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Terex Purchases Continental Biomass Industries
Terex Materials Processing, a business segment of Terex Corp., has acquired Continental Biomass Industries, Inc. (CBI), marking a significant expansion of the Terex Environmental Equipment (TEE) product line. TEE, part of Terex Materials Processing, has been serving the wood, biomass and recycling industries since 2011.
The acquisition of CBI’s business, in operation since 1988 and based in Newton, NH, significantly advances the product line while adding dimensions to the TEE business that would otherwise have taken years to develop, according to Terex. The acquisition also adds customization and specialty product capabilities.
Kieran Hegarty, president of Terex Materials Processing, comments, “Wood processing, biomass fuel production, and recycling are strong and growing industries that are driven by increasing global demand for environmentally responsible solutions to waste disposal and alternative energy. We see a real opportunity to bring value to customers in these industries by providing equipment that combines the know-how of CBI and TEE with our existing materials processing expertise.”
CBI has a long history in the wood/bio and recycling markets and brings an experienced team that can continue to drive specialized product and project sales on a global basis. Terex’s established distribution relationships will enable quick development of a worldwide distributor network.
Terex Environmental Equipment will serve customers via three distinct but collaborative sales and support channels:
Anders Ragnarsson, owner and founder of CBI, will continue as the Managing Director of the CBI product line. He comments, “Terex is the perfect partner to take the CBI brand to the next level, combining Terex’s global talent and well-established distribution channels with CBI’s strong product development, service and custom design and build capabilities.”
In addition to managing CBI, he will support Tony Devlin, TEE Worldwide Business Director, in developing TEE into a market leader in the wood/bio and recycling industries.
According to Devlin, “Terex Materials Processing has a long history of providing application-specific equipment that converts complex materials into more useful, more valuable, and less waste intensive outputs. We’re excited to build on that heritage as we further expand into the recycling, biomass and wood processing industries.”
Morbark WTC Gears To Biomass Markets
Morbark, Inc. enhanced the design of its popular 40/36 whole tree chipper in 2013 to adapt it to producing the micro-chips vital to pellet mills and bioenergy applications. The model is quickly becoming one of its most popular units, according to the company.
The 40/36 MicroChipper includes an enhanced Advantage 3 drum set with 16 knives utilizing standard hardware for easy maintenance, an operator-friendly slide-in forestry grate system to reduce oversized chips for more consistent and higher quality micro-chips, and a straight discharge chute with a mechanically driven chip accelerator and a hydraulically operated chip deflect with vertical and horizontal adjustment to fully load vans.
“With new biomass plants being built in the United States and the rapid expansion of wood pellet exports to Europe, our customers need a cost-effective system for making micro-chips,” says John Foote, Morbark VP of Sales and Marketing. “The 40/36 MicroChipper is the solution. We are able to produce a far superior product, producing up to 95% acceptable micro-chips at volumes of more than 70 tons per hour.”
With high production of micro-chips per gallon of fuel used, the Morbark 40/36 allows owners to reduce costs and maximize profits. In customer tests, up to 95% of the micro-chips produced passed through a ½ in. grate, and an average of 65% passed through a ¼ in. grate, the company reports.
Morbark’s internal drive feed system has fewer moving parts, creating a high-performance, low-maintenance machine, while the Morbark Integrated Control Systems allows for diagnostic monitoring to further reduce downtime. Visit morbark.com/microchipper.
Plevin Installs Vecoplan Waste Line
For R Plevin & Sons Ltd, a leading company in the UK wood recycling sector, Vecoplan AG has delivered, installed and successfully commissioned a complete wood waste treatment plant. The new plant, installed at Plevin’s Hazlehead site, with a capacity to process 150,000 tons of wood waste per year, is one of the biggest and most efficient waste wood recycling plants in the UK, the participants report.
Vecoplan, located in the German Westerwald area, is strongly positioned to offer complete solutions for the processing of low grade wood waste into high quality wood fuel. It delivered the whole processing line to Plevin, including ferrous and non-ferrous separators, disc screen, oscillating screens, hand sorting cabin, conveying technology and truck loading stations.
“With the full trust of Plevin’s in Vecoplan’s ability to deliver the complete system, and an excellent working partnership, the project was a great success for both parties,” states Vecoplan.
The high quality fuel produced is shipped directly and exclusively to EON UK’s new 30 MW biomass CHP plant in Sheffield, which provides renewable electrical energy to 40,000 homes and includes a hot water district heating system for local homes and businesses.
Efficient shredding technology is the key to successful and economic processing of wood waste. The high quality requirements for waste wood fuel in regards to contamination and fines content have to be economically fulfilled. Vecoplan’s VNZ 250 XLT double shaft shredder is a slow speed, high torque operation that produces far less fines and more consistently sized finished fuel stock.
The system also includes Vecoplan’s VNZ 250 XLT patented HiTorc drives. These drives offer the most efficient power consumption and it is also possible to feed this machine directly with unprocessed wood.
Dean Ashton, Plevin’s Group Engineering Manager, confirms after successful commissioning in June 2014: “Vecoplan’s solution is incredibly efficient thanks to their patented Hi-Torc direct drive technology. The entire plant is fully automated and can operate in excess of the specified 60 tph.”
Finland Energy Firm To Install Boiler
Valmet’s new biomass boiler plant at Nokianvirran Energia in Finland will include a HYBEX boiler with a steam power of 68 MW that employs fluidized bed technology, flue gas purification equipment, and the plant’s electrification and automation system.
The boiler plant will be delivered for a new steam heat station to be built in Nokia. The total value of Nokianvirran Energia’s investment is approximately EUR 45 million, of which the value of Valmet’s delivery is slightly more than a half.
The new heating station will produce process steam for the SCA Hygiene Products paper mill and the Nokian Renkaat factory, as well as district heat for Leppäkosken Lämpö’s district heat customers. The fossil natural gas previously used for energy production will be replaced with more affordable biofuels, such as timber chips and whole tree chips. In addition, the boiler can utilize milled peat and sludge from the paper mill.
Leppäkosken Lämpö distributes the district heat produced by the power plant to its customers through its network. “This investment will especially improve the price competitiveness of district heat compared with other heating methods,” says Juha Koskinen, managing director of Leppäkosken Lämpö.
For SCA, which manufactures tissue, the investment will decrease the company’s dependence on fossil natural gas. In addition the de-inking sludge derived from the tissue mill can also be used for energy production at the new power plant.
For Nokian Renkaat, the power plant will bring cost benefits, and additionally reduces the greenhouse gas emissions of the production process.
Nokianvirran Energia Oy’s current plant consists of two gas-fired boilers with a steam power of 57 and 110 MW. The new 68 MW plant to be constructed will be integrated with the existing power plant. As gas is replaced by biofuels, carbon dioxide emissions in the area will decrease by 60,000-80,000 tons per year.
Manufacturing has started at Valmet’s Lapua workshop. According to the project schedule, steam production will begin in the spring of 2016.
Chipping Business Is Brisk For CEM
The second quarter of 2015 will see CEM commissioning four new chippers into separate high production wood chipping facilities in the pulp and paper and biofuels markets. These heavy duty chippers vary in size from 112 in. to 130 in. diameter discs. They are provided with 12 to 18 knives, arranged to a combined total drive power of over 6000 kW, and will provide a combined total of over 20,000 GMT/ day production capacity.
CEM’s machines are typically included in new log lines and chipping systems provided by well-respected systems suppliers such as Price LogPro and Raumaster Oy. They are also provided directly to owner/operators via stand-alone upgrades of existing facilities which often require little infrastructure modification except for replacement of the chipper to realize substantial system performance improvements.
CEM is a U.S. manufacturer and supplier of stationary heavy duty/high production log chippers, chipper parts, engineered upgrades and technical services for CEM’s products. With equipment operating on six continents, CEM’s patented technologies provide owner/operators of pulp mills and pellet/biofuels plants around the world with advantages in areas of wood yard safety, reliability, production capability and both conventional wood chip and micro-chip quality. Visit cem-machine.com.
Bandit Continues Expansion Push
Bandit Industries recently completed its fourth plant expansion in nine months at Remus, Mich. to keep up with increasing demand for its equipment. All the plant expansions have added space for additional employees and increasing production.
Bandit moved into a new rebuild facility in October 2014, increasing its capacity for rebuilding used machines. The move also freed up construction space in the forestry mower and Beast chipper buildings, allowing the forestry mower area to double its production and allowing the Beast recycler line to increase production by 25%.
A new electronics facility was finished in November 2014, allowing for increased production of electronic control panels harnesses used on all Bandit equipment. The new facility is now building all of the new control panels and proportional drives that are now featured on all of Bandit’s Tier 4 engine options.
“In February of this year, we moved into a new facility to build drum chipper heads for our hand-fed chippers, whole tree chippers and Beast recyclers, along with the rotors for our forestry mower lines,” says Jerry Morey, president of Bandit Industries. “The new facility freed up production areas in our hand-fed drum chipper area, which is allowing us to increase production in that area by 50%.”
On April 1, Bandit Industries moved into an expansion of its whole tree manufacturing facility, increasing production of its whole tree chippers by 50%, Morey adds.
“These four expansions have allowed us to add 80 full-time employees and add much-needed production,” Morey says. “Surging demand for our products over the past two years has increased lead times longer than I like, and at times has cost us orders. The additional production capacity will reduce lead times by the end of the second quarter.”
Doosan Kicks Up Dust In Desert
Doosan Equipment held its 2015 media event in Tucson, Ariz. March 25-26. The event attracted editors from construction, scrap and logging magazines. The opening dinner at the JW Marriott Tucson Starr Pass Resort featured Doosan representatives addressing the company’s extensive lineup of equipment, including several new models of crawler excavators, wheel excavators, wheel loaders, log loaders, material handlers and articulated dump trucks.
Doosan product specialist, Mike Stark, announced the company’s newest logging machine—the Tier 4-compliant Doosan DX300LL-5 track log loader. The “dash-5” model replaces the interim Tier 4 (iT4) DX300LL-3 log loader. The DX300LL-5 is powered by a 270 net HP Scania DC9 diesel engine, providing 27% more horsepower than the “dash-3” model. “We took the voice of the customer back to Korea when they started designing the 300LL-5 and we think we’ve made a bunch of improvements,” Stark says.
To help save valuable diesel fuel, Doosan added an auto-shutdown system for use during non-working conditions. Log loader operators can configure the idle time before auto-shutdown from three to 60 minutes. In addition to auto shutdown, the Doosan DX300LL-5 log loader has several new updates including improved heel design that works in tandem with a log grapple, a more robust front guard, boom cylinder guard, cab guard, standard rock guards and pattern change valve.
The unit has a loading reach of 38 ft. and loading height of just more than 43 ft. Its swing speed is 9.8 rpm.
“One new feature on the DX300LL-5 is the LED lights,” Stark explains. “In the logging industry lights can be extremely important when you’re starting your day at five in the morning and it’s still dark outside.”
Doosan also emphasized its versatile DX225LL log loader with loading reach of more than 36 ft.
Media members had the opportunity to visit Doosan’s Real Operation Center (ROC) in the heart of Arizona’s Sonoran Desert. At the ROC, representatives from Doosan explained new features on all of their different machines and media members were given the opportunity to operate each machine. Nearly 30 machines were spread out across the desert making it the ideal place for Doosan to show what its machines are all about.
ChipSafe Shield For Brush Chippers
Morbark, Inc., has expanded the availability of its ChipSafe operator safety shield as an option to the Beever M6R and M8D model brush chippers. The ChipSafe device had previously been available on all new Morbark 12 in. to 18 in. capacity chippers. Field kits to retrofit current model Morbark 6 to 18 in. capacity chippers with the ChipSafe shield also are available through Morbark’s dealer network.
Consisting of plates mounted directly to the sides of the brush chipper’s infeed chute and used in conjunction with special work gloves and ankle straps (or straps on both the ankles and wrists), the ChipSafe stops the chipper’s feeding mechanism if the operator’s hands or feet enter the defined ChipSafe sensing zone in the infeed chute, protecting the operator from possible injury. The chipper’s feeding mechanism is restarted with a simple swipe of the operator’s ChipSafe glove or wrist strap across a reset box located on the outer side of the infeed chute, so high productivity is maintained. Visit morbark.com.
Discharge Conveyor Enhances Loading
The new discharge conveyor option for Bandit Beast recyclers provides both a 30 ft. discharge conveyor and a thrower, so operators can load both open top and end-loading trailers.
It acts like a standard discharge, providing a tall platform to pile mulch, chips, or other products or load them in open-top trucks. But with the thrower, operators can easily broadcast the end product across a jobsite or load open-end trailers quickly and efficiently.
The switch from discharge conveyor to the thrower is quick, taking less than a minute. The 30 ft. discharge conveyor is a two-section discharge. When the thrower is operated, the end section of the discharge folds up over the top of the first conveyor and out of the way. The thrower is then hydraulically tilted into position. When the thrower is in place, material is top-loaded into the thrower and discharged at tremendous velocity. Visit banditchippers.com.
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