by Colleen Suo

Numerous equipment manufacturers took advantage of the 2017 CONEXPO platform to showcase new or improved innovative construction, aggregate and recycling machinery for the over 130,000 attendees to inspect up close and personal. ARJES Recycling Innovation presented their new Impaktor 250 to the North American market during the expo.

Dealer reps on hand in the booth for ARJES were Moni Semler, Gert Semler and Jeromie Pritchard of SSP Technolgies and Matthew Smith, Manager of Hill Country Recycling Corp. (HCR). SSP Technologies is the Midwest dealer for ARJES, while Smith not only represents ARJES in Texas, but HCR also uses an ARJES VZ 950 at the family owned recycling facility, so he was well-qualified to answer questions throughout the five day show.

According to ARJES, the Impaktor 250 is a heavy-duty tracked machine designed for smaller outfits dealing in C&D material, scrap metal or wood waste. It is able to work on concrete, rubble, asphalt, natural stone, brick, ceramic and concrete railroad ties. The crusher features a two-stage process with specially designed shaft geometry for hard materials. The material is pre-crushed within the shaft, and then the secondary double jaw breaker works in conjunction with the breaker bars to generate accurate final product size — by opening the breaker bars, material can be crushed into coarse chunks.

ARJES runs a Volvo Penta 220 hp Tier 4 Final diesel engine in the 250 to power the asynchronous drive, which, according to ARJES, alternates the adjustment of the shaft speed for smoother intake of heavy material. It also features a central control panel using multi-displays for ease of monitoring production. ARJES incorporated an automatic reversing function at the feed end (now commonly utilized) to help protect the crushing tools from damage from oversized unacceptable debris while at the discharge end the use of a powerful permanent magnet effectively separates ferrous material.

While the Impaktor 250 was the machine on display and sold at CONEXPO, it is the VZ 950 Heavy Duty Universal Shredder that operates at HCR’s Marble Falls, Texas location. Family owned and operated since 2002, HCR began by buying ferrous and nonferrous metals and have expanded over the years to include newsprint, cardboard and plastics.

Smith’s career in recycling began at Holland Scrap & Recycling 20 years ago. Moving to Burnet County in 2006, he’s been helping the family to manage Hill Country Recycling ever since.

Seeing the need for a slow speed, high torque shredder to improve their bottom line and production efficiency, their search lead them to the ARJES VZ 950. As part of a small community, it was important to HCR to be good neighbors. The low level of operational noise was one of the factors in their decision. Smith explained, “Being located just about a mile outside of a residential area, we were looking for a quiet but powerful machine.”

Some features of the 950 that were instrumental in the decision making process include:

• a patented dual-shaft system and patented T-blade profile
• two tilting hoppers allow for optimal feeding of material to the tool shafts
• hydraulically adjustable magnet for effective removal of ferrous material

In September of 2015, they jumped in with both feet and purchased the VZ 950 Heavy Duty Shredder. The machine is rated for steel / sheet metal at 25-30 tons per hour and according to Smith their machine “handles every bit of that” and HRC has seen a continual increase in their processing output.

The 950 is available with either a Volvo Penta 768 hp diesel engine or electric drive (2 x 250 kW). HCR runs the electric power plant due to the low cost of electricity in their location.

Overall, the demanding workload and increase in materials processed at HCR has been no match for the ARJES VZ 950. It has kept up with the demands required of it allowing HCR to operate with innovation by using this powerfully efficient shredder.

Maintenance on the 950 according to Smith has been minimal and routine. They’ve experienced normal wear and tear on the shafts and, due to the modular design, maintenance has been easy to perform. In fact, Smith and HCR were so impressed with their ARJES machine it lead them to inquire into becoming a dealer for Texas.

Smith said, “We liked it well enough to put our name behind it.”

For more information on these and other ARJES machines, visit www.ssptechnologies.com or www.hillcountryrecycling.com .