Universal Engineering Corporation

Improving the State of the Art  

The folks at Universal Engineering design state-of-the-art equipment and, after 84 years, are still going strong.

Located in the heart of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Universal Engineering, a division of Pettibone Corporation, Chicago, has been designing and building equipment for processing and handling reducible materials since 1906. “In the early days we produced rock-crushing equipment,” explains Murray. “Through the years we were the leader in that field, and in 1948 Pettibone bought a company called Hammermills Inc., which sold to the cement and mining industry. Because we manufactured big hammermills, in 1964 we manufactured the first automobile shredder to go into the scrap industry." Since then, Universal has placed more than 200 auto shredders around the world.

Today, more than 50 percent of Universal's business comes from the recycling industry. Among the equipment Universal offers to this sector are Hammermills shredders, feeders, conveyors, and specialized metal separation systems. The equipment can be supplied separately or as part of a complete stationary or portable processing system. In additional, Universal distributes processing and handling equipment for a wide range of materials, including aggregate, coal, mineral ore, and municipal refuse.

Universal has installed approximately 30 heavy-duty shredders in the last two years, which have capacities ranging from 1 to 300 tons per hour. "It's been a constant increase in volume since day one," Murray explains. "When we first started out there were 2 salesmen, and we have about 14 today." Since Universal also constructs equipment for the mining and road industries, lulls in the scrap industry are not likely to affect business much. For example, in the early 1980s, when there was a virtual cessation in the sales of new scrap processing equipment, Universal continued to sell parts for equipment already active.

Designer Shredders

Each shredder is individually designed. "It depends on what the customer wants to do," says Murray. "Every person has his own specifications as to what he wants to process, and we put the equipment to it and go from there." Product specialists at Universal are available to discuss requirements with customers and to work with them to plan custom-engineered scrap processing systems.

Engineers then design and construct systems and equipment that meet those requirements and specific local environmental and antipollution regulations. The company’s Hammermills line of equipment is custom-engineered to handle a variety of materials, including aluminum cans, aluminum sheet, iron and aluminum motors, automobiles, copper-bearing material, tubing, and white goods. The shredders and shredding systems, Universal says, are designed to produce easy-to-handle and -process material and to deliver clean, dense, and uniformly sized ferrous and nonferrous scrap products.

One special feature available at Universal is the Double Feed Roll feeder. It is said to provide a continuous flow of materials into the shredder for optimum capacity production and employs hydraulic power to flatten autos and bulky scrap. This process, according to Universal, minimizes shock loading and maintains high production and good use of time and power.

Other specialized shredders include a high-volume aluminum shredder, which has capacities that start at 10,000 pounds per hour and can go up to 100,000 pounds per hour or more. These shredders handle baled aluminum, used beverage containers (in briquette, loose, and flattened form), sheet, plate and castings, extrusions, siding, window frames, lawn chairs, tubing and pipe, turnings, stampings, and in-plant skeletal materials. Among the various features the shredder contains is a notched-type cutter bar that shears the incoming materials, and a hood that opens hydraulically for quick inspections.

Another unique piece of equipment is the ring-type shredder, which is designed to handle aluminum and ferrous scrap simultaneously. Features include ring-type hammers that are said to provide high-capacity output, and a spider-type rotor that allows room between each row of rings as a tramp iron relief area.

Speaking Russian

Lately, Universal seems to have had its hand in a real cookie jar--a Russian one. Since the early 1980s, Universal has been doing business with the Soviet government's metallurgical import staff, the buying arm for the Soviet scrap and steel industry. In fact, Universal was in Moscow before Gorbachev became president. "In 1980, Gorbachev wasn't even in office yet," Murray says. "We had sales agents in Europe, and the Russians had seen our advertisements in the trade journals, so they approached us and asked us for recycling equipment.” Murray traveled to Moscow twice, the first time to explain the Universal theory, and the second time, two weeks later, when he "got an order for two machines after about a week's negotiations. Subsequently, Universal has placed machines in both Czechoslovakia and the Persian Gulf area, and is also starting to make inroads in Third-World countries.

Murray says he is planning another trip to Moscow this year to handle several other possible deals already in the works. He'll certainly receive a warmer welcome than his previous visits educed. "The first time I was there was the day that Jimmy Carter cut the grain embargo," Murray recalls. "You talk about a cool reception. But the deal went through and the reception got better.”

The Money in Trash

These days, business at Universal is booming. And, the company is continuing to grow by addressing current issues, such as the solid waste disposal problem. The company installed its first major resource recovery system a few years back in Dade County, Florida, which employs refuse shredders to break garbage down into refuse-derived fuel (RDF), from which energy is then generated. In Dade County, "they're processing about 45,000 tons of garbage a month, converting it into electricity, and selling it back to the power company," says Murray.

Universal also is keeping in step with the computerization of the industry by streamlining the engineering and manufacturing aspects of its machines with a computer engineering system. The machine tools in the shop are also becoming computerized, accomplishing several, instead of one, operation at a time.

And as for installations m the works right now? "We've got several of them," says Murray, "such as complete steel scrap and automobile shredder plants, including installation. We put in several last year, three are being installed right now, and there are a half-dozen more that are going to be installed within the next 12 months. These are strictly the big operations--multimillion dollar plants.”

Looking Ahead

An overall corporate business objective at Universal is to double its volume within the next five years, and it just might happen if the loyal staff continues to serve as in past years. “I had one customer who bought a plant because of that," Murray says. "He asked everybody in the shop 'How long have you been here?' and they all had been here years, and he thought, ‘My God, well, they must do something right!’ And he bought the machine."

Improving the State of the Art  

The folks at Universal Engineering design state-of-the-art equipment and, after 84 years, are still going strong.

Located in the heart of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Universal Engineering, a division of Pettibone Corporation, Chicago, has been designing and building equipment for processing and handling reducible materials since 1906. “In the early days we produced rock-crushing equipment,” explains Murray. “Through the years we were the leader in that field, and in 1948 Pettibone bought a company called Hammermills Inc., which sold to the cement and mining industry. Because we manufactured big hammermills, in 1964 we manufactured the first automobile shredder to go into the scrap industry." Since then, Universal has placed more than 200 auto shredders around the world.

Today, more than 50 percent of Universal's business comes from the recycling industry. Among the equipment Universal offers to this sector are Hammermills shredders, feeders, conveyors, and specialized metal separation systems. The equipment can be supplied separately or as part of a complete stationary or portable processing system. In additional, Universal distributes processing and handling equipment for a wide range of materials, including aggregate, coal, mineral ore, and municipal refuse.

Universal has installed approximately 30 heavy-duty shredders in the last two years, which have capacities ranging from 1 to 300 tons per hour. "It's been a constant increase in volume since day one," Murray explains. "When we first started out there were 2 salesmen, and we have about 14 today." Since Universal also constructs equipment for the mining and road industries, lulls in the scrap industry are not likely to affect business much. For example, in the early 1980s, when there was a virtual cessation in the sales of new scrap processing equipment, Universal continued to sell parts for equipment already active.

Designer Shredders

Each shredder is individually designed. "It depends on what the customer wants to do," says Murray. "Every person has his own specifications as to what he wants to process, and we put the equipment to it and go from there." Product specialists at Universal are available to discuss requirements with customers and to work with them to plan custom-engineered scrap processing systems.

Engineers then design and construct systems and equipment that meet those requirements and specific local environmental and antipollution regulations. The company’s Hammermills line of equipment is custom-engineered to handle a variety of materials, including aluminum cans, aluminum sheet, iron and aluminum motors, automobiles, copper-bearing material, tubing, and white goods. The shredders and shredding systems, Universal says, are designed to produce easy-to-handle and -process material and to deliver clean, dense, and uniformly sized ferrous and nonferrous scrap products.

One special feature available at Universal is the Double Feed Roll feeder. It is said to provide a continuous flow of materials into the shredder for optimum capacity production and employs hydraulic power to flatten autos and bulky scrap. This process, according to Universal, minimizes shock loading and maintains high production and good use of time and power.

Other specialized shredders include a high-volume aluminum shredder, which has capacities that start at 10,000 pounds per hour and can go up to 100,000 pounds per hour or more. These shredders handle baled aluminum, used beverage containers (in briquette, loose, and flattened form), sheet, plate and castings, extrusions, siding, window frames, lawn chairs, tubing and pipe, turnings, stampings, and in-plant skeletal materials. Among the various features the shredder contains is a notched-type cutter bar that shears the incoming materials, and a hood that opens hydraulically for quick inspections.

Another unique piece of equipment is the ring-type shredder, which is designed to handle aluminum and ferrous scrap simultaneously. Features include ring-type hammers that are said to provide high-capacity output, and a spider-type rotor that allows room between each row of rings as a tramp iron relief area.

Speaking Russian

Lately, Universal seems to have had its hand in a real cookie jar--a Russian one. Since the early 1980s, Universal has been doing business with the Soviet government's metallurgical import staff, the buying arm for the Soviet scrap and steel industry. In fact, Universal was in Moscow before Gorbachev became president. "In 1980, Gorbachev wasn't even in office yet," Murray says. "We had sales agents in Europe, and the Russians had seen our advertisements in the trade journals, so they approached us and asked us for recycling equipment.” Murray traveled to Moscow twice, the first time to explain the Universal theory, and the second time, two weeks later, when he "got an order for two machines after about a week's negotiations. Subsequently, Universal has placed machines in both Czechoslovakia and the Persian Gulf area, and is also starting to make inroads in Third-World countries.

Murray says he is planning another trip to Moscow this year to handle several other possible deals already in the works. He'll certainly receive a warmer welcome than his previous visits educed. "The first time I was there was the day that Jimmy Carter cut the grain embargo," Murray recalls. "You talk about a cool reception. But the deal went through and the reception got better.”

The Money in Trash

These days, business at Universal is booming. And, the company is continuing to grow by addressing current issues, such as the solid waste disposal problem. The company installed its first major resource recovery system a few years back in Dade County, Florida, which employs refuse shredders to break garbage down into refuse-derived fuel (RDF), from which energy is then generated. In Dade County, "they're processing about 45,000 tons of garbage a month, converting it into electricity, and selling it back to the power company," says Murray.

Universal also is keeping in step with the computerization of the industry by streamlining the engineering and manufacturing aspects of its machines with a computer engineering system. The machine tools in the shop are also becoming computerized, accomplishing several, instead of one, operation at a time.

And as for installations m the works right now? "We've got several of them," says Murray, "such as complete steel scrap and automobile shredder plants, including installation. We put in several last year, three are being installed right now, and there are a half-dozen more that are going to be installed within the next 12 months. These are strictly the big operations--multimillion dollar plants.”

Looking Ahead

An overall corporate business objective at Universal is to double its volume within the next five years, and it just might happen if the loyal staff continues to serve as in past years. “I had one customer who bought a plant because of that," Murray says. "He asked everybody in the shop 'How long have you been here?' and they all had been here years, and he thought, ‘My God, well, they must do something right!’ And he bought the machine."