Hammer replacement on Tub-Grinders
Author: urcadmin | Published: Aug 24th, 2010 | Category: Equipment, Technical ArticlesWe here at Unlimited Resources Corporation would like to take a few minutes to tell you the proper way for replacing hammers on your Tub-Grinder. As you know there are two basic types of hammers. The first type is the “swinging hammer” and these can usually be associated with the small low horsepower machines that are used by the small production owner. These are generally just a throw away type hammer and they can generally be run for a while and then turned and run for a while longer till you wear the other side of the knife down to where its not efficient to run it any longer. The second type of hammer is the “fixed hammer” and they typically are offered in several different designs and some even offer replaceable wear tips so you don’t have to change the hammer all the way out. You just replace the tip. These fixed hammer machines are generally the “big boys” or the “work horses” of the industry and are generally from 350 horse power to 1500 horse power in size.
Now most of the newer tub grinders are equipped with a tilt tub to make changing these hammers much easier than what the older models used to require. The first priority is to get the machines cutting area cleaned out completely to help make changing the hammers a much easier process. Second you must either tilt the tub or remove the cover on the older units to reveal the end of the hammer mill shredder and this is where you will find the lock that holds all the hammer-mill shafts or rods into place. Here you will loosen this plate by usually unscrewing either 3-or 4 bolts. Then this will allow for the lock to turn and this should expose the end of all the rods that go through the hammers and lock them into place. Many times these rods have a threaded hole in the end of the rod and this allows you to pull them if they are too tight to get out with normal amount of sliding effort.
You want to carefully mark down where each of the hammers is located on these rods so that you can get them loaded back into the machine in the proper place once you’ve pulled the rods out of place. Before you install the new hammers they need to each be weighed and the weight written down for each hammer. Then you need to carefully match each of these hammers up with another one of similar weight and this can easily be achieved by either welding a little on one or grinding a little on one to get the weights so that they match as close as possible. When you install these hammers back into the machine make sure that you match up the two hammers that you have grouped together so that they go directly across from each other in the machine. This way you have balanced the mill and this will make the machine operate much better and it will also prevent the destruction of bearings on the main shaft of the mill. This simple procedure will generally cut down a tremendous amount on the vibration that the mill causes as well.
We have visited many sites where they just removed the hammers and then installed new ones and never paid any attention to how the old hammers came out of the machine. They didn’t make any effort to weigh each hammer because they were all made by the same factory so they assumption was that they should all weigh the same. Well the fact is that we’ve seen the weight in these factory made hammers vary as much as several ounces and this can cause premature damage to your mill bearings and cause a tremendous amount of vibration damage to be done to the whole machine. So we can’t stress enough the importance in weighing these hammers individually and matching them up in identical weight pairs and making sure that you install them across from each other in the machine.
Also many times these rods that hold the hammers in place will need to be replaced because they’ve become worn so generally it’s a good ideal to order new rods while you’re ordering the new hammers. The hammers need to be replaced whenever the machine starts going down in production. New hammers will normally run close to the screen and this causes the shearing action to be greater and thus the machine operates more efficiently. If the hammers are worn they tend to be further away from the screen and this causes the shearing action to lessen thus making the way the machine operates less efficient.
Finally always make sure that the screen in your machine doesn’t have too much wear on it because it also can contribute greatly to the loss in the shearing action that the machine has because of this wear. So carefully inspect your screen each time you change out your hammers and they will generally need changing out about every four to fives times that you change your hammers as a rule of thumb.
If you follow these simple steps it should ensure that your hammer mill shredder part of your tub grinder operates at its greatest efficiency. Note: the improper placement of hammers in these mills has caused many mill bearings to fail prematurely. You and only you can keep this from happening to your machine!
Wood Waste Recycling equipment
Author: urcadmin | Published: Aug 23rd, 2010 | Category: Equipment, NewsAll of us here at Unlimited Resources Corporation would like to assist you in your next purchase of wood waste recycling equipment. We always have the following types of wood waste recycling equipment for sale. Tub-Grinders, Horizontal Grinders, Compost Turners, Screens, Hammer mill Grinders, and Chippers.
We generally have several Tub-Grinders in inventory that have been refurbished and generally have a good number of others that we have available to broker. Some of the brands that we would normally have available for sale would be Diamond Z, Morbark, WHO, Hogzilla, Pro-grind, Duratech, Precision Husky, Vermeer, Haybuster, as well as many others.
We sometimes have a horizontal grinder available here in our inventory for sale but we always also have many horizontal grinders available to broker. Some of these brands that we normally have available for sale would be Diamond Z, Petereson Pacific, Bandit Beast, Doppstadt, Maxigrind, Rotorchopper, Biogrind, Vermeer, CBI, Morbark, as well as many others. We have refurbished many tub-grinders over the past fourteen years and have much insight to the proper operation of these types of equipment. Also we’ve been around several of the horizontal grinders in the past few years and are beginning to get a better feel for how these machines operate as well. So when you have the need for this type of equipment please give us a call.
In addition we generally have at least a couple of refurbished compost turners in inventory for sale here at our location as well as also having several more units available to broker. Some of the brands that we generally have available for sale would be Scarab, Wildcat, Frontier, Scat, Mid West Bio Systems, Aeromaster, as well as many others. Our company has refurbished many of these units since we began our business and have a good knowledge of how each of these machines performs.
When you have a need for a sizing screen please give us a call at Unlimited Resources Corporation. We many times will have a screen here in inventory at our location but will also always have several units available to broker. Some of the brands that we generally have available for sale would be McCloskey, Morbark Powerscreen, Re Tech, Royer, Wildcat, Erin as well as many others. Of course these machines are available in all different shapes and sizes depending on the materials makeup and the volume of materials needing to be processed.
So when it comes to purchasing wood waste recycling equipment let your first call be to the ones that have worked in this industry for over fourteen years and understand what machine you need for your particular application.
Whole Tire Proocessing System by Stages to Crumb Rubber
Author: urcadmin | Published: Aug 23rd, 2010 | Category: Equipment, NewsLet the “can do crew” at Unlimited Resources Corporation “custom build” your whole tire processing system by stages or by phases. Our experienced staff can custom design and build most any type of tire recycling system that you have the need for in today’s competitive market place. From the primary shredding of the whole semi-truck and passenger tires all the way down to the production of wire and fiber free 10-40 mesh crumb rubber URC is the company to call when you need tire recycling equipment. And many times we have much of this equipment already refurbished in our inventory so you won’t have the major delays generally associated with the purchase of this type of equipment.
We generally try and set up each plant that we “custom build” in stages or phases. This allows you many options on producing many different types of sellable product. Here are the stages or phases that we would typically suggest that our customers consider when they are looking at getting into the tire recycling business.
- Two inch nominal tire chips (TDF)- This stage of the system could be accomplished by using many different brands of shredders such as Granutech/Saturn, Columbus McKinnon, SSI, Shred Tech, Raptor, Predator, etc. in conjunction with many different brand name and types and styles of sizing screens or classifiers. In this stage of the system you will process whole tires down to 2″-1½” tire chips or what the industry typically calls (TDF) tire derived fuel. This is typically accomplished in what we call a shear tire shredder and many times we configure the machine so that it has what we call a “split chamber” where we will do the primary shredding and secondary shredding of these tires in a single machine. In the primary cutting chamber (usually around 2/3 of the total cutting chamber area) we will generally use 2″ wide 2 hook knives while in the secondary part of the cutting chamber (the balance of the chamber) we generally use 1 3/8″ wide 12 hook knives for the sizing of the tire chips.
- ¾”- ½” tire nuggets or mulch- This stage of the system is generally accomplished by using one of the following brands of machines: the Granutech/ Saturn Grizzly, the Columbus McKinnon Liberator, or the Eldan Rasper. Essentially each of these machines performs the same job in that it takes the 2″ tire chips and grinds them down to ¾”- ½” tire pieces where around 85-90 % of the steel is removed by using a cross belt magnet. This process has really become widely used in the past several years and now many TDF customers are requiring their tire chips to be run through one of these machines so that much of the wire can be liberated before it is shipped to them as a final sellable product.
- ¼”- 3/16” mulch- The next stage or phase of the system would be to take the ¾”- ½” mulch or nugget size material down to ¼”- 3/16” in size. This also can be done with several different brands of granulators such as Granutech, Cumberland, Alsteel, Triple S, Entoleter as well as many other brands. These machines grind the material down until it can go through a screen that meets your size needs. These machines are generally referred to as hog grinders and generally have open rotors for performing this task. Many of these machines would have the capability of producing around 3,500-4,000 lbs per hour of this size product that you could get down to around 97% wire free with the use of another magnet. In some cases some people use a cracker mill to perform this function. We generally use them as a final grind machine in the production of crumb rubber and not at this stage of the system.
- 10 mesh minus crumb rubber- The final stage or phase of the system would be to produce the crumb rubber. This is done by many different types, styles and brands of granulators. These are generally called closed rotor or fine grind granulators. Granutech/ Saturn has a machine they call the Powderizer that several people are using to perform this task as well. And one of the best machines we believe for this application is the cracker mill. There has been a great advance made in these machines that allows them to produce many different friction ratios to accommodate the more efficient sizing of these crumb rubber products. These have because very popular over the past several years and don’t require as much maintenance as many of the other machines require. After running your material through one of these machines you should be able to screen off several different sizes of crumb at this point with the addition of a multiple deck Rotex screen. Of course any oversize materials would be run back through the machine again to get it down to the size you need.
These are the stages or phases that are generally used in an ambient grind type of crumb rubber system and this is by far the most popular used around the world today. The other method of producing crumb rubber is cryogenic where the 2″ tire chips are frozen by using liquid nitrogen and then run through a hammer mill that shatters the frozen particles. We’ve not seen very many successful plants of this type operated around the world and we don’t tend to push this type of equipment.
So please contact us here at Unlimited Resources Corporation and let us “custom build” whatever type tire recycling plant that you may need to meet your customer’s needs. We’ve been in business for over fourteen years and would welcome the opportunity to help you with your tire recycling equipment needs.
Come to the Experts in Tire Shredders
Author: urcadmin | Published: Jul 26th, 2010 | Category: Equipment, NewsUnlimited Resources Corporation has been in business for over fourteen years and we’ve refurbished almost every brand of tire shredder that has been manufactured. Not only have we refurbished most brands of tire shredders but we’ve many times made updates to these machines that have made them more user friendly to operate. We have also many times made changes to these tire shredders that make them more productive and more durable.
So our company understands Tire Shredders and without a doubt some are better than others, but each of them has their place in the shredding industry somewhere. Many times we have moved them away from the tire shredding industry into plastics, wood, paper or e-waste because they are better suited for these types of applications. The main reason for us moving the machines to these other industries is that they weren’t strong or rugged enough to stand up to the severe duty that shredders encounter in the tire recycling industry.
We have refurbished many Columbus McKinnon, Granutech/Saturn (Mac-Saturn), SSI, Eidal, American Pulverizer, Williams, Mitts & Merrell, Jordan (Reduction Technologies), Barclay and Untha tire shredders. In addition we have refurbished many other brands that are not as popular some of those names. Our company takes pride in providing the tire shredding industry with quality refurbished tire recycling equipment that is custom built to stand the test of time. And our machines will many times out perform the OEM built machines because of modifications we have made or weaknesses we have identified and corrected in the way the machines perform in the harsh environment of the tire shredding industry.
Unlimited Resources provides the tire recycling industry with another more affordable option for purchasing your next tire shredder or tire recycling equipment needs. We’ve recently built a brand new shop and office facility and now have the capability to handle most any shredder made. Our shop has overhead cranes in place to make working on these machines much easier than it was in the past. And we have long time working arrangements in place with many of the large machine shops to handle the outside work that we don’t have the necessary special equipment in house to perform. You can be assured that if you purchase tire recycling equipment from us that you will be receiving some of the best equipment available and at a competive price. So make your first and last call to the ones to call for all your recycling equipment needs – Unlimited Resources Corporation.
Custom Built Conveyors
Author: urcadmin | Published: Jul 23rd, 2010 | Category: Equipment, NewsUnlimited Resources Corporation has in stock several custom built conveyors of different lengths and widths. Our company has been custom building conveyors since we first went into business in 1996. Over this period of time we have custom built almost every type of conveyor used in the tire recycling and wood grinding industry. We build some of the heaviest constructed conveyors in the industry today. We use only the highest quality components to build these conveyors and offer some of the best designed conveyors working in the recycling industry today. We’ve used these conveyors in many of the systems that we’ve assembled over the years so we’ve had a lot of feedback over the years from our customers.
We can custom build whatever length or width conveyor that you might need for your application. We can custom build a troughed (pan), flat pan, or any type of roller conveyor that you might need. We can build these conveyors in sections that easily bolt together once they are at your location. We can of course build whatever support structures (legs) that you might need to accommodate the incline the conveyor is going need. We many times put stainless steel sections in these conveyors to accommodate cross belt or drum magnets. Let our years of test proven results help you custom design your next conveyor system.
We’ve gone to using Grove speed reducers over the past four or five years and have not had a failure to date with this brand. We generally use head and tail pulleys from Precision Pulley and use completely enclosed take-ups to prevent damage from the elements. Our goal has always been to build conveyors that will stand the test of time and we’ve seen our conveyors still running great after over ten years of continuous service.
We custom build and use many of these conveyors in the tire recycling industry, wood grinding and crumb rubber industry each year. Therefore we don’t and won’t build junk conveyors. We will custom build conveyors to meet or exceed your industry’s needs. Please call us and see if we can provide you with your custom built conveyor needs now or whenever you start your next project.
We don’t and won’t build light duty conveyors. We build only heavy duty conveyors that will be designed to operate for many years if adjusted properly. We generally build most of our conveyors out of channel but would vary from this if you need a truss design to meet your specific needs. Call the boys with the “can do crew” at Unlimited Resources Corporation and see if we might have your conveyors needs in stock. If not let us give you a price for custom building a conveyor for whatever materials that you might need to convey.
Custom Built Surge Bins
Author: urcadmin | Published: Jul 23rd, 2010 | Category: Equipment, NewsUnlimited Resources Corporation has in stock several different sizes and styles of custom built surge (storage) bins that we furnish to the Tire Recycling Industry. We custom build these bins out of 3/16″ thick steel unless you specify heavier or lighter steel at the time of purchase. We can custom build these surge bins to meet whatever your specific need might be from primary tire shredding all the way down to crumb rubber production. We presently have custom built bins in stock for the storage of 1″-2″ TDF (tire derived fuel) chips. We also have custom built bins in stock for the storage of 3/8″-3/4″ rubber mulch material. We keep in stock a custom built bin for handling ¼” minus rubber- down to crumb rubber. Finally, we have in stock a custom built bin that would allow you to feed either two separate machines or have the capability of making one size product while sending half of the material on down the line for further size reduction.
Unlimited Resources Corporation has the capability of custom building whatever size and type of storage bin you might need. We can also match this up with many different sizes and types of screw auger conveyors or drag chain conveyors. And of course Unlimited Resources can also furnish you with what ever drive system you might need to meet your specific product flow needs. We can offer continuous speed drive systems or many different types of variable speed drive systems to accommodate you plants needs.
Unlimited Resources Corporation uses these surge bins in many of the systems that we build for the Tire Recycling equipment Industry as well as the crumb rubber systems that we offer for sale. We use them not only for product storage but also for being able to better balance systems to make them perform better when you are putting several different machines together to make them into a crumb rubber system. Of course each crumb rubber system is different and we use many different types and brands of equipment to perform the different functions needed to reduce whole tires down to crumb rubber. These custom built surge bins allow us the flexibility needed to be able to better match equipment up to build these crumb rubber systems.
Many times these custom built surge bins also give us the flexibility to be able to only operate part of the plant while we are working on other parts of the plant. We have the storage capacity to run certain machines for an extended period of time on the reserve in the storage bins feeding this particular machine or part of the system.
Of course Unlimited Resources Corporation builds these custom built storage bins for mainly the Tire Recycling Industry but they can be used in almost all industries. We welcome the opportunity to be able to quote you on your custom built surge bin requirements. Be assured that you will be buying the best bins at affordable pricing offered in the industry today.
Improving the already excellent Columbus McKinnon Primary Two Speed Tire Shredder and Columbus McKinnon Tire Chipper
Author: urcadmin | Published: Jul 23rd, 2010 | Category: EquipmentThe Columbus McKinnon two speed tire shredder and the Columbus McKinnon tire chipper are two of the major pieces of tire recycling equipment used in the United States today. They are also used in many TDF (tire derived fuel) plants and crumb rubber manufacturing facilities in the United States and around the world.
Unlimited Resources Corporation just recently finished the complete refurbishing of two Columbus McKinnon Primary Two Speed tire shredders. And we also just recently completed the refurbishing of three Columbus McKinnon chipper tire shredders. These machines have all been modified to have hardened 4140 heat treated rotors installed in them instead of the traditional mid-steel rotors that they are shipped from the factory new with.
This has always been one of the major weaknesses of these machines since they were first built. We truly believe that this change we have made to these tire shredders will make them much more durable and help preserve the knife seats for an extended period of time if you happen to lose a knife and not replace it immediately. Of course anyone that owns a Columbus McKinnon tire shredder or chipper knows they should always shut the machines down periodically and check to make sure that all your knives are properly in place.
In addition to the 4140 heat treated rotors we also have inserted every bolt hole in these rotor segments with a replaceable 4140 heat treated insert. This has always been the second major weakness in these machines since they’ve been built. This is because when you have to take out and put in nearly 1000 bolts each time you do a knife change on a CM tire shredder or chipper and the bolts are going into mid-steel you will eventually strip out the bolt holes. And once you’ve striped the bolt hole out the only way to fix it is to weld the hole back up (which will never hold as good as a new hole will) and then re-drill and tap the hole with a special fixture that can be purchased from Columbus McKinnon. With our modifications the 4140 heat treated inserts that we’ve installed are not nearly as easy to strip in the first place. But if you do strip one you just screw the insert out and replace it with a new one and you’re back in business very quickly and not the several hours it takes to repair the mild-steel ones.
Also we have used what we call a cascading style rotor arrangement on installing these rotors back in the Primary tire shredder and the chippers. This allows for using of the knives up to six times if the knife does not become damaged. We used 2.2 size rotors along with 2.1 and 2.0 rotors in the two speed primary shredders. And in the chippers we used 1.9 rotors along with 1.8 and 1.7 size rotors. This way if you purchased both of these machines you would get six knife uses out of these knives. If you just purchased the two speed primary shredders or the chipper by itself then you would only get three uses out of each knife.
The cost savings for being able to use this knife over is quite sizeable when compared to having to buy new knives each time that cost anywhere from $25.00-$28.00 each new. And when all you have to purchase new are the 2.2 size knives and then Blanchard grind down the rest of knives needed to the next size for a cost of around $4.50-$6.00 each you can see the tremendous cost savings that this can provide over the life of the shredder.
We feel that the changes we have made to these machines will make them much more user friendly to operate and that we have addressed many of the weaknesses that these machines have always had since they hit the market in 1983. They’ve always been a very high production machine but along with this they have always been fairly high maintenance as well. Unlimited Resources Corporation truly believes that our changes (updates) will eliminate many of these problems or at least minimize the problem to be more controllable. We have several machines running presently and were hearing nothing but good things so far. We still have some of these machines in inventory with these updates and welcome your calls.
Granutech Model 80 Grizzly Tire Shredder / Grinder: A Workhorse for the Tire Recycling Industry
Author: urcadmin | Published: Jul 6th, 2010 | Category: EquipmentWe just recently we completed a refurbishment on a Granutech Model 80 Grizzly. This machine is one of the premier workhorses in the Tire recycling industry today. It will consistently take 2″ tire chips and process them down to various sizes depending on the size of screen that is installed. A product as little as 1/2″ minus may be achieved with this machine and up to 90-95% steel removed with the proper installation of magnets. There are many sizes of screens available depending on your preference of product.
What do you get with a refurbished machine from URC? Well in this particular machine you get a Grizzly that has had the following work completed: 300 H.P. electric motor rebuilt–gear box rebuilt–rotor completely hard faced and all the knife seats rebuilt– rotor balanced to assure proper operation–new bearings on the rotor– installed new fly and bed knives–new ¾ inch screens–replaced many of the wear plates–and a new tilt cylinder with new hydraulic system on the hood. Along with all of this the machine was cleaned, primered and painted.
If you already have an existing tire shredder producing 2″ chips and are looking to expand into a more diverse mulch product, this is the machine for you. We currently have this Grizzly along with an infeed conveyor, a vibratory discharge conveyor, outfeed conveyor, crossbelt magnet and an aspiration system. The machine has a 500 Amp disconnect with a soft start and all the controls. We can integrate this machine into almost any current tire shredding operation, and/or we can design a complete tire recycling system from start to finish to fit your individual needs. You can view much of our equipment @ urcrecycle.com. Contact us via email urc@mcmsys.com or just give us a call @ 800-423-9062.
Converting a Stationary Tire Shredder into a Portable Tire Shredder
Author: urcadmin | Published: Apr 21st, 2010 | Category: Equipment, NewsSome time back we acquired a SSI Model 1800-E stationary tire shredder. The shredder had completely worn out knives in it and was in generally poor condition. As we got into reconditioning this tire shredder, it began to turn from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan.
This is not a large machine but it has incredible torque, developing 44,384 on the fast shaft and 56,064 on the slow shaft. That makes this particular shredder ideally suited for the shredding of passenger tires, light truck tires, e-waste, light metals, plastic, fiberglass, aluminum castings, wood waste, MSW, steel or plastic drums and many other products.
As the quality of the machine became apparent, we decided to convert this from a stationary machine into a mobile tire shredder. On the shredder itself, we replaced both main shafts and installed all new bearings and seals. It has a new 125 HP electric motor and we replaced the input section of the Reggiani gearbox (this is the part that generally fails on this type of heavy-duty gear drive reducer). All the old worn out knives were replace with all new two-hook 1 3/4″ wide knives.
Once the shredder was completely refurbished, we set about making it portable. To do this we mounted the shredder and its stand on a tandem axle trailer. Then we added a Radar disc screen classifier to sort product to make a 2″ nominal TDF tire chip. To make a 2″ nominal chip the material must pass through the shredder box several times until it is properly sized.
This is a simple statistical problem to pass the chips through until they fall the right way to be cut into proper lengths. We had already built new infeed and outfeed conveyors for this machine. To create the recirculating system we built a conveyor to take the material from the shredder box to the classifier. Then we built a cross conveyor to return the over size material back to another conveyor that returns the larger chips back to the shredder for another cut.
To power everything, we mounted a Caterpillar 3306B generator on the trailer. The next step was to wire the entire thing so the conveyors start and stop in the proper order and everything can be run from a central electrical control panel. We also installed some individual stop buttons for the infeed conveyor as well as a panic button to stop everything at once for the safety of the operator if something unforeseen happens.
After everything had been tested and refined, we super cleaned the machine and sent it to the paint shop for a brand new paint job.
Moving this tire shredder from one site to another is a simple matter of stowing the infeed and outfeed conveyors and dropping the catwalks on hinges so the entire load is legal width as well as legal weight. Set up on the other end takes a few hours at most and the machine is ready to start making product again.
Like all the machines we rebuild, this entire machine carries a limited warranty. Our customers can buy with confidence that this tire shredder should operate for many years without causing major problems just like a new machine but at a much lower investment.
Tax Benefits Expiring-First Year Expensing Election
Author: urcadmin | Published: Jan 19th, 2010 | Category: EquipmentSection 179 of the Internal Revenue Code has provided for first year expensing of equipment for many years. In 2003 the amount allowed was drastically increased and in 2008 and 2009 under stimulus legislation passed by Congress the regulations have allowed up to $250,000 per year of new equipment purchases to be directly expensed for federal income tax purposes. This of course has allowed businesses to purchase new equipment and save the tax on this “instant depreciation” in a single year instead of the normal life of the equipment.
The resulting cash flow boost means that a lot of the cost is recovered in tax abatement immediately. It isn’t too late to get some of these benefits on your equipment additions.
As of the end of 2009, barring any legislation to change it, the first year writeoff will drop to $134,000. That is not as good as 2008 and 2009, but is considerably better than the $25,000 that is scheduled to come into play in 2011. When you calculate the interest savings on the earlier receipt of the tax benefit, it makes lots of sense to buy your equipment while you can take advantage of the higher expensing limits.
The election applies to new and used equipment. If you are in the market for recycling equipment, contact Unlimited Resources Corporation right away. Not only will we give you the best value for your dollar, your Uncle Sam will help defray the cost of it in tax savings.
If you didn’t buy that needed equipment last year, don’t put it off too long or you will be faced with multiple year depreciation for most of your large equipment purchases.