
AC Radiator Crushing and Separation Process
Equipment Dismantling and Material Preparation
Complete air conditioners must be dismantled before crushing. Refrigerant should be recovered using suitable equipment, and compressor oil, electrical components, capacitors, plastic housings and other unsuitable materials should be removed according to local operating requirements.
The intended feed material is a prepared radiator, condenser or heat exchanger section that meets the feeding limits of the selected crusher.
Controlled Feeding
Prepared radiator sections are transferred into the crushing chamber by a conveyor or suitable feeding device. The feeding rate should match the radiator dimensions, material density and crusher load.
Oversized, folded or tangled heat exchanger material may require pre-cutting or primary shredding before entering the crusher.
Crushing and Material Liberation
A high-speed rotor drives the crushing components to repeatedly impact, deform and reduce the prepared radiator material. The process breaks the copper tubes and aluminum fins into smaller composite pieces and may loosen attached iron, plastic and rubber components.
Crushing does not automatically produce separate copper and aluminum products. The degree of material liberation depends on the radiator structure, output size, equipment configuration and number of processing passes.
Discharge and Particle-Size Control
Processed material is discharged from the crusher and transferred to the next separation stage. When the equipment includes a screen or grate, the opening size helps control the discharged material dimensions.
Magnetic Separation
After crushing, magnetic separation can recover exposed iron frames, steel brackets, screws and other ferrous components from the mixed material stream.
Screening and Material Spreading
Screening can classify different particle-size fractions and remove excessive fines. A material spreading device may provide more uniform feeding before subsequent sorting.
Copper and Aluminum Recovery
Copper and aluminum are both conductive non-ferrous metals. An eddy current separator may recover conductive metal particles from suitable non-conductive residues, but it does not normally separate copper from aluminum as two high-purity products.
Density separation, sensor-based sorting, airflow separation or manual sorting may be required when separate copper and aluminum fractions are needed.
Dust Collection and Material Collection
Dust collection can be configured around the crusher, screening equipment and conveyor transfer points according to the surface contamination and material condition.
Recovered ferrous material, copper-aluminum fractions and residual material are transferred to separate collection areas according to the selected process.