Hiring A Metal Processing Expert To Handle The Scrap Metal

Hiring a Metal Processing Expert to Handle Scrap Metal Recycling

When it comes to Houston scrap metal buyers, wouldn’t it be convenient if the scrap metal waste from your industrial processes dropped neatly into pre-sorted piles, ready for you to give them? Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. And most manufacturing firms don’t have the resources to dedicate a worker full time to sort scrap metals.

For example, our experts know that niobium, with its extreme resistance to heat, is a valuable metal in many emerging technologies. Yet all too often it is diluted into a lower grade steel. Call Republic Alloys to pick up your scrap, and we’ll look for valuable metals like these to sort you. Republic Alloys will help you walk away with a larger payment in your pocket.

Of course, being knowledgeable about metals and their value is only half the process. The other part is turning that unwanted metal into reusable materials.

The Scrap Metal Recycling Process

Scrap metal recycling, as you know, is the process of turning waste metals into new materials that can be used again and again in various industries. If handled correctly, nearly all metals can be recycled multiple times without their losing the properties that make them valuable.

To be turned into something new, however, it’s simply a matter of moving unwanted metals through the seven steps that make up the scrap metal recycling process.

Collection and Transport

Scrap metal recycling begins when metal items are no longer needed. Metal comes from all over–from private homes to large manufacturing facilities and they are transported to recycling facilities.

If you have a lot of large bulk scrap, the Houston scrap metal buyers at Republic Alloys will provide convenient pickup and drop-off services so your work processes can continue uninterrupted and your work environment will remain clean and safe. We’ll also let you know just how valuable your leftover scrap is.

Sorting

Sorting is arguably the most important part of the recycling process. In order to ensure that the recycled metal end products are of the highest quality, it is essential that scrap metal recyclers maintain strong control over the metals that move into the process.

Initially, metals are separated into ferrous (iron-containing) and non-ferrous materials. Recyclers typically use large magnets to separate them out. It is during this process where non-recyclable materials are also removed.

Materials are further separated into various metals such as brass, aluminum, and stainless steel. Solid copper with no brass or corrosion is separated from corroded copper and copper with more than 5 percent of other metals. Insulated copper wire is separated into three different grades.

Squeezing/Squashing/Shredding

Once sorted, metals are compacted using feeder hoppers and balers so they take up less space on conveyor belts as they move through the system. Metals are then shredded into small pieces or sheets. When reduced to this form, they use less energy when being melted.

Melting

Metals melt at different temperatures, and metal recycling facilities have various specialized furnaces that heat them often to thousands of degrees. Depending on the type of metal, the type of furnace, and the amount of heat, the melting process can take minutes, or it can take hours.

Purification

Impurities are then removed from the molten metal, typically through electrolysis. In some cases, powerful magnets are also used to remove impurities.

Cooling and Solidification

Once the scrap metals have been melted and purified, they are poured into molds that shape them into bricks or bars called ingots. It is during this process that chemicals may be added to change their density or other properties.

Transport

Once ingots are made, the scrap metal recycling work is done and they’ll be shipped out for reuse. In most cases, they will be melted down again and molded into a variety of useful products to be used in other industries.

The Benefits of Professional Scrap Metal Recycling

When scrap metal begins to accumulate at your facility, there’s only one place to call–Republic Alloys. When you contact the Houston scrap metal buyers at Republic Alloys, you’re playing a vital role in helping the economy, the environment, and your own bottom line.

Creates Jobs

Scrap metal recycling contributes to a vital economy. According to the National Institute of Health, the industry employs over one million workers in the U.S. and generates $236 billion annually.

Protects the Environment

When it comes to scrap metal recycling, less is definitely more. Recycling scrap metals means fewer materials are going into landfills where they can contaminate soils and groundwater. In addition, the more scrap metal that is recycled, the less the need for new mining of virgin ore.

Mining erodes landscapes and negatively affects the flora and fauna of a site often for years after a mine has ceased operations. Processing raw ore into metals releases far more greenhouse gases than recycling does.

Call the Houston scrap metal buyers at Republic Alloys and help contribute to less air pollution, less water pollution, less mining waste, and less greenhouse gas emissions.

Saves Energy

The process of recycling metals consumes far less energy than producing metals from raw materials. How much? Take a single aluminum can of soda. Recycling uses 95 percent less energy. In plain talk, that saves the same amount of energy it takes to power a 60-watt lightbulb for over four hours.

Helps Your Bottom Line

Republic Alloys will buy your scrap metal. Period. That’s what we do, and that’s how we earn our living. But it also puts money in your pocket, which can be put toward any number of beneficial purposes at your facility.

Contact our Houston scrap metal buyers today for convenient pickup of your unwanted scrap. Not only will it help your bottom line, but it will also free up your building space for other endeavors. And with that eyesore gone, your facility will look a whole lot better too.