Advancements in attachment coupling technology combined with new products mean materials processing can increasingly take place at the end of an excavator arm.
Excavators and hydraulic material handler attachments used by demolition contractors and recyclers have always had a variety of functions, but this century has witnessed an increase in attachments that can serve as “mini” processing plants.
At the 2020 ConExpo-Con/Agg event held in Las Vegas in March, several existing and newly introduced attachments with processing capabilities were on display.
Several exhibiting companies also focused on product features designed to help hydraulic material handler users change out their attachments more easily, or upgrade the hydraulic systems that provide power to processing and cutting attachments.
As project managers and contractors consider how to cost-effectively crush, grind, screen and chew through material on-site, they increasingly have options that allow them to do so using only an excavator, its operator and a custom-designed processing attachment.
At ConExpo 2020, Engcon, a Swedish company with American headquarters in North Haven, Connecticut, said the display of its tiltrotator technology for excavator attachments attracted some 10,000 visitors.
The company says its tiltrotator is a component often described as a flexible wrist between the arm of the excavator and its attachments, enabling an excavator to rotate a bucket or other attachment 360 degrees and tilt it up to 45 degrees.
The Engcon technology also was featured at other OEM booths, including those of Doosan, Hyundai, John Deere and Kobelco. The tiltrotator was attached to a variety of excavation equipment, enabling attendees to see the technology live in action or demo it themselves at the Engcon exhibit area.
“Thousands of ConExpo attendees were able to demo the Engcon tiltrotator,” says Krister Blomgren, CEO of Engcon. “We have received a lot of praise for letting customers test drive an excavator with our tiltrotator technology—a fun element for the visitors and a great way to get a deeper understanding of how the tiltrotator is changing the world of digging.”
In addition to digging with buckets, the Engcon tiltrotator also can be outfitted with grapples, rippers, asphalt cutters, pallet forks and sweeping brooms, says the company.
McDonough, Georgia-based HydrauliCircuit Technology (HCT) is focusing on the hydraulic power needed to efficiently operate the world’s growing fleet of attachments.
Greg Hickman of HCT says the company manufactures extreme-duty auxiliary hydraulic kits (also known as “wet kits”) to operate virtually any attachment on excavators ranging between 8 to 120 metric tons in size.
Hickman cites shears and multi-function processors (with or without rotate motors), including crushers and breakers, as the types of attachments that can see operating benefits with a wet kit. “Other attachments may include grapples (with or without rotate motors), thumbs and quick couplers,” he comments.
HCT technology is based on the company’s modular design. Hickman adds, “We can add or subtract certain kit functions that the customer may or may not be interested in.”
He continues, “HCT consults with the excavator and attachment manufacturers and distributors on a regular basis to keep up with the many excavator models and machine series [on the market]. Our measure of success is providing our customers with well-fitted kits that are easy to install, and where the customer gets the maximum allowable performance that the machine and attachment was designed [for].”
Findlay, Ohio-based Werk-Brau Co. Inc. says its new line of extreme-duty excavator buckets has been designed for durability and effectiveness even in brutal conditions by featuring “an aggressive dig angle, rugged construction of abrasion-resistant AR400 through AR500 steel and horizontal wear strips.”
Werk-Brau says the U.S.-manufactured extreme-duty buckets are available in sizes available from 3/8 of a cubic yard to 10 cubic yards “in various widths, with special designs and capacities available on request.”
The company adds, “Werk-Brau Extreme-Duty Excavator Buckets are ideal for demolition work, shot rock, abrasive applications, moderate prying and—when paired with a thumb—material handling.”
The cutter bit on the buckets is made from what Werk-Brau calls “extreme duty T-1 [ASTM A514 steel] material,” while other critical or high-wear components use AR400 through AR500 high-carbon steel for strength and durability, the firm says.
“By starting with robust, dependable materials, the bucket is designed for heavy-duty action and able to endure excessive wear and tear,” states Werk-Brau. “In addition to strong materials, the design of the bucket was also made with durability in mind. Horizontal wear strips and an extra-thick cutting edge backed by a wear plate that covers the entire bucket bottom ensure greater endurance. Side wear plates protect high wear areas to extend the buckets’ operational lifetime.”
Wet kits from HCT are designed to make field installation not only possible, but seamless, says Hickman. He says, “Most HCT kits are based on actual in-house installations performed at our 35,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in McDonough.” Hickman adds that “HCT has professionally trained product support technicians that provide best-in-class after-sale support to our customers who are installing or servicing our kits.”
Atlanta-based Geith is another manufacturer of excavator and material handler attachments that focused on coupler technology at ConExpo 2020, where it debuted its G4 quick coupler.
“Geith’s design and manufacturing teams produce couplers that work extremely well with excavators,” says Adrian Kelly, sales manager for Geith. “We brought 60 years of experience and expertise to this new coupler, and the result is one of the safest, most productive couplers on the market, with superior durability.”
The G4 includes a variable pin center design created to allow operators to easily pick up and swap a wide range of OEM attachments. Additionally, the coupler can reverse buckets to allow the operator to excavate against walls and under pipes.
Geith says the G4’s multi-pin pickup system has been designed to provide easy pickup of attachments with different pin diameters, creating efficiencies when changing attachments. The configuration also allows operators to change attachments without leaving their cabs.
“As always, we’re focused on safety,” says Kelly. “As we design new products, we look for ways Geith attachments can make a job site safer. The G4 continues that tradition.”
Among the processing attachments new or emerging in 2020 are bucket crushers from Sweden-based Epiroc, which has a U.S. office in Broomfield, Colorado.
The company says its bucket crushers “combine low maintenance and high performance while processing a wide range of materials, including aggregate, asphalt and concrete.” Bucket crushers allow contractors to increase the versatility of carriers, especially on demolition, recycling and road construction applications, according to Epiroc.
“The attachments feature powerful components that allow carrier operators to crush as much as 110 tons of material per hour,” states the firm, pointing to a drive system that contains two hydraulic motors and a timing belt designed to “generate the high torque needed for powering the crushing jaw.”
Epiroc also says its internally mounted drive system eliminates protruding components to minimize the risk of dust entering the hydraulic system and to protect key components from flying debris. “Additionally, operators can control the diameter of the crushed materials by easily adjusting the jaw outlet without any special tools,” states the firm.
Another Sweden-based firm focusing on versatility is Brokk Inc., which has a North American office in Monroe, Washington. Brokk, which manufactures remote-controlled demolition machines, also has introduced the BCP planer attachment for what it calls “controlled material removal on walls, floors and ceilings for cleaning, renovation and restoration applications.”
The three models in the BCP series are designed to work with the company’s remote-control demolition machines “and offer up to seven times the speed of handheld options while providing greater precision and safety for grinding, brushing or removing concrete, glue, carpet, tile and other materials,” Brokk says.
“With the BCP planer, our customers can tackle more jobs in more industries with confidence,” says Lars Lindgren, president of Brokk. “The attachment streamlines removal applications by eliminating the need for bulky scaffolding and additional manpower and offers a degree of precision that handheld options just can’t match.”
The Finland-based Allu Group, which has a North American office in East Brunswick, New Jersey, displayed its new Transformer line of screener crusher attachments, which feature the company’s new TS blade structure designed to “transform unusable dirt, construction waste and green waste into valuable material, ultimately transforming the way contractors and producers work.”
According to Allu, the TS blades inside an Allu TS drum “spin between screening combs.” The resulting end product size is defined by the space between those combs, says the company, “and now an updated Allu TS blade structure has been developed that delivers increased levels of versatility, efficiency and productivity.”
The new TS assembly enables a greater number of fragment sizes from the same unit, says the company. “The single-blade setup positions two or three blades in a single position, with a screening comb between every blade. Operators can now double or even triple the blades and combs, allowing up to three times more fragment size variations from 8 millimeters up to 105 millimeters.”
Allu says its Transformer line of attachments works with wheel loaders, excavators, skid steers and backhoes “to screen, crush, pulverize, aerate, blend, mix, separate, feed and load materials all in one stage—increasing an operation’s efficiency and profitability.”
The number of companies devoting research and investment into making attachments more productive is likely to convince demo contractors and materials recyclers that their industry is gaining the right kind of attention.
This article originally ran in the Nov. Dec. issue of Construction & Demolition Recycling. The author is a senior editor with the Recycling Today Media Group and can be contacted at btaylor@gie.net.
ACBs can ventilate, pressurize and clean particles from dusty air without using any filter elements, according to the manufacturer.
Highland, New York-based Air Cleaning Blowers LLC says it has developed and patented a series of technologies that enable a blower to clean the air without using a filter element that clogs and constantly needs replacing.
Edward Roston, also the owner of Aero Conditioner Co. LLC, founded Air Cleaning Blowers in 2017 to manufacture a self-cleaning air filtering blower that could be used even in the harshest of industrial and military environments, according to the company.
ACBs ventilate, pressurize and clean particles from even exceedingly dusty air without using any filter elements, the company says, helping reduce the costs and complications of providing ventilation in industrial, commercial and residential buildings. Air Cleaning Blowers says the devices are simpler to size and use than systems that use ordinary air filters and air purifiers because they have no filter elements to clog, providing constant and predictable airflow, air pressure, air quality and energy consumption.
ACBs originally were developed for dusty, corrosive and other harsh industrial and military conditions and are used in applications as diverse and challenging as an African diamond mine, electrical controls in steel plants, dust control in a food manufacturing plant and at U.S. military satellite-tracking trailers in the Middle East.
As ACBs pull ambient air through their housings, they use the particles' own momentum to separate them from the clean air, the company says. They can remove sand, dust and other particles, as well as mist and rain.
ACB founder and CEO Roston says, "What we have developed here at Air Cleaning Blowers is a real innovative technology that can seriously help slow down the spread of pathogens and protect the health of many people."
ACBs can fit applications with airflows from 50 to 3,500 cubic feet per minute. They also can serve as prefilters for specialized downstream filters, such as HEPA, activated carbon and the media in swamp coolers, to increase their lives and to decrease their costs of operation.
The company adds that it has been working with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to develop canopies to protect people in close contact with the public or their fellow workers, such as store cashiers, meat packers and others on production lines, from the coronavirus.
Midwest Association of Rail Shippers online winter meeting replaces one of two annual in-person meetings.
The Chicago-based Midwest Association of Rail Shippers (MARS) is holding its virtual Winter Meeting Jan. 20, 2021, with a registration process in progress through Jan. 15.
MARS says speakers at the event will include Kathryn Farmer, the new president and CEO of Texas-based BNSF Railway Corp., and Keith Creel, president and CEO of Canadian Pacific.
“Having two rail industry leaders in Ms. Farmer and Mr. Creel—as well as an excellent lineup of freight rail experts and advisors—makes our Winter Meeting a can’t-miss event,” says MARS President Stefan Loeb. “We reviewed evaluations from recent meetings to determine the speakers and topics that were of highest interest and have put together a value-packed meeting for attendees.”
In addition to Creel and Farmer, other speakers at the half-day afternoon event include Timothy Quinlan, a senior economist with Wells Fargo; Paul Titterton, North American rail chief operating officer with Chicago-based railcar leasing firm GATX Corp.; and Anthony B. Hatch of New York-based transportation financing firm ABH Consulting.
The Winter Meeting is available to all MARS members who have paid 2021 dues of $25.
MARS describes itself as one of five regional North American associations under the North American Rail Shippers (NARS) national organization that provide “an open forum for discussion and resolution of rail transportation issues by bringing railroads, shippers, receivers, and rail supply companies together.” MARS members usually meet in person twice each year.
Scrap processing firm says it tripled its quarter-to-quarter earnings in the period from September to November 2020.
Portland, Oregon-based Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc. says it more than tripled its earnings per share in the financial quarter that ended Nov. 30, 2020, compared with the previous one that ran from June through August of last year.
The September to November 2020 time frame marked the first quarter of fiscal 2021 for Schnitzer, and the company says the 50 cents per diluted share it earned marked a sizable increase from the 14 cents per share earned in the final quarter of fiscal 2020.
“We were very pleased with our first-quarter results, which reflect our second highest first-quarter operating income in the last 10 years,” says Tamara Lundgren, chairman and CEO of the scrap processing and auto recycling firm. “This strong performance reflects the resiliency of our operations and the agility of our team in leveraging positive market conditions while delivering on our productivity and operational efficiency initiatives and continuing to execute on our longer-term strategic initiatives.”
Lundgren also points to “strategic investments in advanced metal recovery technologies [that] will further enhance our operational efficiencies, and we expect to complete construction of these projects by the end of this fiscal year.”
Regarding market conditions, Lundgren comments, “There are many trends that support strong and sustainable ferrous and nonferrous scrap demand. The recent sharp increases in prices have been driven by low inventory levels after many quarters of destocking, followed by significantly higher steel mill and smelter buy plans and production levels, the transition to lower carbon technologies and the prospect of China’s re-emergence as an importer in the global ferrous scrap market. In a world that is seeking de-carbonization, we expect recycled scrap metal to be an increasingly important metals carbon solution and for demand to accelerate.”
The company says markets for scrap metal strengthened during the recently completed quarter, “with domestic ferrous selling prices returning to pre-COVID levels and nonferrous and export ferrous selling prices reaching multiyear highs by the end of the quarter.”
In the ferrous market, Schnitzer writes that “higher average selling prices and a strong focus on productivity improvements led to an expansion in metal spreads and operating margins, reflected in net income per ferrous ton of $14 and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) per ferrous ton of $38 in the quarter, both of which reflect a strong sequential increase from $4 and $27 [in the previous quarter], respectively.”
The EW200E material handler is aimed at the light waste handling segment.
The EW200E and EW240E are eligible for a free year of ActiveCare Direct, the Volvo telematics service that provides continuous machine monitoring and fleet utilization reporting directly from Volvo. They also are backed by the Volvo Lifetime Frame and Structure Warranty, which covers the frame, boom and arm for the entirety of the initial ownership period.