Equipment Report

Kaeser breaks ground on Virginia facility expansion

Kaeser Compressors Inc., the U.S. headquarters of German manufacturer Kaeser Kompressoren SE, has broken ground on an 80,000-square-foot facility expansion in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

The company says the late April ceremony marked the beginning of a new chapter as it continues to grow its workforce and capabilities.

Kaeser Compressors President Frank Mueller led the event, which included representatives from McKinney & Co. and Harlan Construction, employees from the Fredericksburg office and local and state officials.

“With this small shovel, we’re going to seed Kaeser’s future growth,” Mueller said during the ceremony. “This project expands our capacity to build more of our custom-engineered solutions and KASE [Kaeser Air System Enclosure] units right here in Fredericksburg.”

The company, which recently installed two solar power systems at its Fredericksburg facility, says the new space largely will support the assembly of Kaeser custom air systems, which come complete with compressed air, low-pressure blowers and vacuum systems engineered for high-performance installations. Kaeser says these systems are built for reliability, ease of maintenance and energy efficiency.

Housed in rugged, weatherproof enclosures and mounted on custom skids, Kaeser says the systems significantly can reduce installation time and costs by arriving to facilities or jobsites fully assembled and ready to connect.

While well-suited for mobile and temporary applications, Kaeser says the systems also are an ideal long-term solution for facilities with space, environmental or installation constraints.

Kaeser Compressors employs about 300 people in the Fredericksburg area but says the site’s expansion is expected to create 30 more full-time jobs across its warehouse operations and in the mechanical, electrical and plumbing trades.

Doctor Scrap’s app includes training aspects

Arcadia, California-based Doctor Scrap says its new Scrap Science app enables metal recycling facilities to quickly identify scrap metals, including wire and cable varieties, through image recognition via a smartphone.

The company says its app, which works on any smartphone, makes use of artificial intelligence (AI) to offer “a practical, mobile-first alternative” to more traditional material identification methods, such as the use of X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzers.

“It’s more than a tool to identify cable recovery, providing more information like definitions, tips and real-time market prices,” Doctor Scrap says of its app.

Scrap Science uses AI to analyze cross-sectional images of wires, instantly identifying the copper recovery potential. The company says the app thus offers consistent identification that doesn’t rely on subjective judgment.

Additionally, app users can snap a photo or upload images of scrap materials to instantly check real-time market prices, tapping into the app’s dataset of more than 200 subcategories of scrap metal grades.

CEO Thomas Tan says many recycling companies rely on experienced veterans to train newcomers through “time-intensive, in-person guidance.”

Scrap Science can accelerate the process of on-the-job training, according to Doctor Scrap.

“New workers will get the hang of their tasks quickly just by taking a photo and then receiving instant results,” the company says. “In other words, what used to be veteran know-how is now accessible in your pocket.”

Scrap Science users can standardize knowledge that previously was difficult to replicate or scale, ensuring consistency in classification even as facilities undergo employee turnover, according to the company.

Beyond materials identification, employers can use the Scrap Science app to assess and track materials knowledge among its employees, including via quiz-based learning, potentially contributing to workforce pay scale and promotion decisions.

“This system offers transparency for both employers and employees,” Doctor Scrap says, adding that Scrap Science “supports fairer promotion and compensation structures and helps protect against disputes when making workforce adjustments.”