Bunting insert makes magnet cleaning quicker

From the Summer 2024 issue of Plastics Recycling.

PMM Staff

Bunting Magnetics Co. has developed a quick manual-clean magnet insert that significantly reduces the time needed to clean captured ferrous material off high-strength tube magnets, and an early user says the new equipment is improving its resin quality.

U.K.-based MBA Polymers installed Bunting’s quick-clean FF-MSCI system into one of its existing drawer filter magnets at their plastics recycling operation in the town of Worksop. The facility is one of the biggest in the world focusing on shredder residue – the byproducts from the large shredding and metal recovery process of end-of-life automobiles, appliances and other large metal-bearing goods that are traditionally recycled for their high metal content. Shredder residue is frequently sent to landfills.

The Worksop recycling facility uses four Bunting drawer filter magnets. Each drawer filter magnet contains two rows of high-strength, rare earth neodymium tube magnets mounted in a sealed outer housing. Shredded plastic that is less than 6mm in size falls from the top of the drawer housing and over the tube magnets. Metal-free material falls past the tube magnets while metal particles are captured by the tube magnets.

The tube magnets must be periodically removed so captured metal can be cleaned off. The high strength of the tube magnets sometimes makes removal of the metal contamination difficult and time consuming.

The new quick-clean magnet insert fits into the existing drawer filter magnet. Operators can remove the entire insert and pull the tube magnets through a front Perspex cover, which scrapes the metal bits off the magnets. Perspex is a form of acrylic plastic.

Bunting Magnetics said with the new insert, cleaning a tube magnet grid takes about 40 seconds and operators do not have to remove the captured metal from the surface of the tube magnets by hand. This makes using the insert safer.

“With the new magnet system, we can ensure that contamination is removed pre-screen, allowing an even higher-quality product,” said Guy Hughes, extrusion manager for MBA Polymers, in a news release.

A Bunting spokesman said the FF-MSCI can be used in recycling, compounding, injection molding and extrusion applications.

The FF-MSCI fits Bunting’s FF4, FF6 and FF8 magnetic drawer housings. It can be specified when a new magnetic drawer system is purchased or retrofitted into an existing drawer.

For more information:

Bunting Magnetics Co., Newton, Kansas, 316-284-2020, www.buntingmagnetics.com, [email protected]