The way scrap is inspected today has a lot of room for improvement. The current method is very subjective, highly influenced by the personal opinion of the scrap inspector. This leads to inconsistencies in pricing. Additionally, our process requires manual review which is timely and likely inaccurate.

 The Key Challenges we face day-to-day that impact our progress are:

• Varied scrapyard layouts - No standardization
• Chemistry of scrap is unknown - Wide variety of contaminants
• Qualitative nature to sorting or grade determination - Currently relying on subjective, visual inspections
• Unpredictable market - Price, incoming materials (supply), and demand constantly vary
• Tramp element accumulation - copper, zinc or tin that compromises the quality of scrap

To make the Gerdau Digital Scrap Challenge a success, several key steps were taken:

1. Problem Identification: The challenge focused on automating the inspection of scrap materials to improve accuracy, speed, and reduce human subjectivity in the current manual process. The existing system had limitations, such as inconsistency in pricing and time-consuming manual inspections.
2. Solution Development: Innovators from various fields were invited to propose solutions that could automate the inspection process. This involved reducing human error, improving accuracy, and fitting into the existing operational flow.
3. Collaboration: Participants shared insights, worked on novel approaches, and refined their solutions based on specific criteria, such as automation, accuracy, feasibility, and innovation both in teams and individually.
4. Judging and Evaluation: Submissions were evaluated based on how well they addressed the core challenges, with a focus on automation, integration with current processes, and environmental adaptability.

These efforts ultimately led to identifying new and innovative solutions for automating scrap inspection, improving operational efficiency, and ensuring greater accuracy in the scrap recycling process.

The Gerdau team was absolutely thrilled with the overwhelming response and quality of submissions. They overwhelmingly received 85 submissions to review! Ideas ranged from improving mechanically our existing process to the most disruptive technologies. They were also very happy with the variety of backgrounds of the teams that came from all over the world. Ultimately three submissions were awarded cash prizes.