Recyclers have a variety of options when it comes to material handling equipment and they face many choices when determining what scrap handler is the best fit for their yards. With diesel fuel prices on a seemingly endless rise, recyclers are looking with increased interest at electrically powered, pedestal-mounted machines.
Dietmar Kajnath, the Ohio-based director of sales for the Seram Group, which is based in France, addresses some basic questions concerning stationary scrap handlers.
Recycling Today: What are the advantages of stationary machines and what applications are they best suited for? Dietmar Kajnath: All stationary machines are electrically driven—they have an electric engine inside as opposed to the diesel engine of a mobile scrap handler. The working reach is between 66 feet and 115 feet, and the operator’s eye level is between 28 and 45 feet, which means he’s operating the machine from the top down, while a mobile machine is sitting on the ground and the operator has to reach up to the material. A stationary machine has got a very different operating range. For instance, on an 82-foot machine, the operating range is approximately 20,000 square feet. On an average mobile excavator in a scrap yard, the operating range is approximately 6,000 square feet.On a working radius of 20,000 square feet, you can do a number of things with one big machine. You can feed a shredder or shear, sort material, load or off-load trucks. You can also put your cut or shredded material in a different stockpile.
Advantages of pedestal-mounted machines include economic benefits, power, environmentally friendly operation and long lifetime due to less hydraulic pressure. Seram machines, for instance, require hydraulic pressure of 2,610 psi. A standard mobile machine operates on 4,000 to 4,800 psi. We only need half of the hydraulic pressure, which increases the lifetime of the hydraulic components of the machine. In addition, the electric engine that powers stationary machines makes less noise, which is very important for the operator who is spending seven or eight hours in the machine.
RT: How can a stationary scrap handler save on operating costs? DK: All machines are equipped with an electric engine, and the ratio of the cost of electric power to diesel is approximately 1:5. For example, if you consume $40 per hour in diesel fuel with a mobile scrap handler, compare that to the cost of electric power at $8 per hour. RT: Have recent surges in diesel fuel costs had any effect on demand for stationary machines? DK: Yes, the demand is really exploding, and not only at the scrap yard for feeding shears, shredders and sorting, but also on river ports where people are loading and off-loading barges. RT: Are there differences in wear parts and maintenance routines with an electric-powered scrap handler, and if so what are they? DK: Yes, it’s completely different. First of all, there is not a lot of maintenance on stationary machines because they are electrically driven. Every 2,000 hours we change our filters, and every 6,000 hours we change hydraulic oil—those are the most important maintenance issues.On a diesel-driven machine you have engine maintenance, an oil change every 1,000 hours, a filter change every 1,000 hours; you have to change wheel boxes, tires and batteries.
From the maintenance point, a stationary scrap handler is really a very big advantage concerning downtime and service. For instance, if you have a diesel machine, every day it takes you 15 minutes to refuel it…it takes you a total of 50 hours per year in downtime for refueling only.
RT: For how long can a stationary crane function before major repairs or retrofits are necessary? DK: A diesel engine needs a motor change every 10,000 hours. The most important, critical part on the electric engine is that it has a long life. Since we only work on 2,610 psi, the hydraulic power, all the hydraulic components, actually, go for 15,000 up to 20,000 hours—up to double to triple the life expectancy. RT: What questions should recyclers ask as they research and shop for a stationary handler? DK: As usual, we want to know the reach he needs, what he wants to do, and we explain that he can do more with a stationary machine than he might think. He can feed a shredder, sort material, load and off-load trucks—it’s a complete material handling system.Recyclers often ask, "If my shredder is down, what do I do with the crane?" With a 20,000-square-foot operating range, he can clean up, sort material, move material from the back of the machine’s reach to the front. He can do auxiliary work.
RT: Is there a common mistake recyclers make when selecting stationary scrap handlers?
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I have to explain how much money they’ll save in fuel or in power, how much they’ll save in service, how much they’ll save in having one machine doing the job of three. It’s a process of learning and understanding for the customer.
I always try to sit down and see what he needs and explain the return on investment to justify paying a little bit more up front. A recycler can expect a return on investment in two years.
Another extremely important point is that if you have a mobile machine, it can reach end of life at 15,000 hours. We have machines in the United States 15 years and older with 40,000, 50,000, up to 60,000 operating hours and still working. They would have been paid for four, five, six times over.
RT: How do recyclers go about selecting the right size stationary scrap handler for their operation? DK: They must consider the job they want to do now, the size and reach they want to work with and the job they want to do tomorrow. Many people say they need one size now, and two years later they need a bigger machine because they’ve increased job volume.We have to ask what they expect to be doing in two years, three years and more to get the right machine for their purposes. It takes strategic thinking.
Dietmar Kajnath is with the U.S. office of France-based Seram Group. More information is available at www.seramgroup.com.
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