Tire Scrap Steel

Tire wire scrap or Tire derived steel (TDS) is a light melting scrap produced by the shredding of end-of-life tires

Steelcord, as it is named by tire manufacturers, is a high-quality steel, incorporated into the tire’s structure to withstand bumps, heat, and other hazardous conditions. With its high carbon content, tire wire is considered a high-quality scrap, suitable for melting in an Electric Arc Furnace. Typically 10 to 20% in weight of a passenger car tire is made of Steelcord.

TDS is collected at the end of the granulation process. The current technologies tend to remove the wire at the earliest possible stage, to protect the blades from use and wear further along the processing line. A pre-shredding of car and truck tires, at ambient temperature, is usually followed by a first granulation stage in which, depending on the configuration of the plant, a screener of 15 to 25 mm separates the rubber chips by their sizes.

Directly after the granulation process, a magnetic device separates the steel wire from the rubber. Along with the wires, around 15 to 25% in weight of rubber and textiles is also withdrawn, so the final recovery of the material differs in function of its contamination grade (rubber/fibre).

A key factor in determining the quality of the material is the protection from the atmospheric agents, such as heavy rain and constant moisture. Due to its morphology, the thin wires may easily oxidize, inevitably reducing its quality and the recovery ratio in an electric arc furnace.

Recovery of tire-derived steel
According to the contamination grade, our tire wire scrap can primarily be recycled in metallurgical plants (R4). In case the contaminants (rubber and fibre) are not yet compatible with the technical requirements of some end users, the TDS may be further screened and separated from its impurities by technologies that currently exist in the market. We are happy to assist our partners to get the best performance from all our raw materials.