Briquetting presses for turnings and swarf

Why briquette

Briquetting presses compress loose turnings, borings, chips and grinding swarf into dense pucks that can be melted like solid scrap, with the cutting oil squeezed out and recovered.

Loose turnings have a bulk density a tenth of solid scrap, carry 5 to 20 per cent oil and coolant, and oxidise badly in the furnace, losing metal as slag. A briquetting press — hydraulic or screw-driven — compacts them at very high pressure into cylinders of a few kilograms each, expelling most of the oil, which is collected and reused. The briquettes charge like solids, melt with far less loss and ship without the self-heating risk of oily loose chips.

Machine shops, automotive component plants, bearing makers and aluminium machining plants install briquetting presses at the point where swarf is produced; scrap processors install them to upgrade the turnings they buy.

What is briquetted

Steel and cast iron turnings and borings, stainless turnings, aluminium and magnesium chips, brass and copper swarf, and grinding sludge. Aluminium briquetting is particularly valuable because loose aluminium chips oxidise almost completely in a remelt furnace.

Who makes them

German and Austrian makers lead the briquetting market, with Chinese and Indian makers supplying lower-cost presses for domestic and export use.

Makers

Long-established makers of this class of machine. Names first; the buttons go deeper.

At a glance

• Compacts oily swarf into dense pucks
• Oil squeezed out and recovered
• Charges like solid scrap, far less melt loss
• Steel, stainless, aluminium, brass, magnesium chips

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