To automatically identify the quality of material of crushed metal flakes of relatively large shapes of copper, aluminum, magnesium, etc. and identify them based on their results, and to automatically identify aluminum alloy crushed metal flakes into ones derived from a flattened material and ones derived from a cast material, and to attain an automatic identification method that identifies metal, is simple, and of high performance based on the results.

The identification method for non-magnetic metals is such that a non-magnetic metal identifying device having a feeder 2 that feeds a crushed metal 1, belt conveyors 3, 5 that convey the fed crushed metal flakes 1, a weigher 4 that measures weights of the crushed metal flakes 1, a photosensor 6, a 3-dimensional laser measuring instrument 7, and a separation/collection mechanism is utilized, integral control is performed on these movements by a controller 19, and the metal flakes are identified for every quality of materials and collected.