Equipment report

Unifi selects BHS to supply equipment for its plastics recycling facility

Unifi Manufacturing Inc., Greensboro, North Carolina, has selected Eugene, Oregon-based Bulk Handling Systems (BHS) to design, manufacture and install a front-end polyethylene (PET) purification system in the company’s Reidsville, North Carolina, facility.

Unifi says the system will help achieve its goal of backward integration into bottle processing for its Repreve recycled fiber product line.

The new system, a $25 million investment, is set to begin operation in June 2016 and will feature the latest in screen, air and optical sorting technologies from the BHS family of companies, including BHS, Nihot and National Recovery Technologies (NRT).

According to BHS, the system will process approximately 22,000 pounds per hour of PET bales, removing the nonPET content in preparation for converting the bottles to flake. Pivotal to the secondary plastics purification process, BHS says, are the system’s nine NRT optical sorters.

“We chose BHS and NRT because of their collaboration and attention to detail throughout our decision-making process,” says Mark McNeill, vice president of technology and business development for Unifi. “Their customer service and engineering abilities stood out as first class, and, after conducting site visits and research, we found that BHS and NRT offered the best available technology.”

Repreve is a brand of fiber made from recycled plastic bottles. Unifi says that since 2009 it has recycled more than 4 billion plastic bottles into Repreve-based products made by such brands as Haggar, Ford and Quiksilver, among others.

BHS CEO Steve Miller says Unifi is on the leading-edge of recycling, making high-tech fibers that are used by world-leading brands.

Miller adds, “The company’s investment in this technology reflects Unifi’s commitment to creating material of the highest quality.”

 

Liebherr credits dealer for stronger West Coast presence

Liebherr Construction Equipment Co., Newport News, Virginia, says that in less than two years it has changed its distribution landscape dramatically, crediting a California-based equipment dealer.

The company says it has “optimized its distribution network and expanded outside its predominantly eastern U.S. territory” thanks in part to its partnership with Bejac Corp., Placentia, California.

Liebherr says, “Bejac’s strong presence in the construction and niche markets, like demolition, forestry and material handling has enabled both companies to leverage their industry expertise and their commitment to offering high quality, industry-specific solutions and services to customers across this region.”

The company says Bejac has helped its excavators, dozers, wheel loaders, crawler loaders, high-reach demolition machines and specialized material handlers reach West Coast customers.

 

North Carolina company installs Catawba Free Jam baler

Green Life Waste Solutions LLC, Burlington, North Carolina, has installed a Gold Rush model Free Jam Two-Ram baler designed and made by Catawba Baler & Equipment (CB&E), based in Greensboro, North Carolina.

According to a CB&E news release, Green Life had been running a single-ram baler at maximum capacity, and workers had to stop production to clear material jams four to five times each day.

The situation did not sit well with brothers Justin and Wayne Moody, co-owners of Green Life.

“Safety is one of our largest concerns,” says Justin. “People have to go inside the baler to clear a jam, and we read about workers getting hurt doing this.”

The Moody brothers worked with CB&E and its President Mark McDonald to help find a solution to address its productivity issues and the safety issue.

McDonald says CB&E’s new Gold Rush two-ram baler with its optional, patent pending Free Jam automatic jam-release technology provided the answer.

“We bought CB&E’s Gold Rush baler specifically for the Free Jam door,” Justin says, referring to the technology that prevents workers from having to enter the charge chamber to clear a jam.

 

Green Life Waste took delivery of its new baler in mid-June 2015.

The company previously processed 300 tons of cardboard per month with its old baler. Today, the Moody brothers say the company processes that amount in just over a week using less labor.

“We are getting a heavier bale weight with the Gold Rush, which will enable us to enter the export market and get approximately $15 more per bale,” according to Justin.

 

Imabe of America announces US sales

Imabe of America has announced the sale and planned installation of three pieces of equipment to recyclers in the United States.

The equipment company has sold an H240/3000 horizontal baler to The PRI Group in Bensenville, Illinois. The PRI Group will use the baler to process up to 40 tons of old corrugated containers (OCC) per hour, according to Imabe of America.

Jesse Nasianceno, sales manager for Miami-based Imabe of America, says, “PRI’s Chicagoland recycling facility processes virtually all recyclable commodities, offering businesses more effective and affordable waste management and waste removal services. Its brokerage operation assists businesses throughout the U.S. and provides tailored solutions to meet their growing demands.”

Imabe of America also has announced that Midland Recycling in Lincoln, Nebraska, is installing a horizontal H60/2000 model, and Cencal Recycling in Stockton, California, is installing an H150/2000 horizontal baler from the equipment supplier.

Regarding the horizontal baler product line manufactured by Imabe Iberica, which is based in Spain, Nasianceno cites several advantages, including simplicity, robustness, a quick cycle time and the production of heavy bale weights.

Imabe also produces ferrous scrap balers.

 

Vortex De-Pollution to represent Tetronics in North America

Vortex De-Pollution and Recycling Equipment, Denver, will represent U.K.-based Tetronics International in North America. Tetronics has developed plasma arc systems for five decades and has 109 patents granted or pending.

Vortex will focus on the automotive catalytic converter recovery market, where Tetronics’ technology has been used to recover platinum, palladium and rhodium from precious-metals-bearing scrap materials.

“The process chemistry in Tetronics’ plasma arc technology is designed to smelt and preferentially separate the precious metals from the less valuable catalyst material, which is vitrified into an inert, safe and reusable building product called Plasmarok^®,” Vortex says.

 

Caterpillar announces new strategy for vocational truck product family

Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, Illinois, will begin independently designing and manufacturing its vocational truck product family at its plant in Victoria, Texas. The plant, which opened in 2012, currently produces hydraulic excavators.

Chris Chadwick, Caterpillar director of the Global On-Highway Truck Group, says, “To continue to provide the best solution for our customers, we will bring the design and manufacturing of this product into Caterpillar and the production specifically to Victoria.”

He adds, “Our updated strategy reaffirms our commitment to grow and develop our presence in the vocational truck industry moving forward.”

Caterpillar launched its first vocational truck, the CT660, in the North American market in 2011. Two more models have since been added to the lineup, the CT680 and CT681.

To date, Caterpillar has worked with Navistar to design and build the products, which currently are manufactured in Escobedo, Mexico.

Chadwick says, “As we look to future launches of new truck models, this updated strategy will better position us to help provide our customers with the best products and services for this market.”

Production at the Victoria plant is expected to begin in the first half of 2016, Cat says. The plant will continue to produce excavators, and vocational truck production is expected to add around 200 new jobs at the facility.

Ed O’Neil, excavation division general manager of operations, says, “The Victoria facility was selected because of our team’s proven record of building high-quality Cat products, our commitment to safety, our successful implementation of the Caterpillar Production System and Lean manufacturing. In addition, support from the community and its excellent skilled workforce, as well as the proximity to suppliers, also contributed to the sourcing decision.”

 

Pallmann granulator process PET bottles

Germany’s Pallmann Group, with U.S. offices in Clifton, New Jersey, says it has extended its line of Panther recycling granulators by adding a model specially designed for recycling PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles.

Individual PET bottles are continuously fed into the machine’s cutting chamber by conveyor belt, the company says. In the chamber, “massive, angled rotor knives work with a very close cutting gap against opposing slanted counter knives and cut the bottles into flakes. The [screen] mesh size can be selected, which determines the size of the flakes and throughput rate of the granulator. Throughput rates of up to 3.5 metric tons per hour are possible with a flake size of approximately 0.55 inches (14 millimeters) and the appropriate machine size,” Pallmann adds.

Pallman was founded in 1903.

 

MSS Inc. moves to larger facility

MSS Inc., the optical sorting division of San Diego-based CP Group, has relocated its manufacturing operations to a larger building in Nashville, Tennessee.

The plant, which is more than twice as large as the company’s previous location, includes a testing and demonstration area, where the newest MSS equipment can be seen in action; more warehousing space; and docks that allow overhead crane use.

MSS products include high-resolution sensors, such as the CIRRUS™ for near infrared material sorting, the L-VIS™ for color and shape separation and the MetalSort™ for separating metals.