Founded in 2021, Sun Metalon is a U.S. based clean-tech startup with operations in the United States and Japan. The company’s mission is to revolutionize the metal industry by providing innovative hardware and service solutions for sustainable manufacturing and recycling.
As much as 20% of metal can be lost in machining and finishing operations during manufacturing—it’s necessary waste that’s not considered a defect or recycled material. The swarf— polishing sludge, grinding swarf, or machining chips are tiny pieces of metal that ending up on floors, stored in waste containers or in landfills. Sun Metalon’s technology recycles that material into profit.
ReMA News had a chance to sit down with Will Shambley, Sun Metalon’s director of sales and marketing, to discuss the company’s technology and how it can be used to help the recycled materials industry.
Tell me about Sun Metalon. How did the company get started?
Our CEO and co-founder, Kazuhiko Nishioka, used to work as an engineer at a large steel company. He conceived of metal heating technology based on a new principle and conducted private verification experiments starting from a camping site. He raised seed funding and co-founded the company in 2021. About a year and a half ago we started staffing up in the U.S. to build the entity.
Over the course of the last year, we’ve raised over $21 million dollars of funding for Series A. In 2024, we opened a pilot facility just outside of Chicago, which we are building out as a hub for collaboration with global partners and as a demonstration center for our metal recycling operations. We conduct materials evaluations at the facility for customers.
We recently announced our new product, the Venus L, which is an automated version of our patented technology. It converts wet sludge, grinding swarf, chips, and turnings into conveniently sized dry metal pucks that can go back into the melt shop as raw materials instead of being disposed of as waste.
We have equipment installed at two customer facilities in the U.S. and we’re looking forward to doing some open houses in Chicago for people who are interested in the technology.
How does Sun Metalon’s technology benefit the recycled materials industry?
Sun Metalon technology is basically an electric powered method of recycling metallic waste which typically goes to the landfill or gets disposed of at no value. It eliminates the emissions related to gas based processes and uses less total energy than systems that fully remelt metals during reclamation.
Most recycled materials have clear classifications and defined values. But there’s a lot of other metals like wet sludge, grinding swarf, chips, and turnings that don’t currently have a lot of value. The Product tends to accumulate in the facility because people are waiting for the value to rise by a few cents so they can move it, or a broker may be collecting it in bulk for a fee. We’re talking about several facilities that landfill this metal because the current recycling options don’t make sense financially.
With the Sun Metalon process you can compress these materials and then heat them in our system with inert gas. You cook the liquid contaminants out of the material then you end up with a very dense, clean metal chunk that has maintained its original alloy chemistry. If you’re a foundry or steel mill you can remelt this material as internal recycled metal instead of paying to dispose of the waste or getting pennies on the dollar from a broker. This lets you replace incoming raw material, and the value spread increases the more exotic the metal you have.
When you’re talking about a steel mill that is buying two to three million tons of recycled steel a year, if they can recover 7,000 tons of usable metal instead of paying to transport and dispose of it, then that adds up to a lot of money fast. In addition, steel mills, foundries, die casters, and machine shops are looking for ways to promote how they’re getting greener and contributing to the reduction of carbon emissions.
How did you hear about ReMA? What drew you to the association?
We thought joining ReMA made perfect sense because it’s an organization for people who process, broker, and trade recycled materials and turn them back into useful materials. As we were looking at joining trade associations, ReMA was a place we needed to be.
My home association is the American Foundry Society, where we ran into several people who sell secondary alloys. They all told us that we should be part of ReMA and attend ReMA events like the Roundtables in Chicago. They said, “These people are your people,” so I did some research and agreed.
