Yancey Bros. Co. showcased an increasingly popular trend in the asphalt industry June 25 at a product demonstration in Dallas, Ga.
As part of a national tour, a Peterson 4700B horizontal recycler stopped by BLD Inert Landfill to churn through a heap of roof shingles.
The ground-up shingles are added to the asphalt mix as a binder to reduce the separation of the material. Joe Jacobson, Southeast sales manager, said Peterson has had equipment on the market designed to work with shingles for five years. It has become more popular recently as people realize “there are a lot of petroleum products in asphalt shingles.”
But the big benefit, Jacobson said, can be seen on a company’s bottom line.
With liquid asphalt selling for $500 to $600 a ton, Jacobson said the shingles “are a pretty valuable product.” Additionally, recycling the material instead of dumping it into a landfill saves on tipping fees.
The recycled shingles can comprise 2 to 8 percent of roadway material, Jacobson said, and a bit more for driveways and parking lots.
The Peterson 4700B can be equipped with two magnets that will remove nails from shingles ripped from roofs. In most cases, a single magnetic head pulley will do the trick, but others prefer to add a cross belt magnet to the machine to pull metal from above.
When looking to remove metal debris from the mix, Jacobsen said the user must be aware of how much material is going in at a time.
“If you get the material too deep, then you can’t pull [the nails] out,” he said.
But with the appropriate material flow, the magnetic duo should do the trick.
“Nothing’s 100 percent, but it’s pretty doggone close,” Jacobsen said.
The magnets were added as an option later on, as the first people to grind shingles for asphalt used rejects from shingle manufacturers.
“They were clean and didn’t have nails in them. All they had to do was string the binding or the paper wrapping off and they were ready to be ground,” Jacobsen said.
As more people choose to use tear-off shingles, they must find a way to deal with unavoidable contamination, like wood, plaster or aluminum gutters. He said some people set up a “picking station” to sort through the material before sending it through the grinder.
The machine is able to produce 100 tons (91 t) an hour and can produce material from 0.5-in. minus to 0.75-in. minus.
The Peterson 4700B isn’t just a shingle grinder — it is also able to handle wood waste.
Several wear items need to be switched out, which is about a three-hour job. The metal components of the machine (hammers, side plates, etc.) designed for shingle grinding are made from harder steel so they don’t wear down as quickly from dealing with the highly abrasive shingles.
Jacobsen said the market is growing, but some 80 to 90 percent of tear-off shingles are still heading to a landfill.
Brian Stover of BLD, the host of the demonstration, said he was impressed with the performance of the grinder.
He just started recycling shingles at the landfill. Contractors who drop off the shingles are charged by the ton, but as Stover realizes how much cost savings it will bring, he will likely drop the cost to them, thereby adding incentive to recycle.
Stover is looking at purchasing the electric model of the grinder, the 4750B, which he said would save him money on operating costs and fuel.
Joe Tondera, project manager of Oxford Construction in Albany, Ga., was on hand to see if shingles would be a viable addition to its asphalt mix. The company owns four plants in southwest Georgia.
Tondera said his company would likely need the 4710B mobile grinder, as it would have to travel to various sites where the shingles would be stockpiled.
“I think the application is fantastic,” Tondera said. “I’m really impressed with the material size and the dryness of the product — I thought it’d be really wet. And the speed in which he’s loading it is just great.”
Tondera said his company would take advantage of the grinder’s ability to handle wood waste and make it a part of its land clearing fleet.
“It’s one of those necessities in this day and time,” he said. “Eventually, it’s one of those products you’re going to need to get. We just hope that we get ahead of the game.” CEG Staff
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