Grossman Iron & Steel
5 North Market Street
St. Louis, MO, 63102
The first scrap iron recycling project of its kind in the Midwest was recently completed at Grossman Iron & Steel in St Louis. The project consisted on a 8000 HP-15,000-volt shredder motor and a array of conveyors that separated ferrous material from non-ferrous. The shredder converts objects as large as a school bus or as small as a refrigerator into pieces of metal no larger than a baseball. The various conveyors separate the metal from the glass, fabrics, rubber or aluminum and distribute them in their own separate piles, which are then ready to be recycled. The project consisted of a new 3000 amp 15KV underground electrical service, one 8000 HP shredder motor and liquid rheostat, a half mile of various conveyor systems, and new finders, picker, non-ferrous distribution and shredder buildings, which housed all of the electrical distribution equipment, PLCs and control panels. The complexity of the project consisted of interlocking both the power and controls of the various conveyors so they would operate as a single unit, and should one conveyor fail or jam, the remaining conveyors and shredder motor shut down to prevent any system damage. To add to the complexity of the project, Grossman was in full operation throughout the project, which meant we had to work around their schedule and daily operations.
