The new X-TRACT™ system uses advanced X-Ray Transmission (XRT) to detect and separate wood waste from impurities such as inert materials, metals, heavy plastic, and glass based on atomic density. It handles up to 30 tonnes of wood chips per hour, depending on moisture and particle size, and supports high throughput without sacrificing sorting accuracy.
A novel ejection module reduces compressed air consumption by up to 25 %, enabling significant energy savings while maintaining throughput. The design also features a dust-resistant casing and a reinforced sensor setup to minimize downtime and extend maintenance intervals.
Critical components such as the X-ray source and sensors come with a 16,000-hour warranty, reflecting the system’s robustness. A redesigned catcher hood allows faster and safer maintenance access to reduce operational disruption.
To further refine wood sorting, TOMRA couples X-TRACT™ with its GAINnext™ deep-learning system. GAINnext™ recognizes visual characteristics like shape and surface to distinguish various wood types such as untreated, coated, or composite wood and even recover high-purity MDF. This enables enhanced granularity in recycled wood outputs.
By upgrading sorting precision and throughput, the X-TRACT™ system helps recyclers produce near-virgin quality recycled wood. The combination of improved purity and reduced operational cost opens new revenue streams and accelerates circular economy adoption in the wood recycling sector.
Operators should evaluate incoming wood feed characteristics, including moisture, particle size, and impurity profile, to calibrate the X-TRACT™ parameters. Integrating the system with upstream preprocessing such as size reduction and screening, and downstream classification like GAINnext™, maximizes performance. Continuous monitoring of throughput, ejection rates, and component health will optimize uptime and yield.
For more information, please visit: https://www.tomra.com