ERS: Maximize yield

More than a decade ago when Engineered Recycling Systems (ERS) was formed, its founders brought together decades of experience in capital equipment sales and engineering. They also brought a philosophy that truly stood at the center of their corporate mission: to increase efficiency and cut labor costs for their customers.

“I’d had experience working with large companies, public and private. Good companies, but sometimes the mission of the customer got lost in the corporate goals. For ERS, the mission of our customers is the mission of ERS,” says Jim Cunningham, a founding partner.

“We knew that by combining our system integration expertise with a needs-based approach to understanding our customers’ objectives we’d be successful,” adds Mike Carver, also a founding partner. “That philosophy has served ERS well and allowed us to deliver hundreds of successful installations.”

Metals recovery systems

With deep roots in the recycling industry, ERS identified a real need for advanced systems for nonferrous metals recovery.

“The demand for and value of nonferrous metals meant there were processors looking for systems that could deliver maximum recovery in a cost-effective, efficient way," Cunningham says. "The trouble was, with all the exporting of unprepared material, there just weren’t many suppliers doing this well."

ERS began by sourcing the finest technology in the world to combine with its expansive industry knowledge and expertise to provide integrated systems that deliver best-in-class recovery and low operating costs.

Today, ERS provides turnkey systems for the processing of copper wire and cable, shredder wire, midling tailings, ASR fines, meatballs and armatures, ACSR wire, electronics and more.

The long view

With part of the ERS mission grounded in efficiency and low cost, it has taken a long view on support and parts availability.

“We design some of the lowest cost-per-pound-processed systems in the industry. In fact, we engineer some nonferrous plants with no shredders and no granulators," ERS sales team member Jeff Wair says. "But, the truth is, all of our systems have wear parts. We ensure we can deliver all of these and any part a customer needs promptly to avoid any downtime."

Based in Atlanta, ERS maintains a 50,000-square-foot parts facility that allows the company to serve customers across North America promptly and efficiently. In fact, ERS sets all its customers up with access to a web-based portal that allows them to order any part they need.

“When we commission a new system, part of the process is that we create a custom interface for the customer within our online support system,” ERS Marketing Manager Andy Fischer says. “Once they log in, the system knows exactly what equipment they operate and the parts list. This makes it easy and efficient for them to order anything they need quickly.”

Designed for maximum recovery

Because ERS goes to great lengths to source best-in-class machinery and integrate it entirely in-house, it can deliver superior recovery.

“All of our control systems and software are engineered in-house,” Cunningham explains. “This ensures flawless integration and that our customers have a single-source to work with should issues ever arise.”

ERS’ unique approach to understand customers’ material and processing requirements along with superior system integration combine for powerful results," Wair says. “We deliver 99 percent purity in most of the materials that we recover. We also ensure that we’ve recovered the maximum amount of material possible.

“For example, our density separators do a tremendous job, which ensures that even the smallest particles are captured. The unders are like copper sand, and that adds real value for our customers. They reclaim every millimeter of material.”

With turnkey design and installation, superior recovery and material purity, as well as top-notch customer support and parts availability, ERS has set a new standard in the nonferrous scrap processing sector. As more recyclers work to process materials that used to go to export, ERS has become a go-to supplier.

Contact ERS if you’re looking for a cost-effective, reliable system to deliver pure, highly marketable metals.