Swedish-designed system allows excavator attachments to both rotate and tilt.
Engcon, a Swedish company with American headquarters in North Haven, Connecticut, says the display of its tiltrotator technology for excavator attachments attracted some 10,000 visitors at the 2020 ConExpo-Con/Agg event in March in Las Vegas.
The company says its tiltrotator is a component often described as a flexible wrist between the arm of the excavator and its attachments, enabling an excavator to rotate a bucket or other attachment 360 degrees and tilt it up to 45 degrees.
The Engcon technology also was featured at other OEM booths, including those of Doosan, Hyundai, John Deere and Kobelco. The tiltrotator was attached to a variety of excavation equipment, enabling attendees to see the technology live in action or to demo it themselves at the Engcon exhibit area.
“Thousands of CONEXPO attendees were able to demo the Engcon tiltrotator,” says Krister Blomgren, CEO of Engcon. “We have received a lot of praise for letting customers test drive an excavator with our tiltrotator technology—a fun element for the visitors and a great way to get a deeper understanding of how the tiltrotator is changing the world of digging.”
In addition to digging with buckets, the Engcon tiltorotator also can be outfitted with grapples, rippers, asphalt cutters, pallet forks and sweeping brooms.
Engcon is celebrating 30 years in business and two years in the North American market. The company says the tiltrotator technology is still considered novel in North America, with approximately 1 percent market penetration.
At ConExpo, “Test machines were going nonstop, all day,” says Anders Smith, region director for Engcon North America. “The tiltrotator is something that you only truly understand with experience. After using it, it’s hard to think about working without it. I’m excited about the growth of tiltrotator technology here in the United States, and we’re seeing a significant increase in sales within the northeastern region near our North American headquarters in Connecticut.”
The company says ConExpo was a success for it even without the last day, cut short because of concerns tied to the COVID-19 coronavirus. Engcon says it was attentive to the situation during the show, prepared with hand sanitizer for attendees and cleaning procedures between demonstrations.
Engcon describes itself as a $90 million firm dedicated to supplying “effective, efficient total concepts for excavators.”
Volvo Trucks North America and Mack Trucks are suspending production at Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, and Dublin, Virginia, plants.
According to FreightWaves, truck makers Volvo Trucks North America (VTNA), Dublin, Virginia, and Mack Trucks, Greensboro, North Carolina, both owned by Sweden-based Volvo Group, are suspending production at U.S. assembly plants.
Idling workers because of the coronavirus and supply chain stress, VTNA and Mack marked the first heavy-truck makers to suspend production. The two manufacturers make all their North American trucks in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, and Dublin, Virginia. The two plants employ about 5,000 workers. A powertrain plant in Hagerstown, Maryland, that feeds both assembly plants will also shut down from March 23-27.
"Although we have no reason to believe we have any cases of COVID-19 at our Volvo Trucks or Volvo Group powertrain manufacturing facilities, we have decided to temporarily suspend production as part of the effort to slow the spread of the virus in our communities," Volvo Group spokeswoman Mary Beth Halprin told FreightWaves March 20.
Mack began its shutdown on March 19 at the Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania, plant, spokesman Christopher Heffner said.
“During this suspension, we will be exploring new ways of working and possible approaches to production that would allow for increased social distancing in the facility,” Halprin said. “The health and safety of our employees and communities will be our primary concern as we work to make the most informed decisions we can during this uncertain time.”
Pioneer Aggregates is working to find an outlet for C&D fines as fill material under Pennsylvania’s Beneficial Use program.
Finding an end market for construction and demolition (C&D) fines continues to pose a challenge for recyclers as increased scrutiny and questions surrounding the material’s environmental impact arise. Fines, which are generated during the processing of C&D debris, consist primarily of soil, wood, concrete, drywall, rock and other miscellaneous material particles.
According to the Construction and Demolition Recycling Association (CDRA), the most common market for C&D fines is for use as alternative daily cover (ADC) in landfill applications, which helps conserve virgin soil. Fines with a high soil concentration can also be used as clean structural fill, whereas fines consisting of concrete, brick and denser material can be used as structural fill.
While exploring the potential for these materials to be used as fill under Pennsylvania’s Beneficial Use program, the Laflin, Pennsylvania-based aggregate supplier, Pioneer Aggregates, began looking into the possible application of C&D fines.
The Beneficial Use program, which encourages the environmentally sound use of municipal and residual waste, provides guidance on permitting and compliance monitoring for beneficial use facilities. Past permits issued in the state for construction materials have allowed processed construction waste, including gypsum, soil, stone, brick, concrete block and more, to be used as a soil additive and for concrete or asphalt mixtures. With this program in place, Pioneer President Mark Popple saw an opportunity for putting the fines his company was generating to good use while simultaneously avoiding having to landfill the material.
In 2016, Popple approached the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to discuss using a mixture of C&D fines with Portland cement, called “re-crete,” as fill material to reclaim a portion of Simpson Stone Quarry, a non-active coal mining quarry in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania.
“Pioneer held extensive discussions with the DEP over several years to determine the best approach to demonstrate the viability of using this mixture in non-coal mine quarry reclamation,” says Mark McClellan, environmental consultant for Pioneer. “The DEP determined that since the mixture had not been used for this purpose in [Pennsylvania], it would require Pioneer to apply for a Demonstration Project permit under the Solid Waste Management Act, with strict requirements and monitoring for a limited period of time under controlled conditions.”
On Sept. 21, 2017, Pioneer received the Municipal Waste Demonstration Permit from the DEP, which allows the quarry to receive up to 1,000 tons of C&D fines per day. Pioneer’s responsibilities, as detailed in the permit, include creating quarterly reports to the DEP that provide chemical analysis of the fines and re-crete, surface water monitoring data, and other information. To ensure everything is within DEP limits on materials such as copper, lead and mercury, the company is expected to collect and analyze samples of fines every 6,000 tons used or at least once per month.
“Pennsylvania has over 250,000 acres of abandoned coal and non-coal mine sites with no responsible party and limited funds to address the environmental and health risk posed by these sites,” says McClellan. “The successful use of this mixture and other waste materials presents the opportunity to reclaim these sites, eliminate the environmental risks and bring them back to productive use.”
Prior to producing the fine mixture, Pioneer must first source their C&D fines from permitted processing facilities and submit the material to the DEP for chemical testing. Once the fines are accepted, they are transported to the quarry site to be mixed with Portland cement and water through a pugmill system. After the material is placed in the designated portion of the quarry, Pioneer will continually perform on-site testing, stormwater monitoring and leachate testing to ensure the material meets concentration limits and shows no adverse impacts to groundwater or surface water.
In many locations, C&D fines have not been widely recycled outside of landfill applications due to concerns over trace contaminants. In a 2018 study by the CDRA, researchers addressed these risks by assessing 14 samples from 12 C&D facilities in the U.S. The study analyzed the chemical and physical properties of the fines, as well as direct exposure and leachability when beneficially reused.
One of the main chemicals of potential concern in C&D fines is polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which naturally occur in coal, crude oil and gasoline. The study found concentrations among the different samples vary considerably, with half of the samples close to or above Florida’s commercial/industrial risk threshold (0.7 mg/kg) and four samples exceeding New York’s residential risk threshold (1 mg/kg).
In terms of heavy metals, arsenic and lead were two warranting the most concern in the study. Nine samples had concentrations above the EPA’s regional screening levels (RSLs) commercial risk threshold for arsenic. Arsenic concentrations existed at levels above the lowest risk threshold in all samples, with only one sample exhibiting arsenic slightly above Florida’s commercial/industrial risk threshold (12 mg/kg).
The controversy over trace chemicals in C&D fines has led some state regulatory agencies to require routine testing and compliance with risk-based regulatory thresholds. According to a Pennsylvania general permit for construction waste, the processed material cannot exceed the state’s chemical limitations on arsenic, copper, mercury, lead and more, as well as nitrogen, organic nitrogen and ammonium if used for land application.
Pioneer’s permit expires on June 12, 2020, when the company must submit a final report to the DEP documenting the results of all testing and monitoring data. Pioneer reports that the data so far indicates the project is successful and these materials can be placed directly into the environment as fill in a manner that is protective of public health and the environment.
“C&D processing facilities will potentially have a long-term alternative to disposal [for fines] and can see their byproducts put to productive use in reclaiming disturbed properties,” McClellan says.
If the DEP deems the project successful, the department can issue a statewide Beneficial Use permit, which would allow the C&D fines mixture to be used for similar fill applications across Pennsylvania. According to Pioneer, the mixture could be used as construction fill to reclaim abandoned mines, restore disturbed properties and remediate other contaminated sites.
“The Pioneer project offers an opportunity to these processing facilities to reuse the C&D fines, avoid disposal costs and, ultimately, provide an environmental benefit,” says McClellan.
This article originally appeared in the March/April issue of Construction & Demolition Recycling. The author is the assistant editor of Construction & Demolition Recycling magazine and can be reached at hrischar@gie.net.
German steel scrap association says use of ferrous scrap saves “billions in climate and environmental costs.”
The Germany-based Bundesvereinigung Deutscher Stahlrecycling- und Entsorgungsunternehmen (BDSV) says a study it recently commissioned has found that “scrap is a key raw material for steel production, not only in Germany, and [it] contributes significantly to the reduction of emissions.”
The study, undertaken by Germany’s Fraunhofer Center for Economics of Materials (CEM), is titled “Scrap Bonus: External Costs and Fair Competition in the Global Value Chains of Steelmaking.”
According to BDSV, the study shows the use of steel scrap in Europe reduces the costs of climate change by up to 20 billion euros ($21.7 billion) per year. Ferrous scrap as feedstock saves CO2 emissions compared with the production of steel from ores and refined mining products and reduces other environmental damages, “such as acidification of water, summer smog or eutrophication,” says BDSV.
An indicator BDSV calls the “scrap bonus” measures the climate and environmental costs that are avoided by using each ton of scrap in steel production. The study suggests this scrap bonus should be incorporated in the overall steel market’s price mechanism.
Adds BDSV, “The scientists concluded that using one ton of recycled stainless steel scrap saves 4.3 tons of CO2 in stainless steel production [and with] carbon steel the average saving of using one metric ton of ferrous scrap is 1.67 tons of CO2.”
The organization continues equates the CO2, savings of using a ton of carbon steel scrap as identical to preventing the emissions of a typical internal combustion engine car driving 9,000 kilometers (5,590 miles).
“The research team calculated that the scrap bonus is between 79 euros and 213 euros ($86 to $231) per ton of carbon steel scrap” and has an even higher value in the stainless sector. The study takes into consideration the global average of emissions avoided during the production of steel along the value chain, from the extraction, production and use of raw materials to the use of energy sources and the recycling of residues, says BDSV.
“The study strongly contributes to raising awareness of the importance of scrap as a raw material for steel production,” says Dr. Frank Pothen, head of the CEM and a co-author of the study. “Steel recycling is an integral part of a circular economy. [and] the use of high-quality scrap is an expression of economically and ecologically sustainable steel production.”
Comments BDSV President Andreas Schwenter, “The insights gained through the study underline the importance of steel recycling and show how it can be strengthened, quantitatively and qualitatively, primarily through research and development, with a focus on medium-sized companies. For us, the scrap bonus is a bonus for scrap.”
A downloadable version of the full study, in English, can be found on this web page.
Equipment company touts innovations found in its upgraded Rammer line of hammers and breakers.
Global equipment maker Sandvik unveiled its Rammer Excellence Line of hydraulic demolition hammers and breakers at the 2020 ConExpo-Con/Agg event in Las Vegas in March.
Sandvik says the Rammer Excellence Line has been designed with “customer-focused features” designed to demonstrate Rammer’s “commitment to assisting businesses to enhance their performance.”
The newly updated range now includes integrated smart technology for easier fleet management and more efficient processes, thereby continuing Rammer’s tradition of delivering innovative hammers designed to improve profitability, safety and performance, according to Sandvik.
RD3 remote monitoring devices found in Rammer Excellence Line models use the GPS and telematics technology designed to track and monitor equipment usage without the need for a technician to go to customer sites to collect data.
Sandvik says the feature is “ideal for dealers, rental companies, service managers at contractors and operators,” enabling the hammers to be viewed and monitored via Google Maps.
Operationally, RD3 enables remote monitoring of total operating hours for new units and comes with a new hammer feature, the “hour meter,” which is linked to the unit’s serial number to measure the exact number of hours it has worked. The feature enables more accurate invoicing between contractors and subcontractors, for instance.
RD3 also can help with scheduling servicing and enables an accurate value to be set if the unit is sold or traded. The system also enables owners and managers of fleets to know exactly where their equipment is at any given time.
Other features of the Rammer Excellence Line include:
Sandvik describes Rammer as “a leading force in the demolition and recycling sector” that has drawn upon its years of experience in the breaking business to offer attachments that combine power, compact dimensions, durability and lightweight characteristics.