Crossbelt magnets are ideal for recycling operations and are widely used for sorting co-mingled metals and separating ferrous and nonferrous metals. When suspended over the conveyor belt of a sorting station, they pick up the ferrous metal, removing it from the sorting line. Because it is difficult to tell ferrous from non-ferrous metal just by looking at it, use of a crossbelt magnet ensures that only non-ferrous metal is picked.
Ferrous scrap metal includes iron and steel recovered from autos, farm equipment, household appliances, structural steel, etc, and non-ferrous scrap is all metals other than iron and steel, such as aluminum, copper, zinc, lead and nickel. Non-ferrous scrap metal represents a smaller percentage of scrap metal, but has a higher market value.