Unscheduled feed chute maintenance can end up shredding your profits

A recent survey in an industry trade magazine revealed that automobile shredder operators ranked unscheduled maintenance related to the shredder feed chute and feed rolls as the number two reason for lost production in their operation. Not only did it impact gross revenue in shredded ferrous, but also affected the loss of revenue from the sale of nonferrous metals. In fact, downtime incidences related to the feed chute and feed roll almost doubled those of other issues in the survey.

Some of the most common feed problems to the shredder we see include material blockages in the chute, feed rolls that cannot properly grip and feed material, the inability of the feed rolls to manage oversize material and broken chains on feed-roll drives.

While some shredders are built from the start with inferior designs that don’t allow for processing the maximum tons possible, others begin to lose effectiveness in the feed chute areas due to age. That’s where an experienced partner can come in to help you evaluate your current and future needs.

At Brilex Technical Solutions (BTS), we work with operators to review their individual problems and supply everything from higher quality wear items to complete retrofits and replacements of feed chutes, feed yokes, feed rollers and chains. 

The design of the BTS feed chute can include:

• larger, more powerful lift cylinders
• larger drive chains
• upper and lower torque tubes on the feed roll assembly that removes the damaging flexing of the assembly during operation
• feed roll covers to prevent material from falling down the chute and landing on top of feed rolls stopping production until it can be removed

Operators can contact Brilex Technical Solutions and schedule a field engineer for a review of their existing feed chute, rolls and chains to begin a process to eliminate these costly production problems.

To learn more, contact Josh Vitale at 330-259-8458 or jvitale@brilex.com.