Inspection and sampling of Ferrous and Non – Ferrous Scrap material in India
Alex Stewart International (India) Pvt. Ltd. have been pioneers in the field of inspection / sampling of ferrous and non – ferrous scrap material in India for determining the quality and quantity. Our various branches have experienced inspectors who are familiar with the inspection and sampling of various types and grades of metal scrap material.
As you all know that there is no special " PROTOCOL" or 'Manual' for the inspection / sampling of metal scrap cargoes, mainly due to the fact that:
• Metal scrap materials are so varied in physical constitution, particle / piece shape & size.
• Scarp material is processed differently subject to its end use, which makes it very difficult to have uniform rules and procedures for quality inspection / sampling of all metal scrap material.
Therefore we adopt suitable methods of inspection / sampling, so that the material conforms to the physical description laid down in the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. (ISRI), which is generally the guidelines on which the material is sold, though sale contractshave further agreements on quality / level of impurities etc. between the buyer and seller.
In most cases, the load port assessment of quality, grading, impurities etc. is based on a visual inspection. In cases where the origin is known, i.e. from reputed metal scrap and processing yards, the load port inspector may have access to certain statistical / historic data on the quality, grading, impurities of the various stockpiles, which definitely help in arriving at a fair visual estimation at the time of actual inspection of the material intended for shipment.
However, this information on the standard quality of the scrap material produced at a particular yard or even the origin of the material or equipment used to process the material, is never known to the disport inspector and therefore even a very experienced inspector may not be in a position to visually estimate the quality, grading, impurities, etc. at the disport.
In the case of a visual inspection, the presence of impurities, say rubber / cloth / plastic or dirt / dust in the metal scrap cargo is volumetric in appearance and what appears as a large quantity of impurities volumetrically, would be very small or negligible on a weight comparison. Or it may be the other way around - where one may find it difficult to visually estimate the ferrous content (in the form of free iron or attachments) in the Aluminum scrap material due to the fact that the Specific Gravity of the Off Spec / contaminant material i.e. Iron or Steel (at approx. 7.8) is three times that of Aluminum (at approx. 2.6) and even small quantities of Iron (i.e. volumetric appearance) observed in the Aluminum, can work out to a very high weigh comparison.
In order to arrive at more accurate figure of impurities / contaminants / off spec cargo as compared to a visual estimation, we recommend and follow a suitable form of representative sampling and physical segregation of the constituents at disport, in order to arrive at a fair assessment of the quality of the material / level of impurities, which is also acceptable to the receivers.
At Alex Stewart India, our experienced professionals are very familiar with inspection / sampling of ferrous and non – ferrous scrap material in India for determining various types and grades, the quality and quantity. The results are trusted by Industry leaders.
About the Author:
Mr. Allen J Fernandes