Choosing a Material Handler for a Scrap Yard: Reach, Load and Cycle

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This article works through those in order, using the configurations published for the Birim Recycling material handler range as reference points.

1 Reach and the Figure That Actually Matters

Boom length is the first number quoted and the easiest to compare. It is also the one most likely to mislead, because lifting capacity falls as the boom extends. A machine that lifts a given load close in may not lift it at the far end of its reach, which is where the work usually happens.

The figure to compare between machines is lifting capacity at maximum reach.

Reach itself is set by the layout rather than by preference. Three distances decide it: how far the machine stands from the stockpile, how far it stands from the point it feeds, and whether it has to work over an obstacle such as a container wall or a feeding box edge.

Measuring those three on the actual site, rather than estimating from a drawing, is the step that prevents a handler being specified one size short.

2 Drive: Electric, Hybrid or Stationary

Drive type is where the running cost difference sits, and it is a larger difference than most buyers expect. Against a diesel material handler, the Birim Recycling electric machines are listed with up to 80 percent fuel saving and up to 90 percent maintenance saving.

Those figures come with a condition. An electric machine needs the electrical infrastructure at the position where it works. In a yard where the machine moves between stockpiles that are not all served by power, the saving is unavailable at the positions that lack it.

The hybrid configuration exists for that case. Electric and diesel drive on one chassis means the machine runs on power where it is available and on diesel where it is not, which removes the infrastructure question from the purchase decision and leaves it as something the site can solve later.

Where the feeding point is fixed, a stationary handler or crane is usually the better answer. There is no travel, so there is nothing to gain from mobility, and a fixed installation can be placed for the reach the position needs rather than compromising to stay drivable.

3 Mounting and Ground Conditions

Wheels, tracks or a fixed pedestal is decided by the ground and by how often the machine moves.

Wheels. Suited to prepared surfaces and yards where the machine repositions regularly. The wheeled machines in the range run on solid tires, which removes punctures as a source of downtime in an environment full of sharp scrap.

Tracks. Suited to uneven ground and soft surfaces, where a wheeled machine either sinks or has to be limited to prepared routes. The tracked configuration carries the same boom range of 8 to 16 metres.

Fixed installation. Suited to a feeding point that does not move. It removes travel time from the cycle entirely, which matters most where the machine is feeding a processing machine continuously.

One point that is easy to overlook: the choice interacts with reach. A stationary machine placed correctly can often do with less reach than a mobile one that has to work from wherever the surface allows it to stand.

4 Duty Cycle: Feeding a Machine or Working a Stockpile

Two jobs that look similar place very different demands on a handler.

Stockpile work is intermittent. The machine loads, moves, unloads and waits. Peak capability matters more than sustained output, and periods of idle let the hydraulics recover.

Feeding a processing machine is continuous. A shear or baler running through a shift needs material arriving at a steady rate, and the handler works without the pauses that stockpile work provides. Sustained duty, cooling and lubrication matter more here than peak lift.

The machines in the range carry an advanced oil filtering system and automatic lubrication for exactly this reason: continuous duty is harder on a machine than occasional heavy duty, and most of what shortens component life in a scrap yard is contamination rather than load.

The furnace feeder is the clearest example of a duty-specific machine. It is remotely controlled, available in 10, 11 and 12 metre versions, and feeds induction furnaces up to 30 tons. Remote control there is not a convenience feature; it is what keeps the operator away from the furnace.

5 Matching the Handler to the Machine It Feeds

A material handler is rarely bought on its own terms. It is bought to serve a shear, a baler, a shredder or a furnace, and the right specification falls out of that machine's requirement.

The sequence works better in one direction than the other. Establish the processing machine and its capacity first, then the feed rate that capacity implies, then the handler that can sustain that rate at the reach the layout requires.

Running it the other way round, starting from a handler and asking what it can feed, tends to produce either an underused machine or a processing line that never reaches its published figure because material does not arrive fast enough.

Specifying From the Work Rather Than the Machine

Reach, lift and drive are not independent choices. Reach comes from the layout, the lift figure that matters is the one at that reach, and the drive and mounting follow from the ground and the power supply the site can offer.

The Birim Recycling range covers mobile machines on wheels and on tracks, hybrid machines, stationary handlers and cranes, and a furnace feeder for melting operations. Sharing a layout, the required reach and the power supply available on site is usually enough to narrow that to one or two configurations worth evaluating.