Aluminium Sorting
A Complete Guide to Clean and Sort Scrap Aluminium
Aluminium is the most popular lightweight non-ferrous metal used by industries, but up to 60% of the aluminium material used in manufacturing was wasted as there was no proper method of sorting aluminium scrap. With the advancement in technology now there is plenty of aluminium sorting and recycling method.
Are you planning to collect aluminium scrap and sell it to the dealer for shipshape profit? If yes! Then you should have in-depth knowledge about the different grade of aluminium and aluminium scrap price. Through this guide, you will get to know how to sort and clean your aluminum supplies properly.
Aluminium is generally classified into the following grades:
Radiators
Radiator is further classified into two categories:
- Clean aluminium radiator: Radiator will have all its parts including tanks, steel, plastic and hoses removed.
- Contaminated aluminium radiator: In this, all these things will be intact.
Cast
Cast aluminium is quite stiff and reveals a gritty interior if broken. It is usually used in the manufacturing of car parts such as engine cylinder heads, transmission housings and several other items such as light housings and BBQ covers.
Wheels (clean and chrome plated)
Chrome-plated wheels worth little less as compared to pure aluminium. A wheel featured with a plastic face shield is also considered as chrome-plated, as the plastic and glue taint the metal.
The prices offered will be more if the valve stems, wheel weights and centre caps are attached with wheel.
Extrusions
Extrusion is the process of pushing aluminium material through a die to give a definite shape and design. Window frames are the most common aluminium item that is recycled through this process.
Clean extrusion will have plastic, steel, rubber or padding removed.
Siding
Siding comprises of downspouts, gutters and other flat stock aluminium items. These items are free of Styrofoam, steel, tar and insulation contamination.
Old sheet
Old sheets are the lowest grade aluminium scrap and every item that is not listed above falls under this category. You can sell pop cans, pots and pans, lawn chairs and screens to the scrap aluminium buyer.
Aluminium/Copper radiators
This aluminium grade is commonly found in air conditioners, comprises of copper tubes enclosed in aluminium fins. Clean radiator doesn’t contain any steel flanges. If you cut the flanges, the radiator will be considered as spotless and you can sell flanges to scrap aluminium buyer.
Once you get familiar with the grading system outlined above, you can be assured that your scrap is properly sorted and clean to get the best aluminium scrap price. Or if you have tools to cut off the dirty bits of aluminium items, you should do that because of clean aluminium scrap worth more.