passes over yet another classifier giving the entire fraction a purity of up to 99.99 per cent. It is also possible to refine the undersize for possible impurities. In the Eldan quality upgrading module for the undersize, the granulate is passed through an air cleaner, before it proceeds through two further steps of classifiers and aspirators. And its this final treatment which produces the 99.99 per cent.

According to company representatives, Eldan Recycling A/S is one of the few companies delivering equipment to the recycling industry that has its own production facilities, something that allows it to operate under the strictest levels of quality control.

The corporate roots of Eldan Recycling A/S date back to 1956, and since the beginning the Danish company has specialized in the development, manufacturing, marketing and installation of machines and complete plants for the recycling industry. Eldan has installed more than 7000 single machines and 770 complete recycling systems worldwide, which comply with present requirements and are easily adapted to future requirements: “We have our field of expertise within equipment for recycling of aluminium scrap, tyres, dry and jelly cable scrap, rejected die cast magnesium, MSW, WEEE, refrigerators, industrial scrap, SLF/ASR etc,” company representatives explained.

Eldan Recycling A/S expand its production facilities in 2008, adding two new workshops to the premises. This move is said to have been taken to shorten the delivery time and also provides the opportunity to test specific customer materials.