Tire Recycling Equipment | AISORT
Application Overview — Rubber Recycling
Tire Recycling in Modern Recycling Facilities
End-of-life tire (ELT) recycling produces crumb rubber, steel, and textile fiber from passenger and truck tires. The steel (high-tensile wire) and textile (polyester/nylon reinforcement) must be separated from the rubber to produce clean crumb rubber for markets including sports surfaces, rubber-modified asphalt, molded products, and devulcanization for new tire production.
Material Characteristics and Sorting Challenges
Tire recycling sorting challenges: steel wire is embedded in the rubber matrix and must be liberated by shredding before separation; textile fluff (polyester/nylon fiber) is lightweight and tends to clump with rubber particles; rubber grades differ by tire zone (tread, sidewall, inner liner) and end-market specifications are tightening as tire manufacturers increase recycled content targets.
Recommended Sorting Technology Stack
Primary shredding (50-100mm chips) → magnetic separation (steel wire recovery — 15-25% of tire weight) → secondary grinding (0.5-5mm crumb) → NIR + RGB (purity verification: removing remaining textile and non-rubber particles) → air classification (textile fluff removal). For high-purity crumb for devulcanization: additional washing and flotation stages.
Performance Benchmarks
| Metric | Target |
|---|---|
| Steel Recovery | >99% |
| Rubber Purity | >99% (crumb) |
| Throughput | 2-8 t/h (tire input) |
| Output Size | 0.2-5mm crumb |
These benchmarks represent achievable performance with modern sensor-based sorting equipment, assuming properly sized, well-maintained equipment operating on representative feedstock. Actual results depend on specific material composition, throughput, and operating conditions.