Method of resource recovery from used tires

A continuous process for separating rubber, steel and fiber products from tires for reclamation thereof wherein the tires and tire material flow on conveyors throughout the various steps of the process, comprisng the steps of:

• shredding a flow of whole tires into pieces in a shear-type shredder via a tearing and shearing action effected on the tires by intermeshing cutting edges of cam-like disks protruding from two opposing counter-rotating shafts, which cutting edges puncture the tires and move apart as the shafts rotate;
• screening the flow of tire pieces, with a vibrating screen, by size into a first flow containing pieces at least as large as a specified size and into a second flow of pieces smaller than said specified size;
• reshredding and rescreening the pieces of the first flow until they are smaller than the specified size;
• granulating the pieces of the second flow in a first granulor, having a staggered series of steep angle shearing counter-rotating intermeshing knives by a cutting action thereof into smaller pieces such that any steel and fibers remaining the tire pieces are primarily embedded in and surrounded by rubber;
• screening the pieces in the granulator such that pieces at least as large as one inch in size remain in the granulator until they are reduced below one inch in size and such that pieces below said size are passed out of the granulator;
• separating reclaimable fiber materials from the flow of granulated material by vacuuming with an air separator after granulation;
• separating reclaimable steel and steel-containing rubber pieces from the flow of material via a magnetic separator after the fiber materials have been removed.