Equipment Report

James River Equipment becomes Sennebogen dealer

James River Equipment, Ashland, Virginia, has entered into an agreement with Sennebogen LLC, Stanley, North Carolina, to become the company’s dealer in Virginia. According to a news release from Sennebogen, James River Equipment had been looking to expand its range of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) lines with the right complementary machines for its customers the past two years.

“We are very pleased to have such an experienced and diversified representative to serve Sennebogen’s customers in this region,” says Constantino Lannes, president of Sennebogen LLC. “As a long-standing family-owned business with a clear focus on customer support, James River is an ideal match for Sennebogen purpose-built material handlers,” he adds.

Originally founded in Colorado in 1926 by Rudolf Romer, James River Equipment migrated to its current base near Richmond, Virginia, and is now led by the founder’s great-grandson, Mark Romer. The dealership represents the full range of John Deere equipment throughout a four-state area, including eight branches in Virginia that will support the Sennebogen line.

John Grantier, James River’s vice president of sales in Virginia, highlights the areas where Sennebogen fulfills the company’s mission to provide customers with a complete one-stop source of primary equipment. “Two of our niche markets include logging and material handling,” Grantier says. “Our employees have been in these industries for many years and have seen our customers’ needs evolve. Our parts and service departments have unique specialties to handle the needs of both industries, and thus makes us a great partner for both logging and material handling.”

Grantier says he attributes his team’s strong relationship with scrap yards and log mills as a good foundation for growing Sennebogen’s presence in Virginia.

Sennebogen’s resources in North America also complement James River’s commitment to service and parts, Sennebogen reports in the news release.

Although Sennebogen machines aren’t manufactured in the U.S., Sennebogen’s 100,000-square-foot facility for its head office, warehouse and training center are nearby in Stanley. “Knowing that Sennebogen resources are so close to our own footprint made us feel confident in our ability to add Sennebogen to our lineup,” Grantier adds. “Having the headquarters so close allows us to train our sales and product support groups properly. Our product support group has already sent many of our parts and service teams to Sennebogen for on-site training.”

The Heico Cos. acquires Shred-Tech

The Heico Cos., Chicago, has completed the acquisition of a majority interest in Shred-Tech Corp. Shred-Tech specializes in designing and manufacturing mobile and stationary shredding equipment for the document destruction and recycling industries. Based in Ontario, Shred-Tech also has operations in the U.S., U.K. and Thailand.

Heico partnered in the acquisition with Rob Glass, Shred-Tech president and CEO, who will continue to lead the company.

“Rob Glass and his terrific team have built a high-class company that is a leader in its field,” Emily Heisley Stoeckel, Heico chairman, says. “We are optimistic that Heico’s array of global resources will help Shred-Tech continue to grow and expand its offering.”

“We reached a time when some of our founding shareholders were ready to exit the business, and we went on a search for a partner that would provide both a strong, long-term home for the company and its many valued employees and also the resources to continue our growth and development,” Glass says. “Heico fits that requirement very well, and we are excited to work with it for years to come.”

Sebright Products expands facility

Waste handling and recycling equipment manufacturer Sebright Products Inc. of Hopkins, Michigan, says it has expanded its production facility to accommodate growing demand for its patented recycling equipment.

The expansion includes a 15,800-square-foot climate-controlled addition to the company’s main manufacturing facility that is equipped with a 30-ton capacity overhead crane, four jib cranes, a 10-foot-by-25-foot plasma table and machining center capable of processing steel up to 4 inches thick. Sebright also recently added two 3,500-square-foot storage buildings.

The company says it plans to complete the addition of a parts and service office, an electrical assembly addition and paint booth prep and final inspection area in the spring of 2020.

Gary Brinkmann, managing director of Sebright Products International, adds, “Sebright Products’ founders created this company to provide jobs for the local community. This expansion is the embodiment of that commitment, and we are thrilled to continue to invest in our community’s future.”

The company says it employs more than 90 people and will be adding positions for welders and other technical personnel.

AI-powered robotic system operational at Zanker Recycling

Helsinki-based ZenRobotics Ltd. and Westminster, Colorado-based Plexus Recycling Technologies have announced that ZenRobotics’ ZRR2 AI robots are operational at Zanker Recycling in San Jose, California.

“The advantage of deploying AI (artificial intelligence) robotics to recycling differentiates Zanker from our competitors,” says Michael Gross, director of sustainability for Zanker Recycling. “Reaching the diversion goals is extremely important to us, which is why we chose Plexus Recycling Technologies as our partner in reaching these goals.”

The ZenRobotics ZRR2 will operate 20 hours per day and process 150,000 tons per year, increasing Zanker Recycling’s diversion of recyclables by 20 percent, according to a news release. Through the system, material feeding is “highly automated” from the beginning of the process, the company says. The front end operates 50 percent of the time to process inbound material. In the middle of the system are two large dosing bunkers that store up to 100 tons of material. The “ZenRobotics Brain” controls these along with all equipment downstream to allow a “very smooth” operation “focused on recovery and efficiency.”

Owned by Zanker Road Resource Management, Zanker Recycling is a privately owned solid waste and recycling company that began operations in 1985 by developing a landfill into a full-service resource management, composting and recycling facility. In 1998, Zanker Recycling expanded operations by permitting an adjacent landfill site as a construction and demolition debris processing facility. The facilities process more than 2,600 tons of mixed debris per day and divert more than 80 percent of waste they receive from landfill.

Plexus Recycling Technologies, the North American distributor for ZenRobotics, provided “key European equipment,” including Komptech’s Terminator, Ballistor and drum screen, for the system. The system’s electrical controls were provided by Hertlein Industries, a San Francisco-based company that specializes in automatizing waste processing systems.

Greenwave Salvage & Recycling installs shredder

New York-based Greenwave Salvage & Recycling majority owner and President Hans Hendrick says his company will install a shredder supplied by Hammel Recyclingtechnik GmbH, headquartered in Bad Salzungen, Germany, at its yard in East Schuyler, New York.

Hendrick says the VB 950 primary shredder was delivered to the yard in mid-August. The company is installing the shredder itself, and Hendrick says he expects to begin processing material within two months of the shredder’s delivery. The installation also includes a downstream drum magnet to recover ferrous material and eddy current separator, which will recover aluminum. Hendrick says he initially will work with brokers to sell the recovered metals.

The red metal scrap generated by the shredder will be directed to the auto shredder residue (ASR), which the company plans to sell for further processing.

Hendrick previously owned Hendrick’s Salvage. Vreeland Asset Management, New York City, took a stake in the company two years ago, he says, which is when the company’s name was changed to Greenwave Salvage & Recycling.

The Hammel shredder is being installed inside a building that already houses Greenwave’s nonferrous processing operations. It will be fitted with a 6-inch screen, and material that is not screened out will be refed.

“We started getting more material than we can handle. We started running out of space and getting overwhelmed,” Hendrick says of his reasons for installing the shredder.

The shredder also will allow Greenwave to be more competitive, he says, and will “cut trucking in half” by allowing more density per load.

Company Wrench expands its Fuchs territory

Fuchs, a Terex brand of material handlers with North American headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, has expanded its presence into North and South Carolina. According to a news release from Fuchs, the company is now covered in those states by its long-term distributor Company Wrench, which is headquartered in Carroll, Ohio.

“We’ve had great success with Company Wrench, who has been the authorized distributor of the Fuchs line of equipment in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida. Since they already have locations in North and South Carolina, it was a perfect match to utilize their expertise in product, parts and service support to expand our reach into these states,” says Tim Gerbus, Fuchs North American sales director.

Company Wrench will now focus on all sectors of the marketplace for the Carolinas and its existing Fuchs territories. With the addition of the new Fuchs MHL310 to the portfolio, Company Wrench will provide a focus on the waste and recycling market.

“Company Wrench’s focus on providing ‘the Cutting Edge of Customer Service’ was also a deciding factor in expanding their territory to the Carolinas—they are the right fit for Fuchs and we see huge potential for mutual growth and success in this area,” Gerbus adds.