Equipment Report

Allied-Gator Constructs New Manufacturing Facility

According to Mike Ramun, the company’s sales and marketing manager, the size and scope of Allied-Gator’s expansion is difficult to appreciate without visiting the project site.

The maker of hydraulic material processing tools and equipment is moving its manufacturing operations from a crowded 12,000-square-foot facility to a massive new structure that will contain 457,000 square feet of manufacturing space.

Ramun calls "uninterrupted manufacturing" the goal of the processes Allied-Gator is initiating to make its MT Series Multi-Tool line as well as upcoming, never-before-seen tools and equipment for the recycling and demolition industries.

Allied-Gator will draw upon geothermal heating and cooling sources throughout its new facility and is installing 19 overhead cranes ranging from 10- to 120-ton capacities as it undertakes a project that is being managed and constructed entirely in house.

The company also has invested in new, state-of-the-art machining, measuring, inspection and fabrication equipment that will allow it to continue to meet its exacting manufacturing standards and tolerances, says Ramun. These investments will add new dimensions to Allied-Gator’s manufacturing techniques and processes while accelerating production rates and increasing product volume, according to the company.

Allied-Gator’s transition to the new facility will begin in "Area A" (192,000 square feet), where its warehouse, assembly, machining and heavy machining bays will be contained in the spring of 2008. The company then plans to occupy "Area B" (265,000 square feet), which will house fabrication/heavy fabrication, plate burning, heavy equipment modification and detailing bays, by the end of 2008.

Kinshofer GmbH and HKS Abbruch – und Verschrottungstechnik GmbH, both based in Germany, have merged. Under the terms of the agreement Kinshofer has acquired 100 percent of the shares of HKS.

The company’s acquisition of HKS has added a full line of scrap and demolition shears to Kinshofer’s excavator line, including scrap grabs, Multi-Quick Processors, pulverizers and demolition grabs.

Thomas Friedrich, managing director of Kinshofer, and Wolfram Wack, co-founder and general manager of HKS, will work to integrate HKS into the Kinshofer Group.

Wack remains GM of HKS.

Several recycling equipment manufacturers are benefiting from a cleanup initiative in the Persian Gulf emirate of Sharjah, near the financial and business powerhouse of Dubai.

According to a news report in the Toronto Globe and Mail, the emirate recently purchased some $70 million in equipment from several Canadian equipment makers.

The purchases include:

An official from the emirate told the Globe and Mail that recycling and environmentalism is moving up in importance among the leaders and people of the Persian Gulf state.

The connection between the emirate and Canadian companies was forged by a Toronto-based consultant who hails from Sharjah and stays in touch with the emirate’s leader.

Eriez Magnetics, Eriez, Pa., is offering what it terms as advanced, cost-effective electrostatic separators that use surface conductivity to recover metals from electronic scrap, including chopped wire.

Applications for the equipment includes:

With Eriez Electrostatic Rotor Separators, a high-potential electric charge is applied to the material via an energized pinning electrode. The conductive particles dissipate this charge and are subsequently thrown from the rotor by centrifugal force. Nonconductive particles are not able to dissipate the charge and are pinned to the grounded roll surface. The nonconductive particles are subsequently removed from the rotor surface mechanically by a brush and aided by an AC wiper used to negate the charge.

More information is available from www.eriez.com.

Developed from the Spektrum color sorter, the new Spektrum BW from S+S Separation and Sorting Technology GmbH of Germany brings the same technology to the sorting of light and dark materials, such as separating the dark rubber seals from the lighter PVC of window frames during recycling.

To keep costs as low as possible, the machine is fitted with standard fluorescent tubes. Other components have been selected for durability under real-world conditions to minimize maintenance needs and costs, according to S+S.

More information is available from the company’s Web site at www.se-so-tec.com.