Yantai Zhicheng Aluminum Technology Co., Ltd. – 1200H Scrap Aluminum Crusher and Tube Chain Conveyor Case Study

Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Zhuyouguan Town, Longkou City, Yantai, Shandong Province, Yantai Zhicheng Aluminum Technology Co., Ltd. is a state-certified high-tech enterprise and a Shandong Provincial "Specialized and Sophisticated" SME, integrating secondary aluminum alloy ingot production, aluminum dross resource utilization, and new aluminum alloy material research and development. The company produces ADC12, AlSi20 and other series of cast aluminum alloy ingots, which are supplied to South Korean and Japanese die-casting enterprises and domestic automotive component manufacturers. In 2025, the company was recognized as a high-tech enterprise and simultaneously launched a pilot base project for aluminum foam new materials in partnership with a Tsinghua University technical team.

Unlike most secondary aluminum smelters that take in everything, Zhicheng holds a unique — and problematic — material stream that few competitors want to touch: oily aluminum chips returned from die-casting plants. These chips are oil-laden, moisture-heavy, fluffy, and combustible. Feeding them directly into a melting furnace without pretreatment results in extremely high melt loss, heavy fume emissions, and serious safety risks. Outsourcing disposal is equally unpalatable due to transport costs and environmental compliance concerns.

In November 2024, Zhicheng commissioned a 1200H scrap aluminum crusher and a specialized enclosed tube-chain conveyor system from Gongyi Haoxing Machinery. The line operates under fully sealed negative pressure: the tube chain conveyor first delivers aluminum chips, aluminum foil, and other light-gauge materials from bulk bag unloading stations directly into the crusher feed inlet; the crusher then hammer-mills the material into uniformly sized aluminum granules while partially stripping off adhered oil and moisture; the granules are subsequently elevated through the tube chain into a magnetic separator and storage silo — with zero dust emission throughout the entire process.

After over half a year of operation, the most troublesome oily aluminum chips have been transformed into clean, consistent furnace-ready material, with markedly reduced melt loss and significantly lighter fume emissions in the melting workshop. The workshop manager observed: “We used to dread seeing oily chips arrive — they hogged space, posed a fire risk, and burned terribly. Now they go in sealed and come out sealed, crushed clean, and even the melting crew is happy to take them.”