Moving Scrap with Elecromagnets

I am new to this site and would like some input on a project I am working on.

First in reading posts on this site I am pleased to find that most members are concerned about safety, so am I.

Second, We make nails, in the process of making the points small pieces we call NIBS are removed and get mixed in with the nails. The nails travel along a magnetic conveyor and into a vibrating bowl. The nails are sent down a rail but the NIBS fall onto the floor. Some of the bowls have big troughs around them that catch the NIBS but they just pile up in them and have to be raked out.

I want to make something automatic and more visually appealing.

My thoughts,

Make a small metal trough most of the way around the bowl for the NIBS to fall into. This trough would have electromagnets spaced evenly under neath it. I would have a circuit that would turn on and off the magnets in sequence moving the NIBS around the trough.

The end of the trough would be bent down with the last magnet under the bend. So that when the last magnet was turned off the NIBS would fall into a barrel.

One problem I know of is that sometimes nails upto 4 inches long can get into the trough. So the magnets would have to be placed far enough apart to allow them to move also.

My question to the good people here is, will something like this work? or am I just wasting time. I keep thing that the metal trough will just become magnetized and not do anything. However the magnetic conveyors we use work fine.

The scrap I want to move is very small in size (less than 1/32" x 1/32") So I dont think there should be any safety issues.

Any thoughts would be a great help.

Thanks

TimK