Simple and efficient, Zato’s Blue Devil is a ‘monster’ when shredding scrap metal

Neil Morris, the third-generation owner of King Mountain, North Carolina-based Morris Scrap Metal Co. Inc., relays the product review his operator provided after first running the scrap yard’s new Zato Blue Devil shredder. 

Morris says, at first, the operator was a bit skeptical of the machine’s ability to handle the busheling and No. 2 steel scrap it would be fed daily. Then, he put the Blue Devil to work after its installation in December 2022. 

“We put this thing in, and he said, ‘Man, that’s a scrap-eating monster,’” Morris says. 

In the six months since the company’s King Mountain scrap yard installed the electric Zato shredder, Morris says the yard’s production has doubled while creating a recycled product that delights buyers. 

“I’m getting about $25 more per ton than No. 2 scrap [usually gets] at a steel mill,” Morris says. “I’m getting a premium for my No. 2 scrap. [The Blue Devil] makes a beautiful product. The steel mills love it.” 

Zato, an Italy-based equipment manufacturer with North American headquarters in Atlanta, has designed the Blue Devil to serve as a versatile tool for customers shredding ferrous and nonferrous material. The machine is powered by a pair of 350-horsepower motors and features counter-rotating cutting shafts coupled to four planetary gearboxes. The slow-rotating, high-torque shafts create a powerful cutting action that creates less noise, less dust and greater cutting efficiency. 

For Morris, the shredder met his company’s need to process unprepared busheling and No. 2 steel. He first researched Zato’s product by touring several European installations in 2016, then ultimately decided to purchase a Blue Devil in April of 2022 rather than purchase a new shear. 

Now, he is running 30 to 35 tons of unprepared busheling through the machine per hour and 20 to 25 tons of No. 2 steel per hour. The shredder runs for six or seven hours per day and processes approximately 100 to 120 tons of material daily—roughly five to six truckloads.

Before the Blue Devil, when the company was using just its shear to process scrap, it was filling three truckloads per day. Morris says the shredder has nearly doubled his production while creating a denser product that makes trucks easier to load and achieve maximum weights without a lot of extra packing. 

“I’ll run chain link fence through it [and] smaller cable,” Morris says. “Some of the material, you’ve got to run it through multiple times. If you run a big ball of chain link fence through it, you’ll have to run it again. But one thing it has done, it makes a product that is loose and fluffy and denser. [Steel mills] I sell my scrap to love it.” 

Morris Scrap Metal is a family-owned company dating back to its founding by Neil’s grandfather, Nelson Earl Morris, in 1931. Now a full-service scrap metal company, Morris operates two yards, one in King Mountain and another in Rock Hill, South Carolina, known as Carolina Salvage. The company buys scrap vehicles, buys and sells numerous types of ferrous and nonferrous metals, recycles retail and industrial scrap metal and offers industrial services, such as on-site scrap container services, on-site metal value analysis, 24-hour container pickups, demolition, rigging and more. 

When it comes to the venerable scrap company’s new Zato electric shredder, ease of use and its low-maintenance design have only added to the machine’s value.

“It’s the simplest machine,” Morris says. “With a guillotine shear, there’s a lot of grease and a lot of moving parts—a lot of maintenance. [With the Blue Devil], you’ve got four planetary gear boxes that have a hole in them, and the thing greases itself. You’ve got four bearings, and it pushes in new grease and pushes out old grease all day long. It’s just so simple. 

“The knife life, they say it’s normally 20,000 tons before you have to change them out,” he adds. “I’d say you have to change them more like once a year. … With electric motors, you service them once a year, and they’re maintenance-free.” 

Morris also points to Zato’s customer service, despite the considerable distance between King Mountain and Prevalle, Italy, as another positive. 

“We’re about a six-hour time difference between here and Italy,” he says. “When we first put this thing in, there were little glitches here and there—nothing major. We blew a few fuses. But my guy would call Italy at 4 p.m., which would be about 10 p.m. over in Italy, and they would still answer the call and take care of the machine. That’s a plus.”