CASE Construction Equipment dealer Robert Coates Plant Sales Ltd recently sold a specialist CASE CX245DSR Excavator fitted with a Powerhand VRS 200 Recycling system to customer Moores Metals.
Moores Metals has been providing scrap metal recycling services from its two sites in Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire UK, since 1911. Its fully integrated and licensed recycling services include dismantling vehicles to recover metals, batteries, WEEE and other valuable waste materials.
A Tough Brief
The requirements for this machine were not straightforward as this required specialist processing plant and equipment, as Robert Coates’ Sales Manager Richard Parry explains: “As an existing customer, having previously bought a used CASE 821E wheel loader, Moores Metals came to us with a demanding specification for a new machine. They needed a zero tail swing excavator able to operate on a congested site with an attachment nimble enough to extract wiring looms and starter motors, yet robust enough to strip apart an engine block. It also had to be efficient to operate.”
Robert Coates and his team recommended a CASE CX245DSR Excavator partnered with a Powerhand VRS 200 recycling system. He continues: “This unique combination enables the operator to precisely dismantle scrap vehicles, saving time on separating valuable recoverable materials found in modern vehicles rather than crushing them without being able to recycle any of the parts.”
Owing to the unique attachment, the machine can hold down and clamp vehicles by using the machine’s mounted clamp arms. In addition, oversized materials can be cut to size using the grapple mounted shear, which means that operators can use the same machine to easily separate ferrous/nonferrous metals from the engine and transmission assemblies and remove the cylinder head from the engine block.
How it Works
Moores Metal’s Andrew Burkinshaw explains the story: “At the end of the Powerhand VRS 200 arm there is a rotating pincher, so you can easily and quickly remove the bonnet, wings and the doors. The pincher is sensitive enough to find the ECU that enables you to rotate and extract the entire wiring of vehicle. Disassembling the vehicle rather than crushing means you can separate precious metals like aluminium, copper, and other materials such as plastics.
“Following our previous experience of CASE technology with the wheel loader, its reliability, and strength it made sense that we should purchase another CASE machine from our local dealer Robert Coates Plant Sales Ltd. It is a zero tail swing machine that is ideally suited to the application on a space- restricted site because of its weight and size. In the changing landscape of vehicle dismantling, our new CASE CX245DSR Excavator allows us to segregate different metals for resale. Overall, the solution is more sustainable because separating out metals and plastics means that the materials that remain at the end of the process will be cleaner.”
“Moores Metals’ application demonstrates the versatility of our excavators and their unique combination of power, flexibility and efficiency,” concludes Joseph O’Grady, Business Director Northern Europe, CASE Construction Equipment. “CASE excavators work hard and their safety and comfort features help operators to be safe and effective for longer. This is just what’s needed when our customers need a real-world solution to help meet their operational challenges.”