How to estimate wear and dust when shredding glass-fibre composites

Material characteristics

• Industrial solid waste changes with production processes and may be mixed with plastics, rubber, fibers, thin metals, fiberglass and adhesives.
• Rolls, strips and sheets are prone to snagging, and thick blocks and metal inserts can create concentrated loads and wear.
• If the discharge material needs to be returned to production or entered into sorting, particle size distribution and contamination control are usually more important than simple volume reduction.

Key processing challenges

• Glass fiber causes obvious wear on cutting tools, screens and conveyor turns.
• The panels are large in size and have sharp edges, so manual loading is risky.
• Fine crushing will increase the amount of respirable dust, and sealing and dust collection cannot be supplemented later.

Equipment-selection criteria

• Use a bill of materials and representative samples to define normal batches, extreme batches, and foreign matter that must be removed.
• Select a single-shaft, dual-shaft or secondary crushing combination according to the form and objectives, and check the cutter, screen and drive configuration.
• Incorporate cleaning, tool changing, foreign object removal, and wearing parts replacement times into actual availability assessments.

Typical process flow

Large plates are cut first or shredded at low speed to reduce volume, and the equipment adopts a wear-resistant and easy-maintenance structure. The discharged material enters screening or secondary crushing in a closed conveyor, and the dust point should be designed along with the process.