How Can Aluminum Cans Be Recycled?

Discarded drinks cans are often regarded as worthless rubbish, yet they harbour significant economic value. Aluminium cans are ubiquitous items in daily life. Their primary raw materials are aluminium and iron, both highly valuable metallic resources. Recycling aluminium not only conserves precious resources but also contributes to energy savings. Discarded cans undergo compression, crushing, high-temperature paint removal ( aluminium can paint removal machine), and subsequent melting into aluminium ingots. This process enables the complete recycling of each aluminium can.

Collection and Pre-processing

Discarded cans undergo centralised collection before being transported to recycling centres. There, hydraulic compactors compress them into block-shaped objects. These blocks are subsequently fed into shredders, where they are crushed into small fragments amid a crisp tearing sound.

Aluminium Can Sorting and Paint Removal

These small fragments are then separated into iron and aluminium components using magnetic separators. Mixed-in magnets and iron filings are meticulously extracted. Through a series of sorting processes, other impurities such as plastic and glass are thoroughly removed from the fragments.
The aluminium flakes undergo high-temperature pyrolysis in a dedicated aluminium can paint removal machine. Complete pyrolysis occurs at temperatures between 400-600°C. This process thoroughly melts and removes paint adhering to the aluminium can surfaces. The result is pure aluminium ingots.

Melting and Reuse

The pure aluminium ingots are then sent to a high-temperature furnace. Within the furnace, the aluminium reacts chemically with air, producing aluminium oxide. This aluminium oxide floats on the surface of the molten aluminium as dross. Specialised equipment is then used to skim this dross from the molten aluminium and remove it.
The molten aluminium is transferred to a holding furnace before being poured into various moulds according to specific requirements. Upon cooling, the molten aluminium solidifies into large aluminium ingots or sheets. These ingots are then precision-cut into aluminium sheets of varying thicknesses. These sheets are subsequently processed into raw material for new beverage cans, completing the recycling cycle.

aluminium can paint removal machine

Recycled beverage cans are not only reused to produce new cans. Therefore, after consuming beverages, please deposit cans into recycling bins to promote reuse. This process consumes significantly less energy than producing new aluminium from raw materials. Recycling aluminium cans saves 95% of the energy required to produce new aluminium from bauxite, thereby reducing the demand for bauxite mining from the Earth’s crust. Should you wish to learn more about aluminium can paint removal machine, please feel free to contact us for the latest technical solutions and quotations.