Electric Advantage

While a growing number of recyclers are looking into the idea of switching from diesel to electric drive material handling machines, Marc Olgin has already jumped right in.

Olgin is the third-generation part owner of Phoenix-based Liberty Iron & Metal Holdings LLC, a family business with more than 65 years in the recycling business. Along with the firm’s joint venture partner, Scholz AG of Essingen, based in Germany, Liberty Iron & Metal Holdings has commissioned new electric drive material handlers from Sennebogen, Stanley, N.C., for three recycling yards since January 2009.

“Electric is the way to go,” Olgin says of his power source choice.

PRODUCTION MINDED

All three of Olgin’s new Sennebogen machines are pedestal-mounted 835 A specials (two C Series and one D Series). Each one is assigned to feed an electrically powered shredder, typically working 55 or more hours per week.

Joe Plumadore, operations manager for Liberty Iron, says, “We prefer to have the scrap handler dedicated to the shredder. As much as we like the mobility of the wheeled 835 M machines for general loading duties, we don’t want to see the shredder units driving off to some other part of the yard. As long as the shredder is ready to go, the Sennebogen will always be ready to feed it.”

Olgin knows Sennebogen equipment well. Liberty Iron and its affiliated companies have been operating Sennebogen material handlers for nearly seven years and currently operate more than 25 Sennebogen machines at their locations throughout North America. Along with the material handlers, Olgin also operates one of the company’s Multihandler 305 machines to load scrap into ocean-going containers.

Liberty Iron & Metal Holdings’ first electric drive machine was commissioned in January 2009 to serve an American Pulverizer 60x85 shredder in Chihuahua, Mexico, at its joint venture partner’s yard, Kalischatarra S. DE R.L.

A month later, the second electric drive material handler arrived at Interstate Shredding LLC, Girard (Youngstown), Ohio, where it feeds a Metso Texas Shredder 80x104 auto shredder.

The third electric drive material handler began operating at Liberty Iron & Metal Southwest LLC, Phoenix, in September alongside another Metso Texas Shredder 80X104 shredder.

All of the company’s electric drive material handlers are equipped with 1.25- to 1.50-yard four-tine grapples on a 66-foot boom/stick combination. Each stands on a 13-foot-1-inch pedestal with a hi-rise cab, providing the operator with a total elevation of more than 22 feet. Plumadore says this pedestal mount provides more reach and allows higher stacking than a conventional scrap handler would allow.

Each of these Liberty Iron & Metal Holdings facilities, as well as all of the company’s other locations in North America, also operate wheeled Sennebogen machines for loading and sorting applications, bringing the company’s total number of Sennebogen units in North America to more than 25.

“We did look into using an umbilical tether for the electrical connection on a crawler-mounted Sennebogen unit, Plumadore says. “The mobility of the tethered machine made it an interesting option, but we decided the stationary units were the best fit for our application.”

Olgin and Plumadore say they appreciate the added safety features included on the D Series models. D Series machines are equipped with the new maXCab, which is designed to allow safer entry to and exit from the cab by way of a sliding door and adjacent catwalk.

According to Plumadore, the maXCab climate control systems create ideal working conditions for Liberty’s Phoenix and Mexico locations, helping to keep the operators comfortable, alert and productive.

PROFITABILITY MINDED

“We saw Sennebogen electric drive machines at work in other facilities before we bought our own,” Olgin says. “We could immediately see the potential savings: reduced maintenance cost, reduced machine wear, reduced parts… the reduced fuel costs are certainly a benefit, but we were sold on electric power by the maintenance savings alone,” he adds.

Of the three Liberty Iron facilities, the company’s Phoenix yard pays the highest rates for electric power. Olgin says he expects the machine will still save him a bundle compared to diesel power. “Depending on the current energy costs at any given time, the savings can be quite dramatic,” he says. “We ran a comparison of the Sennebogen 835 with electric drive against the same machine with a standard diesel engine. Overall, the electric drive unit showed a savings of more than 70 percent of the energy and service costs.”

Olgin continues, “For our analysis, we set electrical power costs at 2 cents per kilowatt hour and diesel fuel at $2 per gallon. At those rates, the basic energy cost dropped from $13 per operating hour to about $1.92.

Maintenance costs were also much less: under half of the service time during the first 2,000 operating hours. Altogether, through 2,000 hours, the electric drive saved nearly $30,000 per machine.” Plumadore adds that the electric drive also offers an advantage in operator uptime. “The operators can get to work faster,” he says. “They save time on their daily checks for the engine and undercarriage, and they don’t need any breaks to refuel.”

Plumadore and Olgin say they appreciate the long-term thinking behind the installation of the Sennebogen machines, too. Instead of simply embedding the pedestals into a concrete base, the machines are set into a floating structure.

Constantino Lannes, president of Sennebogen, says of the floating structure, “compared to a concrete mount, this system does a better job of absorbing shocks from the boom to the base in normal operations.” He adds, “The floating structure also gives you more flexibility to move the machine if you decide to reorganize the yard some time in the future.”

With this investment, Olgin says he feels his operations are in a good position for the coming rebound in the economy. “We see the business stabilizing right now,” he says. “This equipment ensures that we will be ready to handle higher volumes competitively in the long term with the highest uptime and the lowest possible operating cost.”

The author is a freelance writer based in London, Ontario. This text was contributed on behalf of Sennebogen, which can be found on the Internet at www.Sennebogen-na.com.