Adding value every day

Red Ball Recycling prides itself on putting its customers first. That’s why the Jeffersonville, Indiana-based scrap company, now in its 10th year, has continued to expand its truck fleet, add new container solutions and invest in new equipment to boost its recycling capabilities. 

In October 2023, the company’s Jeffersonville location received a major upgrade with the simultaneous installations of a Zato Blue Devil shredder and a mobile hammermill. The Blue Devil, in particular, has been tasked with preshredding ferrous and nonferrous metals, including No. 2 scrap, tin, white goods and some aluminum products such as mixed low-copper (MLC) aluminum scrap. 

The Blue Devil has made its presence felt at the 17-acre site, helping lift Red Ball’s processing output since its installation, Red Ball owner Brian Donaghy says. 

Working alongside the 1,200-horsepower hammermill shredder, the Blue Devil has “transformed our operation into something different than it was prior,” Donaghy says, adding that in the past, Red Ball had shipped its scrap to a company for shredding. 

“We went from a company that just shipped to a shredder to a company that preshreds and shreds,” he says. “In my opinion, you probably wouldn’t want to run a small shredder without a Zato, as far as a preshredder is concerned. It’s helped us.” 

Red Ball’s home base is its full-service Jeffersonville yard, but it recently opened a second location on 10 acres in Madison, Indiana. The company serves commercial and industrial customers, as well as the public, accepting a wide range of metal products, including aluminum cans and scrap, steel scrap, copper wire and pipe, brass, stainless steel, old appliances, electric motors, end-of-life vehicles and automotive and industrial batteries, so long as those batteries are not lithium-ion or nickel-cadmium. 

The company also offers transportation solutions, including various sizes of roll-off containers; flat, van or dump trailers; mobile shearing and baling; and industrial machinery and removal and plant-dismantling services. It also performs on-site audits to provide customers with an overview of their metal materials to help formulate detailed plans catered to them. 

When the time came to increase its service offerings with the addition of a preshredder, Donaghy says a Zato machine became an easy choice for Red Ball because the Blue Devil runs on diesel and fit his needs in terms of lead time and price point. 

Also, Donaghy notes, the addition of a preshredder became a necessity. 

“We felt that running [material] through this preshredder was going to be kind of a must for us to size the material and eliminate heavies from the shredder, and to try to eliminate the potential for thermal events,” he says. 

Zato, which is headquartered in Prevalle, Italy, and has a North American base in Hebron, Kentucky, says the Blue Devil is a bestseller in the scrap recycling market because its versatility can meet or exceed almost all production requirements. The equipment developer notes that the Blue Devil can shred light- to medium-grade scrap including entire cars with their engines. 

The Blue Devil features counter-rotating cutting shafts powered by four hydraulic motors (two per shaft), coupled to four planetary gearboxes (also two per shaft). Zato adds that the machine’s slow-rotating high-torque shafts create a powerful cutting action that results in less noise, less dust and greater cutting efficiency than other rotary shears on the market. 

Zato describes the Blue Devil as a “powerful value-adder,” able to process scrap with increased density and homogeneity compared to scrap processed using a shear baler, making it more valued by steel mills. Additionally, scrap can be cleaned more effectively as the shredding process liberates dirt and effectively separates contaminants from the scrap.

With the success of the Blue Devil in the U.S., Zato says it is building a new office and adding several new employees, constantly reinvesting to support its American customers.

For Red Ball, Zato has proven to be an engaged partner, always available to make sure the Blue Devil is running optimally. 

“We’re happy,” Donaghy says. “We’re happy with all of it. ... They’re doing their best and they’ve got a good support staff. They’ve stood by the equipment and any issues that we’ve had, they’ve seen them through. They were there every step of the way. If you call, they’ll show up.”