The Sun Services facility receives 125 to 200 truckloads of waste material every day, six days a week.
No surprise: running neck-deep inside a building that moves up to 800 tons of construction and demolition debris (C&D) every day is going to be tough on a machine. Just ask Sun Services, a C&D recycling facility serving communities in the Beltway region of Baltimore, Md., and Washington, D.C.
Maximizing uptime was top-of-mind for Sun Recycling partners Brian Shipp and Andrew Springer when they recently purchased a new Sennebogen 818 M material handler from Midlantic Machinery. It was the third 818 they had purchased over a 14-month period.
Their facility, first opened in 2013, started with a conventional fleet of wheel loaders and excavators. Looking for alternatives to load their new shredder, their wish list led them to consider replacing the excavator with material handlers.
"We wanted an elevating cab," Shipp said. "And we needed rotation in the grapple in order to pick out material that shouldn't go into the shredder."
But a material handler that could live in the recyclers' extreme environment remained a top priority.
Serious About Recycling
Shipp and his father, Gary, first got in to the trash business with Springer in 2004. As their knowledge of trash hauling grew, their interest in new processes for recycling grew. Following a 5-year process of licensing and planning, they built the new Sun Recycling facility with the goal of sending no material to a landfill. With the success they've achieved, Sun Recycling is now able to offer LEED credits to projects that use their services.
"We are serious about recycling; we don't just pay lip service to it," said Springer. "We believe recycling will only become more important. There aren't many companies recycling at our level."
Today, their facility receives 125 to 200 truckloads of waste material every day, six days a week. They deploy dumpsters and roll-off trucks throughout the D.C. region. Loads of construction and demolition debris, asphalt, dirt, metals, drywall, wood, carpeting, furniture and other waste materials are all dropped on the facility's tipping floor. Then, one of the 818s goes to work. The system runs flat out for 10 hours straight to process and sort the mixed waste into various recycling streams.
Keeping Pace With Waste
Employing about 50 workers and drivers, the whole operation takes place under roof, in a fully enclosed building. Metals and concrete are sold into recycling markets. The residual stream goes to a nearby energy-from-waste producer. Cycle times are critical.
"We can't be down," said Shipp. "We only have 250 yards of metal storage in three bunkers; and another two bunkers for concrete. However, we don't have the capacity to store our residual material stream. We have to truck material out immediately. We watch those numbers pretty closely day-to-day, to make sure we're moving out at least as much as we're bringing in."
Up to the Task
The benefits of a self-cleaning reversing fan is really obvious. There is so much debris and find dust that you can hardly see the other 818 across the way.
Finding the right machine to feed the shredder non-stop turned out to be a simple search. Shipp and Springer enjoy a solid relationship with Midlantic Machinery, their Sennebogen dealer, who have supplied all of Sun Recycling's other mobile equipment.
"We needed a machine, and our territory rep at Midlantic, Shane Pinzka, was able to demo an 818 quickly," said Shipp. "One of the reasons we selected Midlantic was because the support was way better than what we were getting. I can call my salesman and a tech's here within an hour."
The first 818 proved it was up to the task.
"We have a lot of dirt, a lot of dust, a lot of heat… it's not good," Springer said. "Our machines look terrible at the end of a week-long shift. With the 818, we still need to pause to blow out the radiators periodically, depending on weather, but it does a much better job of not overheating, compared to an excavator."
All Sennebogen machines are equipped with powerful reversing fans to help them run cool in harsh conditions like this. For an extra boost, the Sun Services units were fitted with a custom pre-cleaner.
The Load-Out Solution
A continuous stream of walking floor trailers is ready to transport the plant's residual material to an energy plant.
"Residual" covers about 40 percent of the material processed here. The need to move product efficiently into the trailers led to Sun Services' purchase of the second 818 M.
"We made some changes to the building to improve our load out," Shipp said. "We had been using our wheel loaders, but we realized that another 818 would be the best fit for that end of the operation."
With the 818's elevating cab, operators are able to see into the trailer as they place the materials, so they can fill holes and finish the load quickly. According to Springer, the operators also are pleased with the new machines.
"They love how big and comfortable the 818s are inside — especially the big guys."
Three to Stay Ready
The latest addition to Shipp and Springer's Sennebogen fleet is identical to the first two machines. Again, the driving factor behind the purchase is uptime.
"We cycle in the new machine while one of the other two are in for scheduled maintenance," said Shipp. "And if our wheel loaders get a bit behind on the piles, our 818 is ready to jump in."
The owners appreciate that consistent PM is essential to keep their process cost-effective for customers. Day-to-day, the 818s are keeping up with the demands of the pace and the working environment. According to Shipp, "Their downtime for general maintenance and blowing out the machine because of over-heating has become almost negligible. We used to have to do that all the time. These 818s have been a great addition to our fleet."
For more information about Sennebogen, visit www.sennebogen-na.com.
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