Tenacity has always been an intrinsic characteristic of the Japanese people, just think of the extremely rapid recovery of Miyagi prefecture after the devastating 2011 tsunami. The recycling industry in Japan is no different: In 2020, Mr. Suzuki, the president of Suzuyu Shoten, started the process of completely redesigning and renewing his scrapyard and while doing so he choose Zato as the main recycling equipment manufacturer.

Zatos relationship with Suzuyu Shoten goes back to 2020, when we installed a Blue Devil GF4000 Twin Shaft Shredder at his yard in Ishinomaki, which was followed up a year later with the  installation of a Blue Shark 16.13F Hammer Mill. This combination of a pre shredding twin shaft shredder together with a Zato hammer mill and downstream separation allowed Mr Suzuki get maximum value out of his ferrous and non-ferrous scrap while keeping his operation and ware part costs to a minimum.

An ambitious goal

Given the urgency expressed by the customer, we set ourselves the goal of completing the installation, testing and training of the Blue Shark Hammer Mill with air filtration and separation line in just 18 days! 

In order to achieve such an ambitious result it was necessary to pre-assemble the entire system directly at ZATO´s factory before disassembling and shipping. 

One of the characteristic features of all Zato shredders is that we assemble and test all of our produts before shipping. Only that we can we be sure that the shredder meets our exacting quality standards and that there will not be any nasty surprises of missing or defective parts when the shredder is installed at the customers yard.

Pre-assembly in Zato

As well as maintaining a high standard of quality, pre assembly assures assembly time on site is kept to a minimum, The entire system is assembled and tested in our factory at Prevalle in the north of Italy. We assembled the main body and support structure of the mill as well as the material handling components to verify that all parts fit and function correctly, then we tested the entire electrical system and hydraulic components.

The pre shipping work carried out at our headquarters allowed our supervisors to coordinate with the Japanese work team in advance of the shredders arrival to ensure that the final assembly was performed with absolute precision and safety. The original installation date was met, and the assembly, commissioning and training of the entire system took place in record time.

On-site assembly

The plant assembly work at Suzuyu Japan was carried out in three phases:

  1. Assembly of the ZATO Blue Shark mill;
  2. Assembly of the downstream separation line which consisted of: 5 conveyor belts, 1 over belt magnet, 1 TMR drum magnetic, 1 PDM drum magnetic;
  3. Assembly of the Scrubber unit; aspiration cleaning system and subsequent dust removal via a sludge dredge tank.
The processing path of the entire plant

The Suzuyu plant represents a leading edge design in scrap metal reduction and separation technologies.

The scrap (in this specific case, light household collected and industrial scrap) is processed by a ZATO Blue Devil GF 4000 twin-shaft shredder increases the scraps density by shearing it with one or more of its 60 blades but most importantly, the low speed shearing action will open any potentially hazardous or explosive closed pressure vessels such as LPG or CNG gas tanks in a controlled and safe manner.

Once the scrap is pre-treated by blue Devil, the scrap is transferred to the hopper of the Blue Shark hammer mill. This Blue Shark works autonomously and able to feed an optimal amount of pre shredded scrap in to the shredding chamber without the aid of an operator: shredding performance is monitored and keept at a consistently high throughput level thanks to a real-time feedback system between the current absorbed by the main motor and the pusher feeding the mill.

The processed material (about 25 t/h of material with a density of 1.2 t/m3) is then transported to a cleaning line which consists of two electro drum magnets. The first drum is used to clean the iron and separate it from non-ferrous impurities, the second drum is used to reduce the copper content from electric motors and inductors (meatballs).

Investing in a Blue Devil & Blue Shark combination is strategically smart decision as it allows scrap metal recyclers to achieve high standards of productivity with very low operating cost. The pre-processed material coming from the Blue Devil is much easier to process by the Blue Shark hammer mill, reducing wear and tear, increasing output, eliminating explosions and lowering the overall energy costs.

The in-line downstream separation line generates very pure piles of material which significantly increases the value of all types of scrap, both ferrous and non-ferrous, and minimizes waste living up to the high current and future standards of the  modern circular economy.

Sustainability and innovation at Suzuyu Shoten

At Zato We are proud to have been a major contributor to this project and are pleased that together with  Suzuyu Shoten, we have designed and created a new state-of-the-art multi-faceted recycling system. The Zato Blue Devil, Blue Shark combination goes a long way towards achieving the goals of the biggest technological change taking place in the global steel industry – namely, producing truly “Green Steel”.

Zato has always been committed to continuous improvement and looking at ways to increase the efficiency, performance and reliability of each and every system we produce. By incorporating the latest leading-edge technologies such Artificial Intelligence and Predictive Maintenance we keep our customers one step ahead of their competitors and fully prepared for whatever the future may hold.