
Aluminum Wheel Hub Crushing Process
Wheel Inspection and Preparation
Scrap wheels should be inspected before crushing. Tires, wheel covers, valve assemblies, balancing weights and other easily removable attachments should be removed where practical.
The wheel material should be identified before processing. Aluminum alloy wheels, steel wheels and magnesium alloy wheels should not be mixed without a suitable material identification and handling process.
Controlled Feeding
Prepared aluminum wheel hubs are transferred into the crushing chamber by a conveyor or suitable loading device. The feeding rate should match the wheel dimensions, individual weight and crusher load.
Oversized or unusually thick wheel components may require hydraulic breaking or another preparation method before hammer crushing.
Hammer Crushing
A high-speed rotor drives the hammers to repeatedly impact, deform and break the aluminum wheel hubs inside the crushing chamber. Friction and compression between the hammers, liner plates and screen grate further reduce the cast aluminum material.
The crushing action may expose steel balancing weights, valve components, inserts and other attached materials for downstream separation.
Screen-Controlled Discharge
Material that meets the selected screen opening is discharged from the crusher, while oversized pieces remain inside the crushing chamber for further processing.
Actual output depends on the wheel dimensions, alloy structure, hammer configuration, screen opening and feeding condition.
Magnetic Separation
After crushing, magnetic separation can recover steel balancing weights, ferrous inserts and other exposed magnetic components from the aluminum-rich material stream.
Magnetic separation does not identify aluminum alloy grades or remove non-magnetic attachments.
Optional Screening and Material Classification
Screening can divide the crushed output into different particle-size fractions and remove excessive fines. The screen configuration should be selected according to the downstream recovery process.
Optional Non-Ferrous Sorting
After ferrous metal removal and suitable material preparation, additional sorting equipment may be used according to the material composition and target recovered fractions.
Eddy current separation may recover conductive non-ferrous metals from suitable non-conductive residues, but it does not identify different aluminum alloy grades or separate aluminum from magnesium alloy material.
Dust Collection
Dust collection can be configured around the crusher, screening equipment and conveyor transfer points according to the wheel surface condition, coating and workshop requirements.
Material Collection
Processed aluminum-rich material, ferrous attachments and residual fractions are transferred to separate collection areas according to the selected recycling process.