November/December 2004
Logger/balers are hot these days thanks to the new cargo-securement rules and the many processing benefits they offer. how are these machines being used, and how could they benefit you? Read on to find out.
By Lynn R. Novelli
The logger/baler is a relatively recent European immigrant to the U.S. scrap industry. European equipment manufacturers developed balers with adjustable pressure controls about 15 years ago in response to legislation there that restricted the transportation of flattened scrap autos. By reducing the pressure of the baler ram, the manufacturers found that these machines could convert scrap autos into lightweight logs of metal, with a density no greater than that of a flattened car. This innovation let European scrap processors satisfy both the transportation safety regulations and their shredder customers.
European logger/baler manufacturers sold their equipment into the U.S. market on a limited basis in the late 1980s and early 1990s, focusing on scrap processors with special needs related to material transport. One or two large American scrap processing equipment manufacturers began producing loggers about 10 years ago. Several more U.S. players entered the market a few years later, and even more have jumped in over the last 12 months.
Originally designed to process scrap autos, logger/balers can also handle white goods, sheet iron, wire, stampings, demolition scrap, and other materials. Loggers are based on a simple concept—load scrap into a rectangular charge box, push a button, and 1,200 to 1,500 pounds of scrap is reduced to a compact, easy-to-handle scrap metal log. At higher compression, the machines can produce bales with a density of 75 to 120 pounds per cubic foot. At lower compression, they can create scrap metal logs measuring about four to six feet long by 24 inches wide, with a density of 25 to 50 pounds per cubic foot—essentially a longer, less-dense bale.
Smaller logger/balers have a processing capacity of less than 10 tons an hour while the biggest, heavy-duty models—which can weigh almost 100,000 pounds—can process up to 25 tons an hour. At that rate, a logger can process a load of vehicles in 30 minutes and load a semi truck with 22 to 24 tons of logs in about 60 minutes. Given that kind of capacity, “the biggest challenge can be keeping enough scrap available to load the logger,” says the president of a logger manufacturing company.
Depending on a logger/baler’s size, capacity, and special features, you can expect to pay $150,000 to $400,000 for the equipment. These units usually come standard with an attached crane for loading, a pressure adjustment for switching between logs and bales, and a fluid pan to satisfy environmental requirements. Today, it’s common for logger manufacturers to build units to order, so processors can easily get custom features built in like a specific-sized cab or high-performance hydraulics.
In addition to auto recycling and dismantling operations, a logger can be used in any location where scrap is processed, including traditional scrap recycling firms (especially those with multiple locations) as well as shredder feeder yards, municipalities, and demolition sites.
While a logger can be installed in a permanent location, mobile loggers are twice as popular as stationary loggers, manufacturers report. A truck-mounted logger gives the operator maximum flexibility and efficiency in that the machine can be taken wherever it’s needed. A mobile logger is also cost-effective for processing scrap at remote locations. After all, logging the material before hauling it reduces transportation costs.
An Expanding Market
U.S. manufacturers are seeing steadily growing demand for logger/balers. Part of the reason for the heightened interest in loggers is new legislation regarding the transportation of flattened or crushed autos from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). As of Jan. 1, 2004, shippers of flattened or crushed cars must abide by strict rules regarding containment and/or securement to prevent the cargo from leaking, spilling, blowing, shifting, or falling from the motor vehicle.
Fortunately for logger/baler manufacturers, the FMCSA declared that, under these new cargo-securement rules, the terms “flattened” and “crushed” do not apply to vehicles that have been compressed into logs. Logged autos, the agency said, need only be secured with tiedowns sufficient to prevent them from shifting or falling from the truck.
This FMCSA ruling accounts for some of the increased demand for loggers this year, but there’s more to the story.
“The main reason the market for logger/balers has been growing for the past few years is the number of shredders in operation,” says the president of a U.S. firm that represents European-made loggers. There are about 200 shredders operating in the United States, including 15 to 20 megashredders, plus another two dozen in Canada, and a handful in Mexico—“and they have a voracious appetite for scrap,” he says.
While many scrap processors are opting to own logger/balers, leasing is an option for those who need the benefits of a logger on a temporary basis. Several reputable companies across the country lease loggers on a short- or long-term basis, locally, regionally, and even nationally. “Leasing a logger on an as-needed basis makes sense for the occasional user—a demo company or a smaller processor who doesn’t want or need to purchase the equipment,” says a Texas-based lease operator who has been in the business for 18 years. This operator, who owns five loggers, says his machines are continually leased out at sites all over the country.
For the most efficient use of a logger/baler, he advises potential customers that they should have a minimum of 1,000 tons of scrap to be processed. His company offers a complete package, including the crane, the logger/baler, and a professional operator. “All the customer has to do is provide the scrap, and we do the rest,” he says. Contracts range from a week or a couple of months to a year or longer.
Reviewing the Pros and Cons
Not surprisingly, logger manufacturers and equipment-leasing companies are quick to extol the benefits of logging. They claim that virtually anyone in the scrap industry can improve their profitability and efficiency with a logger. The benefits of logging that they cite include the ability to process more scrap in less time, relief from the burden of the new cargo-securement laws, and savings on shipping. Instead of shipping four to five tons of loose scrap, a truck can be maxed out with one 20-ton load of logs in one trip, they note. Given today’s fuel costs, such transportation savings add up quickly.
The potential benefits of loggers extend to the bigger context of the scrap industry overall, adds the president of a logger manufacturing company. “Logging is opening up new markets for scrap processors by allowing transportation of scrap by rail or container,” he says. “In the past, hauling was limited by volume, not weight, and transporting scrap in railcars, barges, or containers wasn’t affordable due to the inability to maximize weight limits. Logs give the operator the option of shipping with the limits determined by weight, not volume. This lets the operator place the most tons of material possible, thereby lowering the transportation costs.”
These potential benefits aside, the bottom line for any discussion of loggers has to be the market for the end product. An independent logging operation can produce logs all day long, but no one benefits if there isn’t a market for them.
Most steel minimills, for instance, do not consume scrap metal logs directly because the size and density of logs generally prevent them from meeting specifications for electric-arc furnaces. That leaves shredders as the primary market for logs. For shredders, logs are theoretically a good feedstock because they enable a shredder to achieve higher throughput than it can attain processing loose scrap. Yet shredder operators remain divided on the question of loggers and logs.
On the plus side, “loggers are wonderful,” says an industry insider. “They allow efficient processing of thick pieces of scrap, they can be loaded by grapple or magnet, and they improve the efficiency of scrap transportation by allowing the processor to max out a truck.”
The downside, he continues, “is that you never know for sure what’s in a log. There’s always the danger of too high a density and contamination by unshreddables. Good quality logs are great, but finding them is hard. It’s like making rabbit stew—first you have to find the rabbit.”
According to logger manufacturers and shredder operators who successfully use logs, the key to using them in the shredder feedstock without any glitches is to discover the shredder’s proper threshold for density. “Any shredder with a minimum of 2,500 horsepower can handle logs, if the density is right,” says a logger manufacturer. “Rotor configuration, rpm, and infeed system all come into play in determining a shredder’s threshold.”
This company advises its independent logger customers to work with the shredders in their area to determine the best log package on a case-by-case basis. Then it’s up to the logger to deliver consistent logs to each customer, time after time. The ability to do that depends at least partially on the logger/baler unit itself. Models with automatic operation, preset pressures, and final compression from both ends are reportedly more likely to be able to consistently produce even density throughout the log and consistent density from log to log.
Besides density, log quality is the other issue that concerns shredder operators. Many of them have a fear of contaminants and unshreddables hidden inside a log that could damage their shredder, and they aren’t willing to take the chance. After all, they say, shredder repairs are expensive.
“We’re optimistic that our shredder could physically handle logs, but it isn’t worth the risk,” says the executive vice president of a southern shredder operator. “We spend enough on inspecting loose scrap, and there’s no chance to inspect logs.”
Though his company has tested logs in its shredder without incident, he has serious concerns about explosions or other problems that could be caused by contaminated logs if the firm started shredding logs on a regular basis.
Contamination may have been a larger problem years ago, counters a logger manufacturer, “but today most logger operators realize that the shredder is their customer and that doing anything that could harm the shredder harms them as well in the long run.” Additionally, he contends, logger manufacturers have made significant design changes to facilitate the shredder’s needs, including the ability to provide a consistent product with even density as low as that of a crushed car.
The improvements that logger manufacturers have made to the equipment are helping logs gain credibility among shredder operators. The newest models from all the manufacturers address the quality issue by incorporating features that ensure production of consistent-density logs. For example, one major manufacturer that spent three years redesigning its logger/baler line introduced its new models this year, and they all have preset pressure controls.
Such improvements must be working. In the first 10 months of 2004, for instance, the two leading U.S. logger producers reportedly sold 50 units in the United States. “And,” says one of the manufacturers, “that couldn’t have been possible if the majority of shredders weren’t accepting logs.”
Several major shredders have established relationships with independent loggers or have installed loggers at their own feeder yards and are regularly mixing logs into their shredder feedstock. “Shredder operators who have their own feeder yard can make the best use of a logger,” says one principal of a shredder manufacturer. “Operating their own logger allows the company to control the quality and density of the logs and process their miscellaneous scrap efficiently.”
The ideal approach, says the shredder manufacturer, “is to either run your own logging operation or find a supplier who can be trusted to deliver logs of consistent quality. When you can get good-quality logs, your shredder can operate at high efficiency.”
To anyone who thinks loggers are still a primitive, unsophisticated piece of equipment, it’s time for another look, says the president of a leading logger/baler manufacturer. “Today’s logger/baler is a whole different breed of cat. This equipment has taken a major step forward in the past year.”
Watch for loggers to become as common in the scrap industry as shears and balers, he says. “Just as shredders have upgraded their technology, so have the logger/balers. As the shredder industry grows, so will the scrap metal logging industry.”
Lynn R. Novelli is a writer based in Russell, Ohio.
Logger/balers are hot these days thanks to the new cargo-securement rules and the many processing benefits they offer. how are these machines being used, and how could they benefit you? Read on to find out.