Fit for the purpose

With scrap recycling facilities throughout the Great Lakes region and down to Florida, Ferrous Processing & Trading (FPT), headquartered in Detroit, is involved in every aspect of the industry. Tony Benacquisto is charged with keeping all of those facilities equipped to perform profitably.

“I’m the one that goes out to find new equipment,” he says. “I have to find the most efficient way of doing something and see how we can improve our bottom line.”

Among Benacquisto’s recent “finds” is a new electric drive Sennebogen 840 scrap handler, commissioned in March 2015 at FPT’s Strong Steel Products yard in Detroit. He chose the 840 to feed flattened cars and other scrap to the largest automobile shredder operating in that region. But this isn’t the first time his search for cost-effective equipment has led him to Sennebogen.

A “CLEAN SLATE” APPROACH TO BUYING

FPT operates several Sennebogen material handlers. The Strong Steel yard also has a rubber-tired version of the machine, an 840 M, and another electrically powered machine, an 835 R-HD, is running at the FPT Kronk facility, which also is in Detroit.

“We’ve had the 835 electric going for four years and had great success with it. So we had the measurable results from it to compare numbers when we were looking for a new electric drive machine.”

Although Benacquisto says he appreciates the Sennebogen equipment that’s in his fleet, he takes a “clean slate” approach every time he searches for new scrap handlers. He collects input from his purchasing team, his maintenance staff, equipment operators and FPT’s engineering department, also located at FPT’s head office in Detroit. The goal is simply to identify the best overall solution for each specific process. When an equipment supplier proves to have the right machine for the task at hand, Benacquisto still needs to choose the right model and configuration for the job.

THE EFFICIENCY OF ELECTRIC DRIVE

To match up with the megashredder at FPT’s Strong Steel Products yard, Benacquisto knew he wanted an electric drive scrap handler.

“I’ve had electric equipment in the past, going back to our electric overhead cranes. I knew the efficiency of electric as compared to diesel; when you add the rising price of diesel to the maintenance cost of diesel, it far exceeds what electricity costs. With the way the price of diesel was jumping a year ago, it just made sense to go electric.”

Benacquisto adds, “We did look at other electric machines, all the different colors. We tried another one first, but it did not meet our expectations; it was a big disappointment. Then we ordered the Sennebogen 840.”

FOCUSED ON THROUGHPUT

The 835 R-HD electric drive at FPT’s Kronk facility is mounted on crawler tracks and is powered through a tether cable that allows it to travel within a limited range. The company’s new 840, however, is mounted on a four-point floating structure with a pylon in a fixed location adjacent to the shredder.

Jeff Beebe is part of FPT’s purchasing group and works on-site with the 840 scrap handler every day. “We had our yard arrangement all laid out before we purchased the machine,” he says. “The plan was to unload trucks and to feed the shredder, all within the same swing radius. The machine we chose, the 840, is mounted on a floating pedestal and has enough reach that no mobility is needed.”

The Strong Steel site is 9-acres and processes in excess of 200,000 tons per year. The operation is purely focused on shredder throughput. Flattened automobiles arrive on trailers and are fed through the shredder. Ferrous material is separated by a magnet. The clean material is shipped to customers by rail and truck.

Benacquisto says he was very comfortable with choosing Sennebogen from the beginning. “I had visited the factory in Germany and met Erich Sennebogen, so I knew their abilities,” he says. “Constantino Lannes (president of Sennebogen LLC, Stanley, North Carolina) was here at our site for our negotiations on the machine.

“We expected similar performance to our 835, but we went up to the 840 model for added throughput,” Benacquisto adds.

The electric 835 R-HD has been in service for four years, logging more than 45,000 hours on the original electric motor. Beebe says that shows him electric drive was the right way to go.

“That could be up to four [diesel] engines or more,” he says. “We have an excellent rebuild program with another supplier of diesel machines, but this system surpasses even that.”

ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

Watching the 840 scrap handler operate, Beebe says, “It’s nice and quiet, too. Noise and pollution are definite factors—it’s noticed in the yard. The operator likes that, especially with Sennebogen’s elevating cab, there’s more separation from the machine and vibration. No exhaust blowing on you.”

He continues, “A big issue with new machines today, especially big machines, is the emissions—the Tier 3 and Tier 4 stuff. The electric just takes that right out of the equation.”

Beebe recalls that the operator was “a little leery” of the 840 scrap handler when he first began to run it. “The pedestal gives the machine a 9-foot, 10-inch rise, and the elevated cab adds another 8 feet, 10 inches of height. It took some getting used to, to work up that high, but now he rides it up and down like an elevator.”

SERVICE SUPPORT

The arrival of the 840 at the Strong Steel Products yard coincided with the arrival of Wixon, Michigan-based Alta Equipment as the regional distributor for Sennebogen equipment. Benacquisto says he was pleased to see that Alta is opening a new branch in Detroit, becoming the only heavy-equipment dealer located within the city limits.

“They are a young company, working hard and doing well,” Benacquisto says.

Having factory-trained field support for the machines completes the overall productivity package for FPT. “In terms of the electric machine, the perks to it greatly outweigh the downside. This unit exceeds our value proposition,” Benacquisto says.

This feature was submitted on behalf of Sennebogen LLC, based in Stanley, North Carolina. More information is available at http://sennebogen-na.com.