High-Tech, Old-Fashioned Quality

These two equipment makers balance good old-fashioned quality and experience with youth and state-of-the-art manufacturing technology.

BY JEFF BORSECNIK

Jeff Borsecnik is assistant editor of Scrap Processing and Recycling.

"We have machines we put out in the 1930s and 1940s that are still running. That's the type of equipment we build. It's heavy-duty. It's built to last." So says Paul Griesedieck (pronounced gree-za-dick), vice president of American Pulverizer Co. and Hustler Conveyor Co., a St. Louis-based team that manufactures shredding, crushing, and conveying equipment.

But building long-lasting products is only half of the companies' manufacturing strategy, as his brother Chris, president of the two firms, is quick to point out. "We make equipment that is precision-machined," Chris says, noting that this is possible, in large part, thanks to the sophisticated computer-controlled manufacturing and computer-aided design equipment that the companies have heavily invested in over the last few years. American Pulverizer, for instance, most recently installed a computer-numerically controlled ( CNC ) lathe—which looks more like a spacecraft than machining equipment—to add to the firm's array of other CNC equipment, including two vertical machining centers, a horizontal boring machine, and two flame-cutting machines.

Such equipment has not only enabled the companies to improve quality and limit manufacturing costs, the Griesediecks note, but has also increased the speed and agility of manufacturing operations. As a result, American makes virtually all of its products to order (customers review and approve basic "foundation" engineering drawings before production even begins) and has been able to bring the manufacturing of nearly all components in-house.

Going the high-tech route has also boosted the firm's ability to solve customer problems. "We're in a squeaky-wheel business, so we have to respond to customer emergencies every day," says Glenn "Skip" Anthony, junior vice president and plant manager at American Pulverizer. "We can flip-flop operations to respond because our up-to-date machinery allows us to cost-effectively process a single part needed quickly by a customer—without throwing off the regular production schedule."

Youth and Experience

This balance between old and new is evident in American Pulverizer/Hustler Conveyor's management, as well. The Griesedieck brothers—the fourth generation to head their family-owned company—are only in their mid-30s, though both can trace their work experience with the companies back to summers in high school and college. The two took over the management of the company when their father, Henry Griesedieck Jr., died suddenly in 1985 at age 59. Though this was quite a shock to his sons, they say they were able to shoulder the responsibility by pulling together and practicing the hard-work ethic they learned from their father and grandfather.

Meanwhile, Skip, who also follows in his father's footsteps at American Pulverizer, calls himself—at age 39—the "old dog" among the firm's managers because he's already worked with the company for about 20 years. He says the youth of the companies' management is a great asset: "You're always aggressive when you've got young upper management. You're willing to change, open to new markets and new ideas."

Still, these young executives recognize the value of the experience some of the firm's older employees offer. "You just can't beat longevity and you just can't substitute for experience," says Chris, noting, "we've had engineers work past 70 years of age." The firm's veterans include Gary Barnett, director of engineering, who has been with the companies since the early 1960s, and Carl Bernauer, a welding foreman who started working there around the same time. Ed Lyston, a systems engineer, has more than 20 years of service with the firm and Hustler's vice president of sales, Stanley Gluckin, who is based in Peoria , Ill. , has been with the firm since 1966.

In all, American employs about 60 people, while Hustler adds another 40 to the companies' personnel roster. All of these employees are rewarded for their service through a corporate decision to pay them well, train them broadly and allow them mobility within the companies, promote from within, and avoid layoffs—even in slow times—note the executives.

Crushing Coal, Shredding `Almost Anything'

American Pulverizer got its start in 1908, providing the Illinois coal industry across the Mississippi River with crushers, including its then-innovative "rolling ring mills," which reportedly produced less fines and suffered less wear than traditional hammer-type shredders.

After a decade, the company began to diversify, expanding naturally into related equipment. "People would call and say, `We have this material and would like to reduce it to this size, can you do it?'" says Paul. "The company would then take the idea to engineering and develop a new shredder."In the 1930s and 1940s, American Pulverizer began to manufacture steel-turnings crushers and machines to shred heavy ferrous scrap—eventually including equipment large enough to process whole automobiles. "We can shred almost anything," Paul boasts.

Hustler Conveyor Co.—originally known as Maple City Stamping and then as Iron Hustler—was founded in the early 1960s by Harold Mandel, an entrepreneur with a scrap background, who dreamed up the idea of using oscillating conveyors, rather than cranes or hands, to feed shears. The oscillating conveyors his company developed—basically a pan conveyor mounted on springs and powered by a drive system—were capable of handling high-impact loads and feeding at a predetermined rate. They also could deliver an evenly dispersed, steady flow of material and spread it out for sorting.

American bought Hustler in 1979, dropping the "Iron" from its name to reflect the conveyor company's expanded role serving sectors other than the ferrous scrap industry and moving the new subsidiary to facilities near the parent plant in South St. Louis .

What inspired the acquisition? "American was getting inquiries to supply complete systems, and rather than purchasing conveyors that we would be responsible for, we thought it'd be easier to have our own company and provide a whole system—infeed conveyor, processing machine, and take-away," explains Paul. The acquisition also empowered American to satisfy a growing customer desire for "turnkey" solutions. "In the 1990s, lots of people just want to go out and flip a switch and run the equipment," Paul notes, "and they want a single source responsible for everything."

Partnership Pays

The partnership between the two companies offers additional benefits to both, particularly on the sales side. "Our machines sell their conveyors, and their conveyors sell our machines," says Skip, who adds, "It opens up avenues for both companies."

In addition, though the firms operate as two distinct companies with separate work forces, their close relationship and some transfer of key personnel between the firms over the years (Skip, for example, was with Hustler for five years after its acquisition before moving back to American, and Steve Rogan, Hustler's chief engineer, began as a draftsman at American) mean they know each other's products in detail, which is especially beneficial in the design phase and on service calls. The two companies also can share technical skills and resources, such as Hustler leaning on American's sophisticated machine shop, buying time on the parent company's CNC equipment for difficult jobs. Furthermore, the two can easily coordinate production and delivery, and shredders and conveyors sold as systems can sometimes be shipped on the same truck, easing costs and scheduling for customers.

The partnership has also stimulated product improvements and the development of new equipment. For example, after being purchased by American Pulverizer, Hustler was prompted to move more strongly into manufacturing conveyors to serve shredders and to develop its particularly successful and widely imitated bale breaker. "People kept calling American and asking for a machine to break bales of aluminum cans," says Paul. "We could have manufactured a shredder to do it, but the horsepower requirements were too big, so we did some experiments and developed a bale breaker measuring 6 feet by 6 feet that reduces bales to individual cans." Because the product does not shred or tear material, he says, it's become popular with plastic bottle recyclers, who value its ability to leave the bottles whole while breaking the bale apart, which enables the recycler to sort by color and then granulate.

Other Hustler products include vibratory screens, head pulley and rotary-drum magnets, hydraulic turntables, and other sorting equipment such as tub dumpers and bimetallic classifiers. On the conveyor front, the company manufactures steel-belt, "flex-o-wall," flat-sliding belt, troughing, stacking, and oscillating conveyors (which are used for sorting as well as conveying).

American Pulverizer has also expanded its product line through the years and now manufactures processing equipment ranging from small crushers and "delumpers" to shredders with rotors up to 96 inches in diameter and with price tags ranging from a few thousand to more than a half-million dollars. A relatively new and increasingly popular product is the company's slow-speed, high-torque shredder, which can be configured to process aluminum, tires, circuit boards, steel drums, plastics, demolition debris, and various wastes. It can also be used as a preshedder for secondary shredding equipment and can be made portable.

In the last six years or so, American has also gotten into the business of accepting shredders and related equipment traded in on larger machines, reconditioning the trade-ins, and putting them on the market. The firm's rebuilt equipment—which Chris says can save customers 40 to 60 percent off the price of new equipment—comes with a one-year warranty and usually includes new liners, bearings, bolts, hammers or rings, and other wear parts.

Diverse Customers and Competitors

Expanding their business scope has become increasingly important to the companies as their customers—including scrap plants, steel mills, quarries, and waste processing facilities—have diversified their operations and needs. Thus, American and Hustler aim "to be as diverse in manufacturing machines as possible, while still being able to meet specific needs," says Chris. "We don't want to become so spread out that we can't serve and satisfy."

Satisfying today's buyers includes building quieter equipment that is safer to operate and requires less maintenance, say the companies' executives. Many customers—especially those facing expensive or limited electric power supplies—are also very energy-conscious, trying to use less horsepower, and seek diesel and natural gas alternatives to large electric motors. "And everybody is price-conscious and wants to process efficiently with little downtime," says Chris.

While trying to meet changing needs and respond to growing concerns, the firms' competition has multiplied. "Twenty years ago there were three or four shredder companies out there to compete against," says Skip. "Today, there are maybe 25." Offering an explanation for this new competition, Chris says, "Maybe eight or nine years ago every manufacturer had its niche and it stayed there. Nowadays, everybody's trying to get more diverse and go into other lines to broaden market share."

The market for conveyors, shredders, and systems to sort and process scrap and waste in material recovery facilities and waste-handling operations has become especially competitive, American/Hustler executives note. "Everybody thinks that's the place to be right now," says Paul, "so everybody wants to get in even if they have no experience or expertise beyond maybe making grain industry conveyors or other light equipment."

These two equipment makers balance good old-fashioned quality and experience with youth and state-of-the-art manufacturing technology.

BY JEFF BORSECNIK

Jeff Borsecnik is assistant editor of Scrap Processing and Recycling.

"We have machines we put out in the 1930s and 1940s that are still running. That's the type of equipment we build. It's heavy-duty. It's built to last." So says Paul Griesedieck (pronounced gree-za-dick), vice president of American Pulverizer Co. and Hustler Conveyor Co., a St. Louis-based team that manufactures shredding, crushing, and conveying equipment.

But building long-lasting products is only half of the companies' manufacturing strategy, as his brother Chris, president of the two firms, is quick to point out. "We make equipment that is precision-machined," Chris says, noting that this is possible, in large part, thanks to the sophisticated computer-controlled manufacturing and computer-aided design equipment that the companies have heavily invested in over the last few years. American Pulverizer, for instance, most recently installed a computer-numerically controlled ( CNC ) lathe—which looks more like a spacecraft than machining equipment—to add to the firm's array of other CNC equipment, including two vertical machining centers, a horizontal boring machine, and two flame-cutting machines.

Such equipment has not only enabled the companies to improve quality and limit manufacturing costs, the Griesediecks note, but has also increased the speed and agility of manufacturing operations. As a result, American makes virtually all of its products to order (customers review and approve basic "foundation" engineering drawings before production even begins) and has been able to bring the manufacturing of nearly all components in-house.

Going the high-tech route has also boosted the firm's ability to solve customer problems. "We're in a squeaky-wheel business, so we have to respond to customer emergencies every day," says Glenn "Skip" Anthony, junior vice president and plant manager at American Pulverizer. "We can flip-flop operations to respond because our up-to-date machinery allows us to cost-effectively process a single part needed quickly by a customer—without throwing off the regular production schedule."

Youth and Experience

This balance between old and new is evident in American Pulverizer/Hustler Conveyor's management, as well. The Griesedieck brothers—the fourth generation to head their family-owned company—are only in their mid-30s, though both can trace their work experience with the companies back to summers in high school and college. The two took over the management of the company when their father, Henry Griesedieck Jr., died suddenly in 1985 at age 59. Though this was quite a shock to his sons, they say they were able to shoulder the responsibility by pulling together and practicing the hard-work ethic they learned from their father and grandfather.

Meanwhile, Skip, who also follows in his father's footsteps at American Pulverizer, calls himself—at age 39—the "old dog" among the firm's managers because he's already worked with the company for about 20 years. He says the youth of the companies' management is a great asset: "You're always aggressive when you've got young upper management. You're willing to change, open to new markets and new ideas."

Still, these young executives recognize the value of the experience some of the firm's older employees offer. "You just can't beat longevity and you just can't substitute for experience," says Chris, noting, "we've had engineers work past 70 years of age." The firm's veterans include Gary Barnett, director of engineering, who has been with the companies since the early 1960s, and Carl Bernauer, a welding foreman who started working there around the same time. Ed Lyston, a systems engineer, has more than 20 years of service with the firm and Hustler's vice president of sales, Stanley Gluckin, who is based in Peoria , Ill. , has been with the firm since 1966.

In all, American employs about 60 people, while Hustler adds another 40 to the companies' personnel roster. All of these employees are rewarded for their service through a corporate decision to pay them well, train them broadly and allow them mobility within the companies, promote from within, and avoid layoffs—even in slow times—note the executives.

Crushing Coal, Shredding `Almost Anything'

American Pulverizer got its start in 1908, providing the Illinois coal industry across the Mississippi River with crushers, including its then-innovative "rolling ring mills," which reportedly produced less fines and suffered less wear than traditional hammer-type shredders.

After a decade, the company began to diversify, expanding naturally into related equipment. "People would call and say, `We have this material and would like to reduce it to this size, can you do it?'" says Paul. "The company would then take the idea to engineering and develop a new shredder."In the 1930s and 1940s, American Pulverizer began to manufacture steel-turnings crushers and machines to shred heavy ferrous scrap—eventually including equipment large enough to process whole automobiles. "We can shred almost anything," Paul boasts.

Hustler Conveyor Co.—originally known as Maple City Stamping and then as Iron Hustler—was founded in the early 1960s by Harold Mandel, an entrepreneur with a scrap background, who dreamed up the idea of using oscillating conveyors, rather than cranes or hands, to feed shears. The oscillating conveyors his company developed—basically a pan conveyor mounted on springs and powered by a drive system—were capable of handling high-impact loads and feeding at a predetermined rate. They also could deliver an evenly dispersed, steady flow of material and spread it out for sorting.

American bought Hustler in 1979, dropping the "Iron" from its name to reflect the conveyor company's expanded role serving sectors other than the ferrous scrap industry and moving the new subsidiary to facilities near the parent plant in South St. Louis .

What inspired the acquisition? "American was getting inquiries to supply complete systems, and rather than purchasing conveyors that we would be responsible for, we thought it'd be easier to have our own company and provide a whole system—infeed conveyor, processing machine, and take-away," explains Paul. The acquisition also empowered American to satisfy a growing customer desire for "turnkey" solutions. "In the 1990s, lots of people just want to go out and flip a switch and run the equipment," Paul notes, "and they want a single source responsible for everything."

Partnership Pays

The partnership between the two companies offers additional benefits to both, particularly on the sales side. "Our machines sell their conveyors, and their conveyors sell our machines," says Skip, who adds, "It opens up avenues for both companies."

In addition, though the firms operate as two distinct companies with separate work forces, their close relationship and some transfer of key personnel between the firms over the years (Skip, for example, was with Hustler for five years after its acquisition before moving back to American, and Steve Rogan, Hustler's chief engineer, began as a draftsman at American) mean they know each other's products in detail, which is especially beneficial in the design phase and on service calls. The two companies also can share technical skills and resources, such as Hustler leaning on American's sophisticated machine shop, buying time on the parent company's CNC equipment for difficult jobs. Furthermore, the two can easily coordinate production and delivery, and shredders and conveyors sold as systems can sometimes be shipped on the same truck, easing costs and scheduling for customers.

The partnership has also stimulated product improvements and the development of new equipment. For example, after being purchased by American Pulverizer, Hustler was prompted to move more strongly into manufacturing conveyors to serve shredders and to develop its particularly successful and widely imitated bale breaker. "People kept calling American and asking for a machine to break bales of aluminum cans," says Paul. "We could have manufactured a shredder to do it, but the horsepower requirements were too big, so we did some experiments and developed a bale breaker measuring 6 feet by 6 feet that reduces bales to individual cans." Because the product does not shred or tear material, he says, it's become popular with plastic bottle recyclers, who value its ability to leave the bottles whole while breaking the bale apart, which enables the recycler to sort by color and then granulate.

Other Hustler products include vibratory screens, head pulley and rotary-drum magnets, hydraulic turntables, and other sorting equipment such as tub dumpers and bimetallic classifiers. On the conveyor front, the company manufactures steel-belt, "flex-o-wall," flat-sliding belt, troughing, stacking, and oscillating conveyors (which are used for sorting as well as conveying).

American Pulverizer has also expanded its product line through the years and now manufactures processing equipment ranging from small crushers and "delumpers" to shredders with rotors up to 96 inches in diameter and with price tags ranging from a few thousand to more than a half-million dollars. A relatively new and increasingly popular product is the company's slow-speed, high-torque shredder, which can be configured to process aluminum, tires, circuit boards, steel drums, plastics, demolition debris, and various wastes. It can also be used as a preshedder for secondary shredding equipment and can be made portable.

In the last six years or so, American has also gotten into the business of accepting shredders and related equipment traded in on larger machines, reconditioning the trade-ins, and putting them on the market. The firm's rebuilt equipment—which Chris says can save customers 40 to 60 percent off the price of new equipment—comes with a one-year warranty and usually includes new liners, bearings, bolts, hammers or rings, and other wear parts.

Diverse Customers and Competitors

Expanding their business scope has become increasingly important to the companies as their customers—including scrap plants, steel mills, quarries, and waste processing facilities—have diversified their operations and needs. Thus, American and Hustler aim "to be as diverse in manufacturing machines as possible, while still being able to meet specific needs," says Chris. "We don't want to become so spread out that we can't serve and satisfy."

Satisfying today's buyers includes building quieter equipment that is safer to operate and requires less maintenance, say the companies' executives. Many customers—especially those facing expensive or limited electric power supplies—are also very energy-conscious, trying to use less horsepower, and seek diesel and natural gas alternatives to large electric motors. "And everybody is price-conscious and wants to process efficiently with little downtime," says Chris.

While trying to meet changing needs and respond to growing concerns, the firms' competition has multiplied. "Twenty years ago there were three or four shredder companies out there to compete against," says Skip. "Today, there are maybe 25." Offering an explanation for this new competition, Chris says, "Maybe eight or nine years ago every manufacturer had its niche and it stayed there. Nowadays, everybody's trying to get more diverse and go into other lines to broaden market share."

The market for conveyors, shredders, and systems to sort and process scrap and waste in material recovery facilities and waste-handling operations has become especially competitive, American/Hustler executives note. "Everybody thinks that's the place to be right now," says Paul, "so everybody wants to get in even if they have no experience or expertise beyond maybe making grain industry conveyors or other light equipment."

These two equipment makers balance good old-fashioned quality and experience with youth and state-of-the-art manufacturing technology.

BY JEFF BORSECNIK

Jeff Borsecnik is assistant editor of Scrap Processing and Recycling.

"We have machines we put out in the 1930s and 1940s that are still running. That's the type of equipment we build. It's heavy-duty. It's built to last." So says Paul Griesedieck (pronounced gree-za-dick), vice president of American Pulverizer Co. and Hustler Conveyor Co., a St. Louis-based team that manufactures shredding, crushing, and conveying equipment.

But building long-lasting products is only half of the companies' manufacturing strategy, as his brother Chris, president of the two firms, is quick to point out. "We make equipment that is precision-machined," Chris says, noting that this is possible, in large part, thanks to the sophisticated computer-controlled manufacturing and computer-aided design equipment that the companies have heavily invested in over the last few years. American Pulverizer, for instance, most recently installed a computer-numerically controlled ( CNC ) lathe—which looks more like a spacecraft than machining equipment—to add to the firm's array of other CNC equipment, including two vertical machining centers, a horizontal boring machine, and two flame-cutting machines.

Such equipment has not only enabled the companies to improve quality and limit manufacturing costs, the Griesediecks note, but has also increased the speed and agility of manufacturing operations. As a result, American makes virtually all of its products to order (customers review and approve basic "foundation" engineering drawings before production even begins) and has been able to bring the manufacturing of nearly all components in-house.

Going the high-tech route has also boosted the firm's ability to solve customer problems. "We're in a squeaky-wheel business, so we have to respond to customer emergencies every day," says Glenn "Skip" Anthony, junior vice president and plant manager at American Pulverizer. "We can flip-flop operations to respond because our up-to-date machinery allows us to cost-effectively process a single part needed quickly by a customer—without throwing off the regular production schedule."

Youth and Experience

This balance between old and new is evident in American Pulverizer/Hustler Conveyor's management, as well. The Griesedieck brothers—the fourth generation to head their family-owned company—are only in their mid-30s, though both can trace their work experience with the companies back to summers in high school and college. The two took over the management of the company when their father, Henry Griesedieck Jr., died suddenly in 1985 at age 59. Though this was quite a shock to his sons, they say they were able to shoulder the responsibility by pulling together and practicing the hard-work ethic they learned from their father and grandfather.

Meanwhile, Skip, who also follows in his father's footsteps at American Pulverizer, calls himself—at age 39—the "old dog" among the firm's managers because he's already worked with the company for about 20 years. He says the youth of the companies' management is a great asset: "You're always aggressive when you've got young upper management. You're willing to change, open to new markets and new ideas."

Still, these young executives recognize the value of the experience some of the firm's older employees offer. "You just can't beat longevity and you just can't substitute for experience," says Chris, noting, "we've had engineers work past 70 years of age." The firm's veterans include Gary Barnett, director of engineering, who has been with the companies since the early 1960s, and Carl Bernauer, a welding foreman who started working there around the same time. Ed Lyston, a systems engineer, has more than 20 years of service with the firm and Hustler's vice president of sales, Stanley Gluckin, who is based in Peoria , Ill. , has been with the firm since 1966.

In all, American employs about 60 people, while Hustler adds another 40 to the companies' personnel roster. All of these employees are rewarded for their service through a corporate decision to pay them well, train them broadly and allow them mobility within the companies, promote from within, and avoid layoffs—even in slow times—note the executives.

Crushing Coal, Shredding `Almost Anything'

American Pulverizer got its start in 1908, providing the Illinois coal industry across the Mississippi River with crushers, including its then-innovative "rolling ring mills," which reportedly produced less fines and suffered less wear than traditional hammer-type shredders.

After a decade, the company began to diversify, expanding naturally into related equipment. "People would call and say, `We have this material and would like to reduce it to this size, can you do it?'" says Paul. "The company would then take the idea to engineering and develop a new shredder."In the 1930s and 1940s, American Pulverizer began to manufacture steel-turnings crushers and machines to shred heavy ferrous scrap—eventually including equipment large enough to process whole automobiles. "We can shred almost anything," Paul boasts.

Hustler Conveyor Co.—originally known as Maple City Stamping and then as Iron Hustler—was founded in the early 1960s by Harold Mandel, an entrepreneur with a scrap background, who dreamed up the idea of using oscillating conveyors, rather than cranes or hands, to feed shears. The oscillating conveyors his company developed—basically a pan conveyor mounted on springs and powered by a drive system—were capable of handling high-impact loads and feeding at a predetermined rate. They also could deliver an evenly dispersed, steady flow of material and spread it out for sorting.

American bought Hustler in 1979, dropping the "Iron" from its name to reflect the conveyor company's expanded role serving sectors other than the ferrous scrap industry and moving the new subsidiary to facilities near the parent plant in South St. Louis .

What inspired the acquisition? "American was getting inquiries to supply complete systems, and rather than purchasing conveyors that we would be responsible for, we thought it'd be easier to have our own company and provide a whole system—infeed conveyor, processing machine, and take-away," explains Paul. The acquisition also empowered American to satisfy a growing customer desire for "turnkey" solutions. "In the 1990s, lots of people just want to go out and flip a switch and run the equipment," Paul notes, "and they want a single source responsible for everything."

Partnership Pays

The partnership between the two companies offers additional benefits to both, particularly on the sales side. "Our machines sell their conveyors, and their conveyors sell our machines," says Skip, who adds, "It opens up avenues for both companies."

In addition, though the firms operate as two distinct companies with separate work forces, their close relationship and some transfer of key personnel between the firms over the years (Skip, for example, was with Hustler for five years after its acquisition before moving back to American, and Steve Rogan, Hustler's chief engineer, began as a draftsman at American) mean they know each other's products in detail, which is especially beneficial in the design phase and on service calls. The two companies also can share technical skills and resources, such as Hustler leaning on American's sophisticated machine shop, buying time on the parent company's CNC equipment for difficult jobs. Furthermore, the two can easily coordinate production and delivery, and shredders and conveyors sold as systems can sometimes be shipped on the same truck, easing costs and scheduling for customers.

The partnership has also stimulated product improvements and the development of new equipment. For example, after being purchased by American Pulverizer, Hustler was prompted to move more strongly into manufacturing conveyors to serve shredders and to develop its particularly successful and widely imitated bale breaker. "People kept calling American and asking for a machine to break bales of aluminum cans," says Paul. "We could have manufactured a shredder to do it, but the horsepower requirements were too big, so we did some experiments and developed a bale breaker measuring 6 feet by 6 feet that reduces bales to individual cans." Because the product does not shred or tear material, he says, it's become popular with plastic bottle recyclers, who value its ability to leave the bottles whole while breaking the bale apart, which enables the recycler to sort by color and then granulate.

Other Hustler products include vibratory screens, head pulley and rotary-drum magnets, hydraulic turntables, and other sorting equipment such as tub dumpers and bimetallic classifiers. On the conveyor front, the company manufactures steel-belt, "flex-o-wall," flat-sliding belt, troughing, stacking, and oscillating conveyors (which are used for sorting as well as conveying).

American Pulverizer has also expanded its product line through the years and now manufactures processing equipment ranging from small crushers and "delumpers" to shredders with rotors up to 96 inches in diameter and with price tags ranging from a few thousand to more than a half-million dollars. A relatively new and increasingly popular product is the company's slow-speed, high-torque shredder, which can be configured to process aluminum, tires, circuit boards, steel drums, plastics, demolition debris, and various wastes. It can also be used as a preshedder for secondary shredding equipment and can be made portable.

In the last six years or so, American has also gotten into the business of accepting shredders and related equipment traded in on larger machines, reconditioning the trade-ins, and putting them on the market. The firm's rebuilt equipment—which Chris says can save customers 40 to 60 percent off the price of new equipment—comes with a one-year warranty and usually includes new liners, bearings, bolts, hammers or rings, and other wear parts.

Diverse Customers and Competitors

Expanding their business scope has become increasingly important to the companies as their customers—including scrap plants, steel mills, quarries, and waste processing facilities—have diversified their operations and needs. Thus, American and Hustler aim "to be as diverse in manufacturing machines as possible, while still being able to meet specific needs," says Chris. "We don't want to become so spread out that we can't serve and satisfy."

Satisfying today's buyers includes building quieter equipment that is safer to operate and requires less maintenance, say the companies' executives. Many customers—especially those facing expensive or limited electric power supplies—are also very energy-conscious, trying to use less horsepower, and seek diesel and natural gas alternatives to large electric motors. "And everybody is price-conscious and wants to process efficiently with little downtime," says Chris.

While trying to meet changing needs and respond to growing concerns, the firms' competition has multiplied. "Twenty years ago there were three or four shredder companies out there to compete against," says Skip. "Today, there are maybe 25." Offering an explanation for this new competition, Chris says, "Maybe eight or nine years ago every manufacturer had its niche and it stayed there. Nowadays, everybody's trying to get more diverse and go into other lines to broaden market share."

The market for conveyors, shredders, and systems to sort and process scrap and waste in material recovery facilities and waste-handling operations has become especially competitive, American/Hustler executives note. "Everybody thinks that's the place to be right now," says Paul, "so everybody wants to get in even if they have no experience or expertise beyond maybe making grain industry conveyors or other light equipment."