Breaking into recycling

The modern trend is to dismantle a redundant building. In the UK we are nowhere near as advanced as our Continental cousins.

It is not unusual, for example, to find a Dutch contractor who owns an excavator with lots of attachments. He will turn up on site and pick the building apart, changing equipment as the job progresses, ensuring the material ends up at the correct place for reprocessing. And he will turn a profit from each stage of the process.

But the UK is definitely getting there and now progressive demolition contractors are realising that knocking everything into a big pile is not the way forward.

It is here that hydraulic pulverisers and grabs come into their own. Their powerful jaws make them ideally suited to separate steel rebar from concrete and reduce the size of blocks of reinforced concrete. Equally importantly, pulverisers and grabs can be used for rehandling duties, picking up material for loading into trucks for removal from site or, as is increasingly the case, for feeding a recycle crushing plant.

Montabert now complements its range of hydraulic hammers with a full array of crackers, pulverisers and shears. In addition, UK Montabert importer IP Equipment Sales also holds the franchise for Ardennes Equipment tools for the demolition sector.

Another well-established name is that of LaBounty and UK importer Allied continues to maintain its position at the forefront of the attachments market. The company's Universal Processor works on a modular basis that allows the contractor to interchange the unit's jaws to match the specific material requirement of each contract.

Multi Purpose by name and nature is the latest attachment from Mantovanibenne, sold in the UK through Inmalo. Using a similar system of interchangeable jaws, the Multi-Purpose attachment is said to save both time and money with its three-in-one cut, crush and pulverise capability.

Rammer, available through sole UK importer Nordberg (UK) Ltd, also recently extended its range of hydraulic demolition attachments with the introduction of the RD18 cutter crusher. The new unit is designed specifically for carriers in the 16t to 25t class and offers a maximum cutting force of 2,800kN. As PMJ went to press, word from Rammer was of the imminent launch of a new version of the RD18 incorporating a new pulveriser jaw set.

By way of a change, NPK has introduced what it calls the GAL-200G Crusher Bucket, effectively an excavator-mounted jaw crusher contained within a bucket. Suitable for excavators in the 22t to 35t class, the 0.38 m3 capacity bucket is filled in the normal way. A foot pedal activates a single ram crushing action that is equally suited to stone and concrete. The 2,450kg bucket, the first of which has been sold to DS Prigmore Demolition, is equipped with replaceable teeth, side cutters and liners for ease of maintenance. Simple adjustment of the side plates allows the operator to control material reduction between 50 and 80 mm. Depending upon the feed material, production is between 15t and 30t/h.



Careful and thorough material segregation remains at the heart of any successful recycling operation. Having separated concrete from rebar, the task to separate other material types and grades is increasingly being charged to the new generation of segregator buckets.

Perhaps the best known of these is the Rotar bucket that is sold in the UK through CDP Plant Limited of Chesterfield. The company, which also holds Powerscreen, Finlay, Extec and Viper agencies, should know a thing or two about screening, a factor that is highlighted by the fact that it has commissioned more than 20 Rotar buckets in the past year. Available in a number of sizes and suitable for machines including excavators, wheel loaders, skid steers and backhoes, the Rotar is effectively a rotating drum that uses centrifugal force to dispel fines, leaving only larger lumps in the bucket. If you missed the Rotar bucket at SED, it might be worth using a computer to check out the video clip on CDP's informative web site: www.cdp-plant.com

Also pioneering the rotating drum bucket concept is Consett-based bucket specialist Anross Ltd. The company's new Segregator bucket, which was shown in prototype form at SED '99 and was officially launched at this year's show, is said to be equally effective in both wet and dry conditions. More importantly, when it is not being used for screening duties, the drum can be locked into position with the ribs closed, effectively converting it into a standard loading and excavating bucket and eliminating the need for additional buckets or machines for general rehandling.

As displays at this year's SED will testify, the recycling of brick, concrete and other used materials is, or soon will be, the name of the game in today's demolition market. Landfill tax, the threat of an aggregate tax, and the increasing public awareness of all matters environmental have made the recycling of demolition and construction waste the hot topic of the moment. But in the clamour to be seen to be green, many people may have lost sight of just how environmentally conscious most demolition contractors have become.

The majority of today's contractors view the re-use or resale of demolition materials as an integral part of their profit margin. Items including steel, bricks, timber and concrete are currently being processed, often leaving as little as 20% of actual waste being dumped in the nearest landfill. Yet despite these impressive and commendable statistics, the flow of recycling crushers and screens coming onto the UK market continues to grow in strength.

The benefits of a recycle crusher are, of course, manifold. From reducing material size to reduce truck void space and thereby vehicle movements, to creating a valuable Type 1 material for resale, a recycling plant is increasingly considered a key part of the demolition contractor's armoury.



There are two schools of thought on the best type of crusher for recycling duties - jaw or impactor - and both have their benefits. An impactor is able to produce a Type 1 material in a single pass, can handle asphalt materials, and is well suited to applications where a steel reinforcing bar might be present. A jaw crusher, meanwhile, copes equally well with steel rebar and is more resistant to the wear and tear of high abrasion applications.

Opting for the impact crusher at SED 2000 was the new 428 Trakpactor from BL-Pegson. Joining a comprehensive range that already includes the Premiertrak and Metrotrak models, the new unit features a 10-10-4 multi-stage reduction impactor that provides a crusher throughput of up to 200t/h. Remote control, discharge conveyor and overband magnet are offered as standard.

Backing the jaw crusher, Svedala recently unveiled its 1206, the latest model in the company's Goliath range of mobile crushing and screening units. Offering significant improvements over the earlier D220, the 1206 has a 1,200mm wide feeder and discharge conveyor that are said to provide excellent processing to and from the unit's Svedala Jawmaster jaw crusher.

Nordberg, meanwhile, offers a range of both wheel and LT track-mounted units incorporating both jaw and impact crushers that are designed to withstand the rigours of the recycling application.

Having previously offered a range of machines from Kobelco, Marubeni-Komatsu is now putting its not inconsiderable weight behind a new range of own-brand units. Marubeni believes that the BR350JG and BR500JG, with their high degree of parts commonality with existing Komatsu products, will find favour among established Komatsu users.

While the established players in the recycling crusher market strive to meet the needs of demolition contractors requiring high performance, high output machines, others are offering more compact and, therefore, considerably less expensive alternatives.

Among the better examples of this machine category is the Austrian-manufactured Rubblemaster RM60 that features a proven impact crusher. After a chequered distribution history in the UK, the 50t to 80t/h unit is finally settled with Bristol-based CRMS, which has founded a new division known as DemRec specifically to serve the needs of the demolition and recycling industry. The 11t Rubblemaster, which is transported using a standard hook hoist system, now forms part of a DemRec product range that also includes Nordberg crushers and screens and Rammer hydraulic hammers and attachments.



Following the introduction of the Beyer compact crushers from Hi-Point Engineering, the ability to reduce waste outputs and landfill costs is now within the reach of even the smallest plant hirer and contractor. These compact, productive units can be towed behind a vehicle as small as a 7.0t gvw on-highway truck, yet offer a crusher throughput of up to 55t/h. Totally self-contained, the machines can be ready for work within 10 minutes of arriving on site and are said to be ideally suited to small-scale demolition and utility crushing duties.

Of course, to turn crushed concrete into a saleable commodity requires further processing and grading. In the past, such finite segregation would have taken place at a purpose-built and potentially expensive recycling plant. Today, however, with the introduction of a growing range of small mobile screens, this process is equally likely to take place on site with machines from companies including Extec, Finlay and Powerscreen and machines like the new Turbo Chieftain 1400 screen from Powerscreen. Weighing in at just over 25t, the Chieftain 1400 offers a screening capacity of up to 500t/h and is suitable for use with quarried materials, demolition debris and other inert waste.

Nordberg, a name normally associated with crushers, also offers a growing line of mobile screens for demolition and recycling duties. The new Nordberg SW351 launched at Intermat 2000 features a 3.3 x 1.5 metre screen box and can be used with a variety of materials including aggregates, concrete and demolition waste, minerals, and topsoil.

Complementing the SW351 in the Nordberg range is the ST170 track mounted mobile screen. The ST170 is designed to operate on confined inner city sites and for easy transportation between work sites. Weighing in at approximately 16t, the unit is just 2.5m wide. Transport length with the main conveyor folded is 9.3m. On site, the adjustable conveyor is capable of 800t/h and the 4.2 metre discharge height allows the unit to stockpile more than 200m3 of material.