CRUMB Rubber
The CRUMB Rubber Exchange provides the ability to Buy or Sell
Rubber Crumb.
The exchange service directly connects producers of Granulated Tire Crumb with End-Users and
material markets worldwide.
The Tire Granulation Process
One method of tire recycling is the use of granulation for the purpose of recovery of clean granulated rubber
commonly referred to as CRUMB.
The Tire Granulation process involves
size reduction,
seperation and
by-product
removal and product
grading.
CRUMB rubber is recycled rubber recovered from automotive and truck
scrap tires.
During the recycling process, steel
(tire wire)
and tire cord (fluff) are removed,
leaving tire rubber with a granular consistency.
The primary goal of any Tire Granulation program is to produce consistent quality
Grades of CRUMB Rubber
that hold the highest market desirability, demand and economic return.
The production of rubber powder as raw material to produce
Rubber Eco Products
whether compression molded products or bulk Rubber mulch.
Size Reduction
The size reduction process results in the liberation of rubber particles from the by-products.
Two popular methods of size reduction are
Cryogenic Grinding
and Ambient Grinding.
The Ambient Grinding process uses a
granulator and/or
cracker mill
operated at normal atmospheric temperature to produce rubber Granule.
Cryogenic Grinding
The Cryogenic Grinding method of tire recycling uses liquid
nitrogen
to freeze and shatter tire pieces
to liberate rubber particles from the
by-products.
The recovered cryogenic rubber granules tend to have a smoother surface then ambient ground crumb and the
Cryogenic Grinding
process can also produce undesired excess moisture from condensation.
Sizing & Screening
When rubber is granulated it produces a natural percentage of fine and course material content.
The granulated rubber may be selectively classified by par tical size by
screening.
Secondary granulation or recirculation of the course fraction may produce a forced fine sizing,
but will never be as economically efficient as natural selection.
Source Feedstock
Recycling operations that use tire granulation are reliant upon the source feedstock for the possible options
for end products produced.
Feed stocks from whole tires or whole tire shredding only have the possibility to produce #4 or #5 Granule.
Feed stocks sourcing from
tire slitting
operations have multiple options to produce premium grades of rubber crumb,
any combination of
Guaranteed Metal Free,
Black Only,
Black & White,
or mixed Granules.
By-Products
The two main By-Products generated from a tire granulation system are steel
(tire wire)
which can be segregated with
magnetic
separation and
and tire cord
(fluff)
which may be separated by Gravity Separation Air Classification.
Guaranteed Metal Free
The only way to provide Guaranteed Metal Free rubber crumb is if the source feedstock never contained metal (steel).
Magnetically separated materials are not acceptable as a Guaranteed Metal Free grade since there is always
residual steel and oxides which may impact the critical specifications of the crumb rubber end product.
Black & White Granule
Tires with white walls or raised white lettering are filled with a
talc
pigment.
Tire granule with a Talc filled content will impact the critical specifications of the crumb rubber end product.
Retreaders Tire Buffings
If you wish to Buy or Sell Rubber Retreaders
Tire Buffings,
ADD your inquiry to the Rubber Recycling Exchange.
Clean, fresh, dry tire buffings are produced as a by-product when preparing
tire casings
for the retreading process.
Recovered Tire Wire
If you wish to recycle
Tire Wire
recovered from tire granulation operations,
please ADD your Buy or Sell inquiry to the Rubber Recycling Exchange.
The recovered tire wires may be any combination of
steel
bead or tread wires contaminated with
residual tire rubber recovered from
tire granulation
operations.
Please note that Recovered Tire Wire is different grade of material than
Recovered Incinerator Steels
generated from Tire Pyrolysis operations.
