THE SITUATION

Located in the Midwest, an aluminum producer needed to collect scrap aluminum chips to melt and reuse in its forming process. Prior to forming aluminum into the required shape, an ingot is run through a milling machine known as a scalper. This scalper peels away the surface to expose the higher quality metal underneath and to generate uniformity in the shape and contour. As a result, this process generates a tremendous amount of aluminum chips that require collection for reuse. Accidental commingling of varied materials degrades their value and impedes secondary processing.

THE SOLUTION

System design and air volumes were critical to segregating and transporting these chips to the proper collection point. Due to our significant experience and expertise in designing and developing similar systems that required chip removal from a large scalping operation, we were able to offer a cost-effective solution. We designed, built and installed a scalping trim collection system to pneumatically draw chips away from the milling process and to collect them in a central point for remelting and subsequent reuse.

THE RESULT

The scalping trim collection system was built on time and within budget. Our customer was able to reuse 99% of the aluminum chips while at the same time, maintain process integrity, control costs and ensure the purity of materials in secondary processing.