The processing involved in breaking materials down to RC material is part of the everyday business of the construction and material handling industry. A new product has been developed to service businesses in these sectors through a seemingly highly efficient technology for separating lightweight materials from building rubble. According to the supplier, Orba Group, the wash-bear® works according to the proven floating-sinking principle and reliably and cleanly separates light materials such as wood, artificial and insulating materials from the minerals. With the wash-bear® all mineral substances can be cleaned, but most of all, RCL building materials.
The firm claims a high level of process efficiency, which ensures “almost 100% separation of contaminants and mineral fractions”, and says the wash-bear® also scores highly on process effectiveness. “This results from the economical handling of the resources to be used through the robust, maintenance-free design of the system technology,” says a press release. The closed system consumes whatever water adheres to the discharged mineral meaning that in a 10 hour shift 4-8 m3 is used in practice, whereby the inlet is controlled automatically by floats. This technique avoids the build-up of chemicals in the eluate, says Orba Group.
The water used is absorbed into the basic moisture of the RC material. What comes out with regard to the chemical composition, at most, is what was discarded by the rubble in the system. And when it comes to energy expenditure, at 8-15kW/h during operation, this is “significantly lower than an air sieve with a similar performance”. Nevertheless, the drive power is enough to start the wash-bear® in full load, says the firm.
The product has also been designed to fit into small spaces, and can be “easily integrated into the overall process chain even on narrow construction sites”. By using (the optional) ‘clean extension’, the unit becomes a powerful wet-processing system for the removal of fine fractions, e.g. when washing track ballast.
The current generation of systems is available as wash-bear® 2.0 in three models, which are designated as ‘S, L, XL’ depending on size. Their hourly throughput rates range between 100 t/h and 190 t/h – depending on the input. All types are designed with a mobile lift hook for easy transport.
The Orba Group describes the device as “a highly efficient mobile piece of equipment for separating lightweight materials from building rubble with extremely low operating and maintenance costs.” Furthermore, says the firm, there is no accruing wastewater, no sediment residues and it is flexible enough to provide bespoke solutions for special applications, as well as being amenable to integration within existing systems, removing the requirement for manual sorting.
