A
Peek at Equipment to come.
They
may not be pulling rabbits out of hats, but these equipment manufacturers
have a lot of surprises up their sleeves for scrap recyclers. Brand-new
machines, enhancements to existing products, and equipment destined for
its first use in the United States are all part of the show.
And
now, on with the show!
New
Shredder Sorts for You
How
would you like it if you could dump the entire contents of a truck filled
with scrap into your shredder without presorting it? No, you don't have to
take out the long beams, heavy plate, or other heavy mixed items
first--they can go right into your shredder. And don't worry--these pieces
won't cause damage. You save time, labor, money, and aggravation.
Sounds
good, you say? That's what the Kondirator's manufacturer hoped you'd say.
The machine, made by Lindemann Maschinenfabrik GmbH, in Dusseldorf,
Federal Republic of Germany, accepts almost any assortment of mixed heavy
scrap a processor can pick up from a customer. The Kondirator has found
acceptance in Europe since 1986 and will see its first U.S. installation
later this year, according to Gunn Phillips, sales director for Lindemann
Recycling Equipment, Inc., New York City.
"The
first advantage of the Kondirator," says Phillips, "is not so
much what it produces but what it will consume. Most heavy-duty shredders
around the world today take presorted No. 2 steel to some degree. The
unique feature of the Kondirator is that the processor doesn't have to
presort the steel." The machine takes mixed heavy scrap, processes
what it can, and clears away the material that is not processible or
shreddable and that could cause serious damage to traditional shredders,
he explains. This material passes through the Kondirator system without
internal damage.
According
to Lindemann, 100 percent of a typical truckload of mixed heavy scrap can
be fed into the machine and about 90 percent of that is processed by the
Kondirator. Approximately 5 percent--the longer pieces--is removed at the
long-short separator station and is accumulated in a container for further
processing elsewhere. The other 5 percent that isn't processed by the
Kondirator is material that has passed through the trommel. Not only is
the percentage of processed material generally greater than that of
comparable heavy-duty shredders, says the company, but the amount of
manual labor needed is less.
A
thorough downstream system ensures the final product is clean,
high-quality shred, according to Lindemann. After the infed material has
been processed, it is sized by the trommel. Its grate, mounted on a
vertical hinge, is hydraulically operated and pressure sensitive so that
if a hammer slams a large piece against it, the grate opens to allow the
piece to fall out, thus reducing wear and tear on the Kondirator's
internal parts. Oversize pieces are taken via conveyor for re-introduction
into the machine. Sized material then moves to a wind sifter/zig-zag box
combination where light materials such as plastic, rubber, glass, and
paper are removed from the ferrous and nonferrous materials. The metals
are conveyed to a magnetic separator, which drops them onto ferrous and
nonferrous belts. Humans finally get into the picture at this stage to
sort out the last few contaminants.
While
Phillips admits there is a "significant difference" in price
between the Kondirator and a traditional extra-heavy-duty shredder, he
says "there's also a significant difference in performance and
capability." He cites a machine that's been operating in Europe for
nearly three years "with no internal damage created by impact or by
the large pieces." In addition, he explains, "the machine is
very efficient when comparing output tons to horsepower." Lindemann
claims that whereas a 2,000-horsepower extra-heavy-duty shredder produces
about 60-70 metric tons per hour of finished product, a 2,000-horsepower
Kondirator can produce 100- 110 tons.
Video
Study Sparks Design Concept
"It's
revolutionary," says Thomas Wendt, president of D&J Wendt
Corporation, North Tonawanda, New York, of a new automobile shredder mill
housing design developed by Thyssen Henschel. D&J Wendt is the North
American agent for the Kassel, Federal-Republic-of-Germany-based
manufacturer of large, high-production scrap processing equipment. What's
so different about this mill housing? It's round.
A
few years ago, recounts Wendt, Henschel created a scale model of an auto
shredder and installed high-speed video cameras inside its mill. The
cameras filmed the flow of scrap as it was shredded to enable the company
to study the process afterward at a slower speed. The point to this
exercise was to find a way for the material to take a shorter route around
the mill and out, "because that's what increases your
throughput," Wendt explain--"getting the material out of the
mill as quickly as possible."
Understanding
the mill's shredding process helps to explain why the new round-housing
concept is an improvement. As an auto goes into a shredder, the hammers
swinging around the rotor chip off pieces, which are forced under the
rotor. Correctly sized pieces of metal are thrust through the bottom
grate; pieces that are larger or that miss the bottom grate's holes
continue around to be further pounded by the hammers and thrown up to the
top grate. Again, the pieces will be thrust out only if they fit and if
they happen to be aimed properly.
"Our
video showed us that the top of a traditional mill looks like a popcorn
popper," explains Wendt, "with the pieces of metal bouncing back
and forth and up and down against the grate. You have a 50-percent chance
of hitting a hole and a 50-percent chance of hitting the grate." The
problems seem to be that most shredder mills are square or pyramidical in
shape, which slows the centrifugal action of the rotor, and that the grate
has as much metal area as it has hole area, which means it may take even a
correctly sized piece of metal a few rotations to be ejected.
"We've
made the top of our housing round," says Wendt, "so that the
material that has made it to the top merely slides around one more time.
And we're ejecting the material through the side of the mill." Rather
than using a conventional waffle-like grate at the top, triangular
"fingers" at the side size the processed metal, giving it a
better chance to exit the mill sooner. Throughput will be increased by
10-20 percent, projects D&J Wendt, which says material flow will be
more efficient.
The
first shredder built with this new mill housing design also incorporates a
redesigned rotor that was introduced at the Institute of Scrap Recycling
Industries equipment exhibition in March. The rotor change alone provided
a 15-percent increase in throughput, Wendt says. With both improvements in
place, the scrap recycler with this improved machine "saves a lot of
money over a year's time.
Better
Balers
There
appears to be a lot of magic going on at C and M Balers. Not only does the
firm, located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, plan to add features to
its existing balers, it's got a whole new model in the works.
President
and Chief Executive Officer Robert Turner explains the combination of
features C and M has added to its standard two-ram baler line. Feature one
is being called "EZject," a mechanism that allows for removal of
an overcharged bale from the bale chamber. If an operator loads too much
material into the chamber, EZject releases the pressure on the machine and
allows the bale to be ejected. Although Turner isn't yet able to discuss
the process by which the mechanism works, he says it involves a tension or
squeeze section of the baler and two hydraulic cylinders.
Feature
two is a special bale door that closes the eject side of the bale chamber
after each single bale is formed, eliminating the need for the bale to
remain in the chamber. The feature allows the chamber to be cleaned in
between loads of different material grades to avoid contamination by loose
material left in the bale chamber from a previous grade. The feature also
makes it much safer and easier to clean the chamber, according to the
company. Rather than risking safety by climbing a ladder and entering the
chamber to clean it, debris can be removed from the chamber with a broom
at the ground-level bale door.
What's
unique about these features is that C and M will be offering them both on
a single machine--an industry first. "We saw applications where both
features were needed," Turner says, "so our engineers are
developing a baler for these needs."
As
good business continues for the scrap recycling industry, there is an
ongoing need for high-production machines. In late summer C and M will
offer a new baler in its MSB (multistage baler) line that has an
18-inch-diameter cylinder on its main compression ram. (Standard is around
12 inches.) "While processors may have been using two standard balers
running continuously to keep up with production," Turner states,
"now they can use a single baler. It should double the production of
a standard baler."
The
18-inch-ram machine has 450 tons of main-ram force and is able to bale
approximately 35 to 45 tons of nonferrous metals per hour, according to C
and M. "It's really a multifunction baler, though," says Turner,
noting that up to three conveyors can feed its wide mouth plastics and
scrap paper, as well as metals.
Simple
Solutions
Another
multi-use piece of equipment has a pretty uncomplicated design,
considering its versatility. The Allied "Claw," from Youngstown,
Ohio-based Allied Gator, Inc., is a front-end loader attachment now in
testing that grabs, tears, sifts, sorts, and transports piled scrap. How?
Mount the attachment's claws and grid screen to your bucket.
Allied
Gator President John Ramun details the process. The attachment scoops up
to 25 tons of scrap material in the bucket. The claws tear the material
for transporting. Once the claws are closed, the operator tilts the bucket
forward and dirt and fines fall out through the grid, resulting in greater
metallic recovery and more accurate scrap weight. The sifted scrap is then
easily carried to its destination. The position of the grid while the
attachment is lifting scrap protects the operator from loose pieces,
according to the company. And because the attachment can be customized to
a particular application, the screen also may function as a sorter.
Ramun
adds that the Allied "Claw" is easy to detach from the
loader--loosen two quick-coupled lines and remove two pins.
Market
Drives New Roll-Off Idea
One
roll-off container on a vehicle just isn't enough for some people anymore.
The push by municipalities to collect several types of recyclable
materials is creating a need for separate containers not only at curbside
but on the collection vehicle as well--and scrap recyclers are getting
into the act. "Our customers came to us and said, 'Two containers on
one vehicle is our requirement. Give us some alternatives,'" says
Bill Garrison, sales manager for Clement Industries, Minden, Louisiana.
The firm manufactures end-dump and bottom-dump trailers and roll-off
containers for the recycling and solid waste industries.
But
how do you rig up two boxes on one truck and make it easy to empty them,
too? Clement's answer was to use a standard roll-off truck to pull a
trailer, on which rests a second roll-off container. Both 22-foot-long
containers are hydraulically operated from the cab through use of a
diversion valve, which allows the driver to dump either container by
flipping a switch. "It doubles the efficiency of a truck-mounted
roll-off," says Garrison.
The
only trick to this setup, he explains, is that the weight carried by two
containers could exceed federal bridge law requirements if it is not
apportioned carefully over the length of the truck and trailer. The law
states that a standard three-axle straight truck may gross 53,000 pounds
with a wheelbase of 23 feet between axle one and axle three, while a truck
and trailer may gross 80,000 pounds over a total wheelbase of 51 feet. The
combination may gross 34,000 pounds on the tandem trailer axles, 34,000
pounds on the tandem truck axles, and 12,000 pounds on the truck's front
axle-for a total of 80,000 pounds. Because the bridge law requires 51 feet
from the front truck axle to the back trailer axle, and 36 feet from the
truck's front tandem axle to the trailer's rear tandem axle, Clement
designed a tongue on the trailer that qualifies the rig.
Garrison
admits there are other ways to fulfill customer needs for a two-container
roll-off, such as its two-box semitrailer already in production.
"We're presenting the idea of a two-box truck-and-trailer combination
to our customers as another alternative," he says. "We're not
sure--and neither are they--where the market's going to go. But we know
they want to carry two boxes. How they want to do it, only the customers
will decide."
These
are just a few of the new manufacturing tricks in the works. As processors
keep up with the challenges and competition of an industry in
transformation, these conjuring equipment designers will continue to make
magical, things happen in response.
A
Peek at Equipment to come.
They
may not be pulling rabbits out of hats, but these equipment manufacturers
have a lot of surprises up their sleeves for scrap recyclers. Brand-new
machines, enhancements to existing products, and equipment destined for
its first use in the United States are all part of the show.
And
now, on with the show!
New
Shredder Sorts for You
How
would you like it if you could dump the entire contents of a truck filled
with scrap into your shredder without presorting it? No, you don't have to
take out the long beams, heavy plate, or other heavy mixed items
first--they can go right into your shredder. And don't worry--these pieces
won't cause damage. You save time, labor, money, and aggravation.
Sounds
good, you say? That's what the Kondirator's manufacturer hoped you'd say.
The machine, made by Lindemann Maschinenfabrik GmbH, in Dusseldorf,
Federal Republic of Germany, accepts almost any assortment of mixed heavy
scrap a processor can pick up from a customer. The Kondirator has found
acceptance in Europe since 1986 and will see its first U.S. installation
later this year, according to Gunn Phillips, sales director for Lindemann
Recycling Equipment, Inc., New York City.
"The
first advantage of the Kondirator," says Phillips, "is not so
much what it produces but what it will consume. Most heavy-duty shredders
around the world today take presorted No. 2 steel to some degree. The
unique feature of the Kondirator is that the processor doesn't have to
presort the steel." The machine takes mixed heavy scrap, processes
what it can, and clears away the material that is not processible or
shreddable and that could cause serious damage to traditional shredders,
he explains. This material passes through the Kondirator system without
internal damage.
According
to Lindemann, 100 percent of a typical truckload of mixed heavy scrap can
be fed into the machine and about 90 percent of that is processed by the
Kondirator. Approximately 5 percent--the longer pieces--is removed at the
long-short separator station and is accumulated in a container for further
processing elsewhere. The other 5 percent that isn't processed by the
Kondirator is material that has passed through the trommel. Not only is
the percentage of processed material generally greater than that of
comparable heavy-duty shredders, says the company, but the amount of
manual labor needed is less.
A
thorough downstream system ensures the final product is clean,
high-quality shred, according to Lindemann. After the infed material has
been processed, it is sized by the trommel. Its grate, mounted on a
vertical hinge, is hydraulically operated and pressure sensitive so that
if a hammer slams a large piece against it, the grate opens to allow the
piece to fall out, thus reducing wear and tear on the Kondirator's
internal parts. Oversize pieces are taken via conveyor for re-introduction
into the machine. Sized material then moves to a wind sifter/zig-zag box
combination where light materials such as plastic, rubber, glass, and
paper are removed from the ferrous and nonferrous materials. The metals
are conveyed to a magnetic separator, which drops them onto ferrous and
nonferrous belts. Humans finally get into the picture at this stage to
sort out the last few contaminants.
While
Phillips admits there is a "significant difference" in price
between the Kondirator and a traditional extra-heavy-duty shredder, he
says "there's also a significant difference in performance and
capability." He cites a machine that's been operating in Europe for
nearly three years "with no internal damage created by impact or by
the large pieces." In addition, he explains, "the machine is
very efficient when comparing output tons to horsepower." Lindemann
claims that whereas a 2,000-horsepower extra-heavy-duty shredder produces
about 60-70 metric tons per hour of finished product, a 2,000-horsepower
Kondirator can produce 100- 110 tons.
Video
Study Sparks Design Concept
"It's
revolutionary," says Thomas Wendt, president of D&J Wendt
Corporation, North Tonawanda, New York, of a new automobile shredder mill
housing design developed by Thyssen Henschel. D&J Wendt is the North
American agent for the Kassel, Federal-Republic-of-Germany-based
manufacturer of large, high-production scrap processing equipment. What's
so different about this mill housing? It's round.
A
few years ago, recounts Wendt, Henschel created a scale model of an auto
shredder and installed high-speed video cameras inside its mill. The
cameras filmed the flow of scrap as it was shredded to enable the company
to study the process afterward at a slower speed. The point to this
exercise was to find a way for the material to take a shorter route around
the mill and out, "because that's what increases your
throughput," Wendt explain--"getting the material out of the
mill as quickly as possible."
Understanding
the mill's shredding process helps to explain why the new round-housing
concept is an improvement. As an auto goes into a shredder, the hammers
swinging around the rotor chip off pieces, which are forced under the
rotor. Correctly sized pieces of metal are thrust through the bottom
grate; pieces that are larger or that miss the bottom grate's holes
continue around to be further pounded by the hammers and thrown up to the
top grate. Again, the pieces will be thrust out only if they fit and if
they happen to be aimed properly.
"Our
video showed us that the top of a traditional mill looks like a popcorn
popper," explains Wendt, "with the pieces of metal bouncing back
and forth and up and down against the grate. You have a 50-percent chance
of hitting a hole and a 50-percent chance of hitting the grate." The
problems seem to be that most shredder mills are square or pyramidical in
shape, which slows the centrifugal action of the rotor, and that the grate
has as much metal area as it has hole area, which means it may take even a
correctly sized piece of metal a few rotations to be ejected.
"We've
made the top of our housing round," says Wendt, "so that the
material that has made it to the top merely slides around one more time.
And we're ejecting the material through the side of the mill." Rather
than using a conventional waffle-like grate at the top, triangular
"fingers" at the side size the processed metal, giving it a
better chance to exit the mill sooner. Throughput will be increased by
10-20 percent, projects D&J Wendt, which says material flow will be
more efficient.
The
first shredder built with this new mill housing design also incorporates a
redesigned rotor that was introduced at the Institute of Scrap Recycling
Industries equipment exhibition in March. The rotor change alone provided
a 15-percent increase in throughput, Wendt says. With both improvements in
place, the scrap recycler with this improved machine "saves a lot of
money over a year's time.
Better
Balers
There
appears to be a lot of magic going on at C and M Balers. Not only does the
firm, located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, plan to add features to
its existing balers, it's got a whole new model in the works.
President
and Chief Executive Officer Robert Turner explains the combination of
features C and M has added to its standard two-ram baler line. Feature one
is being called "EZject," a mechanism that allows for removal of
an overcharged bale from the bale chamber. If an operator loads too much
material into the chamber, EZject releases the pressure on the machine and
allows the bale to be ejected. Although Turner isn't yet able to discuss
the process by which the mechanism works, he says it involves a tension or
squeeze section of the baler and two hydraulic cylinders.
Feature
two is a special bale door that closes the eject side of the bale chamber
after each single bale is formed, eliminating the need for the bale to
remain in the chamber. The feature allows the chamber to be cleaned in
between loads of different material grades to avoid contamination by loose
material left in the bale chamber from a previous grade. The feature also
makes it much safer and easier to clean the chamber, according to the
company. Rather than risking safety by climbing a ladder and entering the
chamber to clean it, debris can be removed from the chamber with a broom
at the ground-level bale door.
What's
unique about these features is that C and M will be offering them both on
a single machine--an industry first. "We saw applications where both
features were needed," Turner says, "so our engineers are
developing a baler for these needs."
As
good business continues for the scrap recycling industry, there is an
ongoing need for high-production machines. In late summer C and M will
offer a new baler in its MSB (multistage baler) line that has an
18-inch-diameter cylinder on its main compression ram. (Standard is around
12 inches.) "While processors may have been using two standard balers
running continuously to keep up with production," Turner states,
"now they can use a single baler. It should double the production of
a standard baler."
The
18-inch-ram machine has 450 tons of main-ram force and is able to bale
approximately 35 to 45 tons of nonferrous metals per hour, according to C
and M. "It's really a multifunction baler, though," says Turner,
noting that up to three conveyors can feed its wide mouth plastics and
scrap paper, as well as metals.
Simple
Solutions
Another
multi-use piece of equipment has a pretty uncomplicated design,
considering its versatility. The Allied "Claw," from Youngstown,
Ohio-based Allied Gator, Inc., is a front-end loader attachment now in
testing that grabs, tears, sifts, sorts, and transports piled scrap. How?
Mount the attachment's claws and grid screen to your bucket.
Allied
Gator President John Ramun details the process. The attachment scoops up
to 25 tons of scrap material in the bucket. The claws tear the material
for transporting. Once the claws are closed, the operator tilts the bucket
forward and dirt and fines fall out through the grid, resulting in greater
metallic recovery and more accurate scrap weight. The sifted scrap is then
easily carried to its destination. The position of the grid while the
attachment is lifting scrap protects the operator from loose pieces,
according to the company. And because the attachment can be customized to
a particular application, the screen also may function as a sorter.
Ramun
adds that the Allied "Claw" is easy to detach from the
loader--loosen two quick-coupled lines and remove two pins.
Market
Drives New Roll-Off Idea
One
roll-off container on a vehicle just isn't enough for some people anymore.
The push by municipalities to collect several types of recyclable
materials is creating a need for separate containers not only at curbside
but on the collection vehicle as well--and scrap recyclers are getting
into the act. "Our customers came to us and said, 'Two containers on
one vehicle is our requirement. Give us some alternatives,'" says
Bill Garrison, sales manager for Clement Industries, Minden, Louisiana.
The firm manufactures end-dump and bottom-dump trailers and roll-off
containers for the recycling and solid waste industries.
But
how do you rig up two boxes on one truck and make it easy to empty them,
too? Clement's answer was to use a standard roll-off truck to pull a
trailer, on which rests a second roll-off container. Both 22-foot-long
containers are hydraulically operated from the cab through use of a
diversion valve, which allows the driver to dump either container by
flipping a switch. "It doubles the efficiency of a truck-mounted
roll-off," says Garrison.
The
only trick to this setup, he explains, is that the weight carried by two
containers could exceed federal bridge law requirements if it is not
apportioned carefully over the length of the truck and trailer. The law
states that a standard three-axle straight truck may gross 53,000 pounds
with a wheelbase of 23 feet between axle one and axle three, while a truck
and trailer may gross 80,000 pounds over a total wheelbase of 51 feet. The
combination may gross 34,000 pounds on the tandem trailer axles, 34,000
pounds on the tandem truck axles, and 12,000 pounds on the truck's front
axle-for a total of 80,000 pounds. Because the bridge law requires 51 feet
from the front truck axle to the back trailer axle, and 36 feet from the
truck's front tandem axle to the trailer's rear tandem axle, Clement
designed a tongue on the trailer that qualifies the rig.
Garrison
admits there are other ways to fulfill customer needs for a two-container
roll-off, such as its two-box semitrailer already in production.
"We're presenting the idea of a two-box truck-and-trailer combination
to our customers as another alternative," he says. "We're not
sure--and neither are they--where the market's going to go. But we know
they want to carry two boxes. How they want to do it, only the customers
will decide."
These
are just a few of the new manufacturing tricks in the works. As processors
keep up with the challenges and competition of an industry in
transformation, these conjuring equipment designers will continue to make
magical, things happen in response.