Machines

[xoxoxoBruce]

In a typical shredding operation, cars are delivered with the wheels off, battery out and they are supposed to remove the gas tank, but I've seen enough explosions to know some don't, the rig is built sturdy enough to handle that. There are big blowers to separate the upholstery/foam, magnets to pick up the ferrous metal (some stainless is ferrous and some is not), but I'm not sure how they separate the plastic, copper, and aluminum because that's done offsite.
Goldfinger used a compactor, not a shredder.

[Beest]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

, copper, and aluminum because that's done offsite.
.

Eddy picks out the non-ferrous metals.
Hit them with an alternating magnetic field and Eddy currents are generated in the metal which in turn generates an opposing magnetic field and they are repelled. They can be just rolling down a conveyor and when they reach the magnet they fly off into a bin at the side.
Not sure if you can then sort Aluminum from Copper with a refinement of this technique.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Ah, thanks beest.
Much of the copper salvaged would be wire with a plastic coating, I guess that would be burned off, probably too expensive using chemicals to dissolve the plastic because of the cost of waste disposal.