Patent ID: 7584530

Claim:
The processing of scrap metal strip into a plurality of individual packages of uncontained, compressed material employing a method which includes a compressing step and which eliminates the need to trim excess scrap metal strip before said compressing step or during the performance of said method, said method comprising the steps of: providing, as said scrap metal strip, a scrap metal material that has heretofore been processed in commercial baling operations and that constitutes (a) obsolete scrap and (b) industrial scrap resulting from manufacturing operations performed on a coil of metal strip; feeding a stream of said scrap metal strip in a downstream direction along a processing path; employing a pair of compression rolls to compress said scrap metal strip into a continuous slab of compressed scrap metal strip; and employing a guillotine shear to shear said slab into a plurality of slab portions, each composed of compressed scrap metal strip downstream of said shear.