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Guidelines for Getting the Maximum Return on your Silver Recovery Equipment.

While many manufacturers of silver recovery equipment are increasing the efficiency of their equipment, many of the problems with inefficient silver recovery can be attributed to improper operation and maintenance of the system. The following are a couple of easy steps to make sure you are maximizing your return system efficiency:

Make sure that the metering pump or flow control on your metallic replacement cartridge (MRC) is working properly. Flow that is too fast will reduce the contact time of the silver bearing solution and the iron-matrix in the cartridge and reduce the silver retention efficiencies. If the flow is too slow, there can be problems with premature deterioration of the iron-matrix in the cartridge or potentially re-dissolving some of the silver in the MRC back into solution and down the drain.

Segregate your developer bath from the other silver-bearing solutions... MRCs do not like developer.

Make sure that you are replacing or rotating the cartridges on a proper schedule. If you replace the cartridges too soon there will be unused iron rather than silver in the cartridge and your effective yield will be reduced. If you change them out too late, you will have exhausted the available iron in the cartridge, no silver-iron exchange will take place, and silver will pass through and go down the drain.

Properly season (fill with water) new MRCs before you put them on line. If a cartridge is not properly seasoned it can channel, reducing the contact time and providing low silver yields. Check for channeling with silver test papers.

If you want more information on this topic give us a call. Our recovery experts will be able to fill you in on this environmentally sensitive issue.