Process and apparatus for treating titanium machining scrap

A process for treating titanium machining scrap to remove tungsten carbide bits and similar high density inclusions, said process comprising the steps of:

• providing a quantity of titanium machining scrap,
• washing and crushing said scrap to obtain a washed and crushed product,
• screening said washed and crushed product to obtain a sized product having substantially all of its pieces falling within a given size range,
• performing an air separation operation on said sized product to separate it into a "heavy" product and a "light" product, said air separation operation including the substeps of providing a stoner type air separator having an elongated air conducting deck which slopes in its longitudinal direction only, vibrating said deck generally in the direction of its incline, flowing air upwardly through said deck, and feeding said screened pieces onto the upper surface of said deck whereby said screened pieces fed to said deck are stratified into a lower stratum of "heavy" product particles which are conveyed by the vibratory motion of said deck upwardly longitudinally of said deck to the upper end of said deck and an upper stratum of "light" product particles which flow downwardly longitudinally of said deck to the lower end of said deck, rejecting from the process the "heavy" product particles which pass over the upper end of said deck, and accepting for further treatment in the process the "light" product particles which pass from the lower end of said deck,
• performing a magnetic separation on said "light" product to separate it into a magnetic product and a non-magnetic product, and
• performing an x-ray inspection operation on said non-magnetic product to detect and remove therefrom any remaining tungsten carbide bits and similar high density inclusions.

An apparatus for treating titanium machining scrap to remove tungsten carbide bits and similar high density inclusions, said apparatus comprising:

• a means for crushing and screening a quantity of input titanium machining scrap to produce a sized product having substantially all of its pieces falling within a given size range,
• a stoner type air separator receiving sized product from said crushing and screening means for separating said sized product into a "heavy" product and a "light" product, said stoner having an elongated air conducting deck which slopes in its longitudinal direction only and which is vibrated generally in the direction of its incline, means for moving air upwardly through said deck, and means for feeding said sized pieces onto the upper surface of said deck, said air separator further being one wherein said sized pieces fed to said deck are stratified into a lower stratum of "heavy" pieces which are conveyed by the vibratory motion of said deck upwardly longitudinally of said deck to the upper end of said deck and an upper stratum of "light" pieces which flow downwardly longitudinally of said deck to the lower end of said deck, and
• an x-ray inspection mechanism for inspecting the "light" product produced by said air separator and for detecting and removing any remaining tungsten carbide bits and similar high density inclusions remaining in the inspected product.