When crossing a variable magnetic field, non-ferrous metal pieces are exposed to repulsion forces that tend to cause them to jump away from the source of the magnetic field.
Eddy Current Separators (ECS) are belt separators that take advantage of this physical principle. An ECS head drum assembly is made up of an outer shell and an internal pulley magnet with multiple axial alternate polarities.
The inner pulley magnet spins at a much faster speed than the outside shell. This exposes the pieces of non-ferrous metals traveling on the ECS belt to the variable magnetic field. This happens due to the magnet pulley’s high-speed sequence of alternate polarities.
The higher the frequency of the variable magnetic field and the larger the size and energy of the permanent magnet blocks mounted on the head pulley magnet, the better the performance of the ECS separation.
From the material side, some non-ferrous metals react more and quicker than others to ECS based on their electrical conductivity property, their size, shape and mass.
Typically, large and flat pieces of aluminum react very quickly and strongly to ECS while small hair copper wires react less and slower.
