The Shulman Company operates a high-volume scrap yard where trucks and rail cars are brought to be loaded with ferrous and non-ferrous scrap on the way to mills. Alongside this operation, Shulman, located in Elmira, NY, handles waste paper and an industrial refuse removal and container service.
The company started a search for the right material handler more than a year ago. It determined that it was looking for purpose-built machines. With the duty-cycles that are built into the scrap business, it was time to find a unit with a cab that offered ergonomics and provided operator comfort.
The other element that the company insisted upon was the need for rubber-tired machines. This would provide the mobility and the productivity it needed. It also meant that the machines could be brought up to the blacktop and not risk damaging it. In addition, the company wanted a machine to move faster than its present crawler would allow.
Its first purchase was a Sennebogen 835M rubber-tired material handler. Zach Shulman really liked the stability of the machine under load and the lifting capacity was greater than the company had previously experienced.
Additionally, the Sennebogen machine lifted weights the company needed without dragging around more weight. This meant that fuel economy would be improved. Furthermore, Shulman and his team worked with the people at Sennebogen and enjoyed the experience. According to Shulman, “When Sennebogen promises, they deliver. It’s always great to do business with people like that.”
Shulman also found that Sennebogen stood behind the product and were very responsive to a unit-down situation. “We were having a problem with a magnet and we called them on a Friday. On Saturday, Jim Westlake, the national service manager, showed up, as promised, identified the problem, and got us up and running. It was this attention to customer satisfaction that won them the second order.”
Shear Power
When it was time to retire its shear, Shulman called on Sennebogen.
“In our operation, we need to maximize the weight when we ship containers to the mill. That sometimes means bringing the machine to the side of the rail car and, if necessary, cutting the steel right in the container,” explained Shulman.
Previously, to accomplish this task, a cutter would have to be brought in or the material would have to be moved to the shears and then back. This operation added labor and cost to the process, said Shulman.
In addition, the company found it highly unproductive to keep moving the tracked machine from one end of the yard to the other.
The company found that the densification of the material was improving the productivity and that the containers were maxing out on weight instead of space. In this operation, the objective is always to be as efficient as possible. If the company was to speed up the system and process more material in more rail cars, then it needed to put its shear on a more mobile unit.
Shulman already had decided that the company’s next unit was going to be a Sennebogen. It just made good business sense to standardize on Sennebogen for parts, and maintenance procedures and operationally it meant operators could move from one machine to another.
The operators really liked the Sennebogen machine. It was, according to them, “A great place to work.”
The operators could check the fluids from ground level, which ensured getting done on schedule. It offered the right combination of all-around visibility, comfort and convenience. In addition with the closed center hydraulic system, the response time was quick and the cycle times were faster. From a maintenance standpoint, it made economic sense. By standardizing on Sennebogen, Shulman’s mechanic would only have to learn one system.
Sennebogen, Genesis Deliver
Initially there were some concerns about putting the Genesis GMS 500R on the end of the boom. However, the weight of the shear at approximately 12,000 lbs. (5,443 kg) was approximately the same as a stick and a magnet.
The next issue was the Genesis concern about being able to tuck the shear up and be able to move about the yard. The last concern was related to the cutting position of the shear in operation.
According to Kevin Bakke, CEO and chairman of Genesis Equipment and Manufacturing Inc., the company had recent success in a similar application, but it had never installed a GMS 500R rotating shear on a Sennebogen unit.
“With the number of Sennebogen units now in operation here in North America, it was strictly a matter of time. We also were not concerned about the shear or its capacity. It just became a matter of determining if it was the right match,” said Bakke.
Before it got the green light for the Sennebogen Green Line machine for this application, Genesis’ engineering staff did a complete study on lift capacity, articulation, hydraulic flow and pressure. The answer was, “It’s a go.” The engineers believed that it was a perfect marriage of two machines.
“Sennebogen’s increased gpm and resulting pressure made the shears work at an ideal speed and it was able to cut through anything they put in front of it,” said Keith Ahlstrom, Sennebogen’s sales manager.
“Traditionally, a shear of this size is mounted on a tracked machine. However,” said Bakke, “we are getting more requests all the time to mount a shear to a rubber-tired machine. This combination provides increased productivity through better and faster machine positioning in order to work efficiently. As well, with the environmental issues surrounding paved yards, it is clear that this is going to be continuing trend.”
Industry reports that with paved yards becoming a requirement, there are only a few places left to derive savings and one of them is increasing the overall productivity of the equipment.
Shulman continues to report a high level of satisfaction with the two recent purchases. The company found that Sennebogen and Genesis understood what the company needed and were able to provide the required level of productivity and mobility.
The Shulman Company Inc. was started in 1938 and is presently being run and operated by Steve and Zach Shulman.
“Today, the secret for any successful operator is to make sure that each of your operations is running as efficiently as possible. Then, the sum total of all the parts will be greater than the whole.” That, according to Zach Shulman is how he and his father, Steve, run the family operation. As second- and third-generation family members, they continue to bring a new and modern business perspective to the operation.
For more information, call 877/309-0099 or visit www.sennebogen-na.com.
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