Steel & Iron
Iron and steel scrap, or ferrous scrap, comes many consumer products like automobiles and household appliances to industrial structures and equipment such as buildings, railroads, trains, bridges, ships, and farming equipment.
The steel and iron scrap can be categorized into three main categories, viz. "home", "new" and "old". Technological advancements have considerably reduced the generation of home scrap. New or prompt scrap is generated in manufacturers' plants and includes items, such as stampings, turnings, and clippings. Old or obsolete scrap is referred as iron or steel from post consumer products, such as appliances, automobiles, bridges and buildings.
Some common grades of iron and steel scrap include - heavy metal steel, plate and structured steel, hydraulic silicon bundles, short shoveling steel turnings, machine shop turnings, cast iron borings, mixed turnings and borings, shredded scrap, mixed cast, steel turnings and foundry steel. Some common types of iron and steel intermediary products, include - steel making slag, spent pickle liquor, flue dust, filter cake, waste sludge and mill scale.
| Types | Description |
|---|---|
| Factory Bundles | New automotive stampings derived from a single source baled at the factory source not at a scrap yard or collection yard. |
| Busheling | Prompt, clean industrial sheet steel scrap, can be “fluffy”, typically that remains of a stamping, punching, or steel processing operation. Dense busheling is much more desirable than low density busheling. |
| Plate & Structural | Side frames and bolsters from rail cars, vintage ship and barge plate of known chemistry, heavy gauge tubing and pipes. Pipe over 6” in diameter must be split. |
| Heavy Metal | Consists of steel scrap and wrought iron. This material may be black, painted, or galvanized. It may also include automobile scrap that has been properly prepared, skeleton plate and structural beams. |
| Regular Shred | Scrap that has been processed through a shredder. Feed stock is typically automotive and appliance based. Non-ferrous metals and non-metallic are removed after shredding automatically with a magnetic separator and then manually on a conveyor belt. All obvious non-metallic and copper should be removed. |
| Rail Road Wheels & Crops | Solid cast steel, forged, pressed and/or rolled steel car and/or locomotive wheels, not over 42 inches diameter. |
| Processed Slabs | length of metal that is rectangular in cross-section. It is created directly from continuous casting or indirectly by rolling an ingot. |
| Pig Iron | Iron that has been reduced from iron ore in a blast furnace or similar device. The liquid iron is poured into small castings called pigs. Because it is made from iron ore the residual content is extremely low. |
