Established in 2016, Contract Plant Rental (CPR) delivers bespoke, comprehensive contract plant rental solutions designed to meet the diverse needs of a wide range of clients on an individual basis. Whilst many companies serve just a few industries, CPR covers every option. They pride themselves on ensuring each piece of plant is completely suitable and safe to perform the task their clients require it to undertake.
One of their specialist areas is in recycling, with their fleet containing a range of material handling solutions of all sizes. As the industry has evolved from simply handling material, into one which sorts and segregates on a daily basis, so has CPR’s need to supply a changing market.
As Nathan Baird, CPR’s Business Development Manager, explains: “We keep a close eye on each and every market to ensure we have equipment in the fleet that is able to undertake certain tasks. While the core machinery in the recycling markets is still the material handler, we noticed a trend in the metals sector where car recycling was moving away from simply crushing and moving on. End users had started picking out the valuable cabling and metals from an end of life vehicle and increasing their profitability from each item. This led us down the road to examining the options available to us for adding bespoke car dismantler machinery into our fleet, to not only complement the fleets of our existing customers, but also to offer other users a cost effective entry into this field.”
There are a number of options available for car dismantling, most of which rely on excavator and attachment manufacturers coming together to build a solution. “We looked at the market and found the Kobelco car dismantler range,”’ continued Nathan. “We liked the fact that the entire car dismantler package was designed and built by a single company. That meant that if there was an issue, it’s a single call to make, with no back and forth between parties as to who is responsible.”
The Kobelco Car Dismantling concept comes in two sizes based around the SK140 and SK210 excavator models, and it was the smaller of the two machines which peaked the CPR interest. “Many of our customers have compact sites, barely large enough for an additional machine to be installed,” Nathan explains. “The compact size of the SK140, married to its short radius tail swing, makes it an ideal fit for many customers, allowing them to integrate a more thorough recycling operation into their limited space.”’
Kobelco takes the standard SK140SR and undertakes a wide range of upgrades to the 78.5kW machine to allow it to undertake the dismantling role. The adapted model is designated the SK140D car dismantler. With an increase of over 17%, the operating weight of the SK140-7 has jumped to over 20.5 tonnes, thanks to the addition of the robust clamp arm set between the track frames. Designed to allow the operator to perform a variety of tasks, the clamp arm can secure large objects and pinch small objects. It has been built with a variety of fabrications to hold, rotate and pull materials against and through, to obtain the best return of valuable recyclable materials for car dismantlers. Whilst the adjustable clamp unit holds a vehicle safely and securely in position as it is worked on, it is a dedicated attachment mounted to the stick of the SK140D car dismantler, which manipulates the valuable scrap from the vehicle.
Kobelco offers three different versions of its dismantling nibbler, two for the SK210D and the KHE750PR-2 for the SK140D. The attachment allows car dismantlers to pinch and pull anything in the vehicle, thanks to the narrow tips on the jaws. The reduced size of the jaws allows items such as alternators, wiring harnesses, seats and even the engine to be removed without any direct human interaction with the vehicle, making it a very safe task. The throat of the attachment contains a pair of cutting blades, allowing any item, such as door pillars and axle mountings, to be cut safely and quickly.
Kobelco haven’t just added the clamp arms to a standard excavator to create their car dismantler, they have also increased the pump capacity to allow the additional hydraulic circuits to perform perfectly. Two 130lpm variable displacement pumps provide sufficient oil flow for the clamp and the attachment. The Japanese manufacturer has also included additional cab protection, along with protection for the vulnerable hoses located at the bottom of the boom foot, all of this is on top of the SK140’s exceedingly high standard specification.
“With steel mills wanting to increase the purity of their material, our customers are having to ensure the material they send out contains less contaminants than they previously did,” Nathan explains. “The car dismantler allows for seats and dashboard and other non-metal items to be removed prior to the vehicle being baled. It also allows the initial recycler to increase their income from each vehicle by segregating a variety of materials, such as the alloy engine blocks and radiators, copper wiring looms and heavy steel axles. Doing this removal by mechanical means not only requires less personnel, but also takes away the human mechanical interface, making the entire process quicker and far safer.”
One of CPR’s long-standing clients, Total Waste Management in Essex have seen the benefit of this productive recycling method. Thanks to the addition of an SK140D car dismantler, they are now reaping the rewards from a more productive and safer method of recycling end of life vehicles.
“We have worked with Total Waste Management for several years, after initially delivering a material handler to them,” Nathan comments. “So when we introduced the Kobelco car dismantler, we naturally approached the team. Since they were already undertaking end of life vehicle recycling, they could see the benefit of the product immediately.”
In the time that CPR have been dealing with Molson Equipment, Kobelco’s UK dealer, the machines have never failed to deliver the results the company have expected of them. “They have been a very reliable and valuable addition to our fleet,” Nathan commented. “Any minor issue we, or our clients, have encountered have been addressed very quickly by the Molson team. The back up and service they have provided us has been very good.”
