Off the Rim

In the world of scrap tire recycling, many companies take in tires and create feedstock for subsequent use, be it primary shreds for landfilling or finer material for product manufacturing. Firms also purchase feedstock outright to manufacture recycled rubber products. Then, there are a rare few, like Eco-Flex, who do it all: take in whole tires, process them down to various crumb sizes and create a broad range of products from that crumb.

THE PRODUCT LINEUP

Every tire taken in and processed at Eco-Flex, Legal, Alberta, Canada, will see a second life, whether it is as landfill cover, which the company provides in the form of 4-inch-nominal material, or, more importantly, as one of the many products offered by Eco-Flex and its parent company, Champagne Edition, with a plant in Edmonton, Alberta, and a sales and marketing office in Rockwood, Ontario. The company offers everything from a product called EZ Drive, a mini-ramp of sorts that fills the gap between a driveway and a lower road surface, to keystone flooring (for use in high-end equestrian applications) to playground surfaces to small aircraft runways and more.

“EZ Drive is one of our most popular products, mainly because so many people have scraped their cars, motor homes or motorcycles dealing with the distance between a gutter and a driveway,” says Plant Supervisor Blake McMillan. “This eliminates that huge gap and literally lasts forever.”

Sales of products for the equestrian market, such as the company’s SoftStep tiles, have been very good for Eco-Flex as well. While it might seem strange to think about a comfortable surface for a horse to walk on, it’s important to remember that many of these animals are worth millions of dollars to their owners. “Some of the stables for show horses or racing horses are as nice as many people’s homes, so the animal’s comfort is obviously a priority. The keystone flooring we offer fits that need well in terms of comfort, safety, temperature control and durability,” McMillan says.

Other products offered by Eco-Flex/Champagne Edition include portable base mats for remote staging operations, industrial flooring, base stabilization pavers and, the product that started it all, the Cozy Cow mattress system.

Before it can produce products, however, the company has to first remove a decent percentage of its scrap tires from their rims, a part of the process that, until recently, proved cumbersome to the overall operation. With the purchase of a Versi Pro 15 from Superior, Wis.-based Genesis Attachments, Eco-Flex says it feels it has addressed that issue. Proof of the attachment’s effect on the company’s operation can be found in higher efficiencies, lowered manpower demands and improved on-site safety in the rim-removal facet of its operation, Eco-Flex reports.

BEYOND COW MATS

Established in 1992, Eco-Flex is one of Alberta’s largest scrap tire recycling operations, handling anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 tires per day. According to McMillan, the company has seen its share of changes in the last 18 years.

“When Alan Champagne founded this company, he was purchasing crumb rubber to support a very limited production effort: the manufacture of cow mats,” he says. “Based on the fact that recycling companies in Canada were, at the time, paid for every recycling-related effort, he quickly realized that it made good sense for him to produce his own crumb. Doing so would allow him to get paid for collecting tires, shredding them, creating crumb and manufacturing products. Today we offer a diverse choice of products for a broad range of industries, but that was the real start of what is now Eco-Flex.”

PROCESSING POINTS

The tire processing effort at Eco-Flex starts with whole tires that are collected from throughout the province. It should be noted that collected loads generally consist of a mixture of tires—anything from agricultural tires to huge mining tires. However, Eco-Flex says it has found that it gets the best results using only those tires recovered from passenger vehicles. Once received at the company’s site in Legal (about 40 minutes north of Edmonton), loads are separated into two piles: those with rims and those without.

“It is here that we used to rely upon a crew of four men and two machines to remove tires from the rims,” McMillan says. “The machines for doing so were trailer-mounted units powered by a gas engine with two hydraulic cylinders. One cylinder would come in and clamp the tire against a small frame, another would push in, causing the rim to kink a bit, releasing the tire.”

While Eco-Flex says it could get fairly decent production using this method—roughly 300 tires per hour—the repetitive motion, rehandling and general monotony of maintaining that pace was extremely tough on the workers. McMillan says the company could count on getting that level of production out of its staff for a couple months at best.

“By month three, they’d be dragging,” he says, “and either production would suffer, or we’d have to put on a new crew to do that job.

“Just as important, however, was the fact that there was also something of a risk factor with the old de-rimming system,” he continues. “On a number of occasions, workers had a tire shoot out and hit them or another worker in the calf, bruising it. We knew we needed a better way to get those tires off the rims.”

FINDING AN ANSWER

McMillan says the most ambitious alternative to the de-rimming machines, shearing, first became an option worth considering when the company started seeing tires from a scrap yard come in cut in half.

“That told us the concept was real,” he says. “But what really kept us from pursuing that approach was the fact that mobile shears are generally too big for our needs. While we do have a decent amount of scrap come through here, we have no plans to be cutting 12-inch I-beams anytime soon. So we were sold on the idea—we just didn’t need a large shear.”

He adds that, even though Eco-Flex limits its processes to passenger tires, the tires the company takes in and separates can vary greatly. “[The tires] can be anywhere in size from as small as 12 inches to as large as 28 inches in diameter; some are the old split-rim style, some are farm truck tires, some with tubes and liners and so on,” McMillan says. “That range made our demands for an effective de-rimming tool even more challenging.”

FITTING IN

McMillan and Eco-Flex’ need for powerful cutting forces in a smaller shear matched the description of the Versi Pro. Manufactured by Genesis Attachments, the Versi Pro is an excavator-mounted, hydraulic processing tool with interchangeable jaws. The first model the company offered, the Versi Pro 7, was designed for use with skid-steer loaders and mini-excavators in the 10,000- to 15,000-pound range and found the broadest initial acceptance in scrap and demolition applications. According to David Palvere, Genesis business development manager, a new model introduced last year seemed the perfect fit for the Eco-Flex operation.

“The Versi Pro 7 was very well-received and continues to sell well for us,” Palvere says. “At the same time, however, we had a number of customers come to us saying they wanted that same power and functionality for a slightly larger machine. So we responded with the GVP-15, and Eco-Flex is proof that it’s finding its niche markets.”

Eco-Flex officials contacted Genesis and, after some discussion, McMillan says any hesitation the company might have had at the time about making a capital equipment purchase was quickly dispelled.

“In our dealings with Genesis, they worked hard to make sure we had what we needed and that the terms worked for us; that essentially sealed the deal,” he says. “We made the purchase and currently have the Versi Pro mounted on a Cat 320L.”

Watching McMillan or another operator at the Eco-Flex operation de-rim tires is a bit like watching an artist at work. The operator simply reaches into the tire pile with the Versi Pro, selects a tire and moves it into position. Then, the attachment’s shear jaws—with a cutting force of 336 tons at the throat—make the cut, freeing the tire from its rim.

“The ideal tire is one that still has air in it,” McMillan says. “We are able to just shear the rim with the attachment and it essentially blows itself off the rim. For those tires that are flat, we generally just make the cut, and rub the tire against the ground to remove it from the rim.” He continues, “Then we simply toss the rim onto a scrap pile and push the rubber off to one side where it will later be taken to an area for primary shredding.”

Getting the tires off the rim for subsequent use is, of course, the primary objective for using the Versi Pro. However, recent changes in governmental policy have given the attachment a whole new sense of importance.

“Recycling operations in Canada are, to some degree or another, sponsored by the provincial government,” McMillan says. “But, over the last few years, the way in which they pay us has started to change. For example, a number of years ago they paid us to take in tires, they paid us to shred them and then they paid us after [the shred] was converted to a sold product. Now they are only paying for it after the crumb has been made into a product and sold to someone else—so things have tightened up considerably.”

He adds, “That’s another factor that steered us toward getting the Versi Pro. We knew it would afford us an opportunity to generate some additional income, both through the processing of the rims and the occasional scrap cleanups we do on site."

BEYOND THE NUMBERS

The impact on the de-rimming facet of the operation since switching to the Versi Pro has been immediate and noticeable in a number of ways, according to the company. McMillan says it is not fair to simply look at the number of tires processed per hour.

“With the Versi Pro we are now doing anywhere from 160 to 200 tires per hour, which, at first glance, might seem to be a downturn in production.” He adds, “That’s just not the case. By making the change, we went from four men and two machines to one man and one machine. And, because we now don’t have any back strains, lost time claims, severely bruised shins and so on, our efficiency is actually much better.”

Added to that is the fact that Eco-Flex’ old de-rimming machines tended to break down every two to three days. In fact, McMillan says, the company kept spare motors on hand to swap out whenever one blew—and they blew often.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that we are much better off now than we were then,” he says of the company’s operation. “This is a safer and much more efficient way to do things; we have a lot more flexibility, and our maintenance demands are way down. The Versi Pro 15 has been a real nice fit for this part of the process, and I sense it will keep proving itself as we go along.” McMillan adds, “We are still making some adjustments to different parts of the process, but once we have it exactly as we want it, we are considering a similar operation in Ontario. We are very happy with what we have now, and equally excited for what lies ahead."

This article was submitted on behalf of Genesis Attachments, Superior, Wis.