New Technologies

Spectramet LLC, a joint venture with National Recovery Technologies (NRT, Nashville, Tennessee), is developing a revolutionary approach to high-speed sorting of various high value non-ferrous metals. wTe and NRT have raised nearly $12.0 million in federal funds to advance this technology which targets the metals recycling and production markets.

The vision for the Spectramet technology platform is to transform the sorting of high value metals worldwide. Today non-ferrous metals are sorted using manual labor or expensive mass flow systems. The Spectramet approach replaces these antiquated sorting techniques with high speed identification and sorting technology capable of operating at millisecond speeds. Moreover, Spectramet technologies are “green”.

In 2005, wTe commenced commercial operations in the high temperature alloy segment. The Spectramet Alloy Sorter System has the ability to process mixed high temperature alloys such as titanium and nickel-cobalt alloys at high speeds with 100% accuracy. Spectramet is also able to sort and report up to eight different alloys in a single lot with an automated system designed to cost-effectively handle a wide range of sizes and shapes, with weights of less than one ounce up to fifteen pounds.

In 2006 Spectramet commercialized the Spectramet DXRT System targeting a binary sort of mixed non-ferrous concentrates from auto shredder residues. This system converts the mixed non-ferrous concentrates into a high quality aluminum product and a mixed heavies product containing copper, zinc, brass, stainless steel and other non-ferrous metals. The DXRT system is now capable of processing 100% of the non-ferrous metals generated from wTe’s metals processing operations. Further processing of the mixed heavies into compatible alloy families is accomplished with the Spectramet Alloy Grouper System.

Melt Cognition LLC is another wTe partnership which focuses on molten metal applications for the Spectramet family of sorting and identification technologies. wTe is developing a worldwide market for a new technology designed to dramatically improve efficiencies in the production of metal products by continuous measurement of metal composition in situ. Several federally funded projects designed to demonstrate and prove the technology in various metals applications are in pilot testing and are approaching the beta testing phase.