Glass Recycling
How Hoverdale reduced the costs of replacing glass recycling parts by up to £4,000 per month for one of the UKs largest waste management companies
The Situation
Glass has a high silica content. This is one of the most abrasive materials in the bulk materials handling industry. Glass crushing machines have to run at high speeds to achieve the level of granulation required by glass recyclers. Wear and tear on the component parts is severe and therefore the maintenance costs in both labour and materials are high.
The client was buying parts from the original equipment manufacturer & felt that better service & a more cost-effective solution could be found. The client was finding that machines were having to go down because they could not get parts from the original equipment manufacturer on time.
Hoverdale were called in to one of a large glass recycler’s plants in order to reduce labour & material costs on these machines.
The Client’s Objectives
The client’s objectives were simple:
To find a cost effective solution – the client felt that a 30% reduction in part costs was achievable
To reduce maintenance costs
To get an improved service
Our Solution
The client had tried a number of solutions without any improvement and asked Hoverdale to investigate. Hoverdale’s solution was in three parts:
For the static parts of the crusher we supplied our Ultraclad 800 which increased the life from 4 months to over 2 years
For the rotating parts we found that hard metals/carbides were not suitable for applications where the feed contained materials other than glass. In this case we used a heat treated alloy steel that gave a consistent life time/output life
Where the feed material was ‘clean’ i.e. contained only glass, we were able to use hard metals to good effect and achieve much longer life
Their Measures for Success
There were a number of simple measures for the client to determine whether the project was successful. These included:
The costs of the old v the new parts
The downtime of the machinery
The delivery timescale for new parts
The Timing
From the go-ahead, the tooling of the first batch of hammers took two-and-a-half months. Thereafter, batches of replacement parts were created for the client every month & kept in-stock for the client to draw upon as required.
Value to the Customer
The value to the client was significant and included:
70% reduction in costs for the static parts of the crusher
30% reduction in costs for the rotating parts
60% reduction where the feed material was clean
The overall saving was up to £4k per month
Zero downtime (the client had shut down the machinery for days in the past when waiting for replacements)
The improved service of providing in-time delivery
Can We Help?
Our products are used in 5 continents and our expertise spans the globe.
Book a site visit now! The savings will more than pay for your time or your money back.