Working Together

July/August 1991

Scrap firms have found that collaborating with equipment manufacturers is often the best route to product innovation, proving that two heads really are better than one.

By Kent Kiser

Cooperation and collaboration between manufacturers and their scrap processing and recycling customers has proven on more than one occasion to be an effective path to product development and innovation. Manufacturers get the opportunity to demonstrate their responsiveness to the needs of their scrap customers by working with them to develop new, cost-efficient products. Scrap processors and recyclers are able to provide performance critiques of current products in the field, offer input on new product designs, and test new products in their operations.

The bottom-line benefits of these "win-win" business relationships are that manufacturers can add new products to their catalogs and increase sales, while scrap firms can increase their productivity and generate more income.

Building a Better Trailer

Kalman Gordon knew what he wanted. It was 1988 and Gordon, vice president and treasurer of L. Gordon Iron & Metal Co. (Statesville, N.C.), wanted a trailer that weighed less than his aluminum trailers, yet one that could withstand the demands of carrying four loads per day of shredded steel scrap, as well as some No. 1 bundles and cut plate. This heavy workload was quickly wearing out his aluminum trailers, and traditional steel trailers had a high empty weight that reduced the payload he could carry. The weight factor was particularly important because of stricter enforcement of the federal bridge formula beginning in 1988.

Gordon had first become a customer of Montone Trailer Co. (Dillon, S.C.) in 1986, when he began buying aluminum trailers from the company. He had a comfortable working relationship with David Cottingham, Montone's president, and John A. LeChette, vice president of sales. One day, while Cottingham and Gordon were engaged in trailer-talk, Gordon voiced his grievances and a light went on in Cottingham's head. Boron steel. He was familiar with the material, a high-tensile, high-alloy metal, and he had a hunch that it could offer the lightness and wear-resistance that Gordon demanded in a trailer.

"Kalman Gordon basically said, 'Build me a trailer that's going to work,' and I said, 'OK,' " Cottingham recalls. "We're a small company, but he had the confidence in us to give us free reign to make something that would work for him."

The result? Montone created its Magna series of boron-steel trailers, which now account for almost 40 percent of the company's total sales. "Kalman Gordon was very instrumental in our pursuing the Magna," LeChette asserts. "This was a new product for us, and he agreed to be our guinea pig. "

The boron steel allowed Montone to reduce the thickness, or gauge, of metal needed in the trailer, thus reducing its overall weight. At the same time, the metal increased the trailer's durability. The boron steel, in fact, has a yield of 190,000 pounds per square inch (psi) and a Brinell hardness of 500, while the closest other steel used in trailers has a yield of 100,000 psi and a 241 Brinell reading, LeChette points out. Just how hard is this steel? Cottingham amuses customers--and himself--by giving them a sledgehammer and letting them pound away on a Magna. He offers to give the trailer to anyone who can put a dent in it. No winners yet.

Montone also saved weight by creating a frameless version of the Magna, which reduces the trailer's weight by up to 4,000 pounds. Overall, Magna trailers weigh an estimated 14,000 pounds, compared with 23,000 pounds for normal steel trailers, LeChette says, adding, "Across the board we saved the customer about 4,000 to 9,000 pounds per truckload."

Gordon purchased Montone's first handmade Magna and gave it a try. He liked it so much that within the first 30 days-after the company's president, Saul Gordon, calculated that the trailer would pay for itself within six months-he ordered two more. Gordon, who has since ordered a fourth Magna, notes matter-of-factly, "We've been pleased with it."

After 2 1/2 years in operation, Gordon says his first Magna trailer is still carrying four to five loads a day and shows no sign of appreciable wear. The trailer did get one small hole about the size of a silver dollar in the floor, but Gordon simply welded it closed. "The trader looks brand new on the inside," LeChette boasts. One of his novel sales techniques is to carry around a snapshot of the interior of Gordon's first Magna trailer. He updates the photo every few months and adds a caption that notes the millions of pounds of scrap the trailer has hauled to date. At last count, the total was more than 109 million pounds.

A Matter of Faith

Giles Hill, president of Southeast Tire Co. Inc. (SETCO) (Idabel, Okla.), was inspired on Jan. 4, 1988, while calling on tire customers in Houston. He noticed that many were using foam-filled industrial tires on their equipment, and that many of these tires had been severely damaged in rough operating conditions. Some firms were replacing their tires every month at a cost of up to $4,000 per tire, Hill notes. So he asked himself, "Why not create a tire that can withstand demanding conditions, preventing tire failure, reducing downtime, and giving customers a better return on their investment?"

Thus was born the Junk Yard Dog, SETCO's patented solid tire and rim assembly made of 3/4- to 1 1/4-inch plate steel and up to 15 inches of rubber, which is molded to the run. The trouble was that Hill made his first two tires for a solid waste company that backed out of the deal, so he found himself with two tires on his hands.

Meanwhile, Chaparral Steel Co. (Midlothian, Texas) was running through foam-filled tires on its loaders every month, with the biggest problem being its loader that transported material to the company's shredder. To make matters worse, the shredder was about to go down for scheduled maintenance, and Chaparral's loaders were working extra hard to build a huge mountain of shredded "inventory" scrap.

Hill contacted Chaparral's Lawrence Powers, manager of scrap processing, and Johnny Morgan, general manager of scrap processing, about his two orphaned solid tires and made them an offer they couldn't refuse-a 90-day free trial to test the tires on their loader. Hill figured that the tires could help Chaparral during a time of intense operation, and he would get the chance to prove his tires in a truly demanding application. Though Powers and Morgan thought Hill was crazy, they took him up on his offer.

The tires not only survived "Morgan's Mountain," as the shredded heap was fondly called, but they ended up lasting close to a year. Powers and Morgan were sufficiently impressed in the 90-day trial to buy the orphaned tires and several more for other Chaparral loaders. Though the hardness of solid tires can put an extra burden on equipment, Powers says, he calculated that in some cases the machine wear would be offset by the savings on replacement tires. Today, Chaparral has installed SETCO's solid tires on approximately 75 percent of its mobile scrap-handling equipment. "We both stuck our necks out on this, and it worked out," Powers says.

Looking back, Hill observes, "There wouldn't be a Junk Yard Dog if there hadn't been a Chaparral Steel. It was strictly a matter of faith on Chaparral's part. I'm really indebted to these people." In fact, Hill remarks, Chaparral has gone above and beyond its customer role to allow other prospective SETCO clients to visit its operations and view the tires in action.

The Collaboration Ethic

Joel Denbo has made product collaboration a way of life--and good business--at Denbo Iron & Metal Co. Inc. (Decatur, Ala.). Denbo, the company's vice president, points to three instances in which the company worked with manufacturers to develop products that would help not only Denbo Iron & Metal, but the scrap industry in general.

Back in 1983, chance brought Joel Denbo and his father Morley together with Hawco Manufacturing Co. Inc. (Slaughter, La.). The Denbos had placed six cable grapples in front of their plant to sell. Johnny Williams, Hawco's vice president of sales, happened to see them and approached the Denbos. "I walked in wanting to buy something from them rather than wanting to sell them something," he says. During the transaction, they began talking about grapples, and the Denbos told Williams that they wanted to create a four-tine grapple, with individual hydraulic cylinders on each tine, for use with a hydraulic crane. At the time, Hawco was predominantly a cable-grapple manufacturer and had built only a few hydraulic grapples with only minimal success, Williams says. The Denbos sat down with Hawco and worked out a design that suited both parties, creating what Joel Denbo calls “a bellwether grapple in the trade."

"We were involved from concept through manufacturing to field testing,” Denbo notes. Since then, the Denbos have purchased two other hydraulic grapples from Hawco.

Williams estimates that Hawco has made more than 300 hydraulic grapples since that collaboration, noting that the design has hardly changed from the original model. This experience set a precedent that has motivated Hawco to collaborate with other customers, he says, adding, "We do this quite often now."

In another collaboration, beginning in late 1989, Lucky Manufacturing Co. Inc. (Huntsville, Ala.) approached Joel Denbo about buying its newly developed two-ram baling press. Denbo agreed to buy the press--with changes. The scrap company brought its 40 years of working with hydraulic equipment to bear on revising the press's design. For example, Denbo suggested placing the hydraulic fluid tank above the hydraulic components to guarantee lubrication during start-up. The scrap company also advised Lucky to use proximity switches rather than limit switches, make the entire piece heavier and stronger, and construct it so the compression cylinders could be removed easily for service. Finally, Denbo requested installation of a series of lights on the front of the press to indicate the ram's compression at all times.

After several months of collaboration, the new and improved press was delivered in June 1990 and has been operating beyond the expectations of both Denbo and Lucky "This project went off better than I ever imagined," says Vice President Bobby D Lucky II. "I attribute a lot of the press's success to what the Denbos did. They were very helpful in the design of it." Denbo is currently working with Lucky on designing a new four-tine grapple for his operation.

In yet another, ongoing collaboration, Joel Denbo has been seeking a way to extend the life of the foam-filled tires he uses on his scrap loaders. Jack Matchett, manager of the National Association Supply Cooperative (New Philadelphia, Ohio), happened to run into just the right person for Denbo at an Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) convention--Connie Saylor of Connie Saylor & Associates (Johnson City, Tenn.), a former professional racecar driver with extensive experience in tire research and development. Saylor had developed a method for increasing a tire's "footprint"--the amount of tread on the ground--and its life by using a softer foam fill. These changes, he asserts, give machines more traction and reduce the chance of tire spin, which accounts for much of the damage to treaded tires. In some scrap applications, Saylor says, loader tires can be most effective with no tread at all, rolling on smooth rubber.

Matchett put Saylor in touch with Denbo. "Connie was willing to work with me and listen to what I had to say," Denbo says. The two have been experimenting with various foam-filled tires over the past year, testing them in Denbo's plant on a pilot basis. "Joel had suggestions in the beginning, and he still has suggestions, " Saylor notes. "We haven't stopped developing this. " But, he adds, Denbo has been "more than pleased with the gains we've made in reducing his tire costs."

Research, Development, and Goodwill

Ideas for new products can come from just about anywhere, including a magazine. James E. Westlake, vice president of Eastern Railway Supplies Inc. (West Seneca, N.Y.), happened to read an article on scrap handling equipment in the March/April 1990 issue of Scrap Processing and Recycling. The article discussed, in part, the differences between hydraulic-boom cranes and, lattice-boom locomotive cranes. "The article brought to our attention the need for a hydraulic boom on a locomotive crane, Westlake says.

So, in the spring of 1990, Eastern Railway embarked on a research and development mission, working with Ohio Locomotive Crane Co. Inc. (Bucyrus, Ohio), a few design and engineering companies, and Hurwitz Bros. Iron & Metal Co. Inc. (Buffalo, N.Y.).

Hurwitz Bros. already had a strong working relationship with Eastern Railway. Over the past six years, it has purchased two of the company's locomotive cranes and has handled its scrap. To help Eastern Railway with its new development project, Hurwitz Bros. allowed the manufacturer to take measurements of the hydraulic booms on its hydraulic cranes. In addition, the scrap firm gave Eastern Railway one of its extra magnets to use for several months and allowed the company to weigh product parts on its scrap scale, says Hurwitz's vice president, Michael A. Davis. Hurwitz Bros. also helped Eastern Railway refine the duty-cycle performance and other characteristics of the new boom to make it competitive with other hydraulic booms on the market.

After a year of development, Eastern Railway introduced the Powerstick on March 17 at ReMA's annual convention in Las Vegas. The Powerstick is a hydraulic boom that can retrofit existing locomotive cranes. "We feel that this will be an advantage in the scrap handling industry because the locomotive crane can move cars and serve multiple uses now that it can be equipped with a hydraulic boom," Westlake observes.

Making Collaborations Work

Scrap firms interested in pursuing these types of collaborations should first study their current equipment and decide what they would change about it, advises Joel Denbo. After that, he notes, find a manufacturer that will listen to you, that wants to work with the scrap industry, and that will stand behind the collaborative product. A collaboration is an uncharted journey into research and development, and the scrap firm must be confident that it will not be stuck with an ineffective product if it volunteers to test or purchase the new piece of equipment. "The manufacturer can't leave the financial obligation in the processor's hand," Denbo asserts, emphasizing that the manufacturer must be willing to work through any design or manufacturing errors in the collaborative product.

In the end, successful collaborations can lead to innovations that can mean better business for both manufacturers and scrap processors and recyclers.•