Forget What You Think You Know About Shredder Grates: Updated Double Beam Design Is Both Tough and Efficient
PORTLAND, OR - APRIL 2009 - Gone are the days when a 4,000 to 6,000 horsepower shredder could get the job done. Current industry demands are putting big pressure on equipment - and operators - to process even the most unwieldy scrap with maximum efficiency and profitability.
"Customers are shredding materials that might have been unthinkable 10 years ago," says Columbia Steel Product Engineer Greg Stegmaier. To meet this demand for increased tonnage, Stegmaier took a fresh look at double beam shredder grates . The biggest benefit of a double beam design is its added strength. He explains: "The beams' rigidity reduces flexing and bowing under service. Bowing is as bad as excessive wear, because feed material isn't effectively shredded between the hammers and grates."
Additional changes to features like grate openings further enhance the efficiency of the Columbia design. "We stagger the openings so there's one beneath each hammer track, for more throughput volume," says Stegmaier.
How have shredder operators responded to these improvements? Stegmaier answers, "We have an East Coast customer who jumped from 70,000 tons to 200,000 tons of scrap processed between grate change-outs." He adds: "That same operator also described our double beam product as the easiest grate to pull out" when a change-out was finally needed - a real plus in a safety-conscious industry.
Models of Columbia Steel's double beam grates will be on display at Booth 849 during the ISRI Convention & Exposition in Las Vegas, NV, April 26-30. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Columbia Steel's 86-acre facility is home to an on-site product design and engineering department and full-service steel casting foundry. All Columbia products are manufactured in the U.S.A.
Contact:
Alan George, Communications Manager
Columbia Steel Casting Co., Inc.
Portland, Oregon, USA
alan_g@columbiasteel.com
www.columbiasteel.com
Columbia Steel Casting Co., Inc.
10425 N. Bloss Ave.
Portland, Oregon, 97203,
USA
