The company’s new facility in Liberty, South Carolina, will recycle postindustrial scrap plastics.
ACI Plastics, a thermoplastics processor and recycler with headquarters in Flint, Michigan, has established operations in South Carolina’s Pickens County to recycle postindustrial and preconsumer scrap from molders throughout the Southeast. The company’s $4 million investment will create 21 new jobs, according to a news release from the office of South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster.
For more than 35 years, ACI Plastics has been known for its separation technologies for paint removal and instrument panels, as well as density, electrostatic and optical separation.
The site, at 225 Ruhamah Rd. in Liberty, South Carolina, initially will provide size reduction (granulation) and proprietary separation processes. ACI plans to add blending, density separation, pelletizing and postconsumer processing capabilities at the facility.
ACI Plastics President Scott Melton says, “The 138,000-square-foot building on 51 acres will allow us to significantly grow over the next decade. The access to a solid workforce, the Port of Charleston and nearby customers made this investment a key part of ACI’s future.”
“Pickens County Council is proud to welcome ACI Plastics South, the industry leader in separating even the most difficult plastics, to our county,” Pickens County Council Chairman Chris Bowers says. “Our skilled local workforce is consistently an asset sought out by top-tier companies such as ACI, and we are pleased that ACI found the perfect site location to meet their needs here in the Liberty community.”
ACI previously partnered with Los Angeles-based PreZero US, the recycling arm of German retailer Schwarz Group, to operate a site in Westminster, South Carolina, to recycle polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) scrap recovered from mixed rigid plastics bales. That relationship ended last year, and PreZero US announced its plans to invest $11.5 million in the Westminster plant, formerly owned by ACI, to bring its processing capacity up to 40,000 tons of plastic scrap per year.
The company offers three new -7 Series wheel loaders in the United States and Canada.
Doosan Infracore North America, Suwanee, Georgia, has launched three models of its -7 Series wheel loaders in the United States and Canada. These new 200-size-class machines include many of the same features as the larger models and are now available at Doosan dealerships.
Similar to the -7 Series wheel loaders launched in spring 2021, this next generation of Doosan wheel loaders offers redesigned cabs with comfort features, increased bucket capacities and fuel-saving technologies.
The three new models include the DL200-7, DL220-7 and DL250-7. The company says they are smaller than the models launched last year. They have standard bucket capacities between 2.6 and 3.3 cubic yards. All three new models are available with a high-lift option for additional dump height and reach.
“We’re excited to offer a -7 Series iteration of our popular 200 size class wheel loaders in North America,” says Aaron Kleingartner, product and dealer marketing manager, Doosan Infracore North America. “These are among our most popular wheel loader models because of their versatility. It’s quite common for customers with these machines to purchase a hydraulic quick coupler for fast and easy attachment changes.”
Each model of the -7 Series wheel loader can be equipped with an optional Transparent Bucket, a Doosan-exclusive technology that offers a supplemental view from a monitor inside the cab to improve operator visibility and productivity. The Transparent Bucket has two cameras with protective guarding, one mounted high and one mounted low on the front of the machine.
“We anticipate that the Transparent Bucket will be a popular option for our Doosan -7 Series wheel loaders,” Kleingartner says. “Another new technology available in our newest Doosan wheel loaders is Situation Awareness Technology (SAT). The technology helps save fuel by automatically adjusting the engine output in real-time to the needs of the drivetrain and hydraulics. It lowers fuel consumption without reducing performance.”
According to a news release from Doosan, the smaller models are most commonly used on construction sites, specifically for loading, grading and site prep work. They’re also operated in scrap and recycling applications where they may be paired with a grapple attachment for handling bulk materials. Grounds maintenance companies often prefer this size of wheel loader for clearing parking lots with a snow pusher or a bucket for placing snow in trucks for removal.
For more information about the wheel loaders, click here.
Fleet managers must take action and upgrade their technology to avoid losing access to phones, tablets and other telematics devices that use SIM cards to communicate vehicle and driver data.
For the last couple of years, the nationwide rollout of the fifth-generation (5G) mobile network has garnered plenty of attention. Carriers promise a more reliable and wider coverage range, increased data and greater network speeds. But this move to 5G means major wireless network carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon are phasing out their 3G cellular networks to create greater network connectivity using 5G technology that has been available for some time now. The Federal Communications Commission has issued an alert warning the public of the 3G phaseout—and time is running out to make the shift to a newer network.
AT&T shut down its 3G network in February, while Sprint followed in March, T-Mobile in July and Verizon in December. Verizon originally scheduled its sunset for 2019, then extended it to 2020 and again to 2022. With the 3G sunset about to cross the horizon, fleet managers in the waste and recycling industry must take swift action and upgrade their technology to avoid losing access to phones, tablets and other telematics devices that use SIM cards to communicate vehicle and driver data.
The transition to 4G or 5G may be rocky at first, but the long-term effects lead to more efficient fleet service. Fleet management services continue to work in areas with weak or spotty cellular service, though data transmission could be delayed until a stronger signal is restored. With patchy or inconsistent network availability, some could be forced to wait long periods of time to access data. An upgrade to a faster network lessens the chance of service outages.
The upgrade from 3G also is worth the time spent negotiating a new contract with your fleet management provider. By sunsetting 3G and switching to 4G LTE, waste and recycling fleets can transfer telematics data at up to 100 megabytes per second, which is several hundred times faster than 3G speeds. Currently, basic in-vehicle telematics services use 4G as the default network given the relatively low data needing to be transmitted (compared with a phone).
Although 4G is expected to last for at least 10 years, 5G is slowly becoming a viable network solution for in-cab cameras and other similar technology. If fleets transition to 5G, they gain data speed that is 5,000 times faster than 3G and much more reliable. That’s plenty of bandwidth for fleet managers to conduct video interactions with their drivers in the field as well as to provide video analytics to analyze safety risks to vehicles. In addition, the 5G standard can reduce latency experienced on previous networks as well as offer high network reliability and better accuracy as far as the positioning of vehicles in the field.
Here are some steps waste and recycling fleet managers can take to prepare for the 3G sunset:
Upgrading is worth the time investment
By upgrading to 4G or 5G, waste and recycling fleets can continue tracking their vehicles in real-time, scheduling preventive maintenance and gaining insight into fleet use. By rolling out 5G connectivity throughout a fleet, waste and recycling departments can gain improved fuel consumption, better mileage reporting, improved control over routing and a reduction in fuel emissions by being able to manage entire fleets more efficiently. Better driver communication from the improved bandwidth could reduce human error in routing of fleets and reduce downtime.
In short, moving to a 4G or 5G network will make telematics run more smoothly and efficiently. With the upgraded connectivity, waste and recycling fleet managers can improve communication, track critical fleet data in real-time and stay connected to their entire team. This will benefit both driver and vehicle performance and ultimately increase bottom-line profitability. There’s no time to waste.
Ray Kosick is product manager at GPS Insight, which provides mission-critical insights needed to make physical operations on the road and in the field simpler and safer to do. Learn more about the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company at www.gpsinsight.com.
Equipment maker says its My Komatsu data hub provides useful insight to heavy equipment fleet operators of many brands.
Komatsu America, headquartered in Chicago, says with its “comprehensive” digital hub, My Komatsu, equipment fleet operators can get “easy-to-interpret visual analyses of data collected from numerous sources displayed on easy-to-read dashboards.”
The equipment maker says the feature was designed to answer the question: What if you could monitor the health of your entire mixed-equipment fleet from one dashboard, receive maintenance alerts on your phone, and order parts without searching through manuals?
My Komatsu, says the firm, can pull data from Komtrax, Komtrax Plus, ISO API 15143-3 (AEMP 2.0) data from other OEMs, or other direct data sources and provide “powerful analytics to help you manage your fleet and drive your business” without managing multiple IDs and passwords.
“Komatsu understands that our customers are busy and expect technology to be easy to use,” says Matthew Beinlich, director of digital support solutions for Komatsu. “Starting today, our customers can get the most important telematics data, such as location, hours, fuel consumption, idle ratio and production, from My Komatsu for many of the other brands of equipment they may operate. Enter the ISO 15143-3 API credentials for those brands into My Komatsu once, and you’ll no longer need to log into each OEM’s system separately each day.”
According to Komatsu, the system has been designed to quickly view and manage data on one dashboard, receive maintenance alerts and order part, troubleshoot to help minimize downtime, monitor for theft and unauthorized use, benchmark machine performance, track fuel consumption and manage fuel efficiency, and access data anytime
More information about My Komatsu and how it works can be found here.
Italy-based rubber recycler says funds will help it expand capacity and its geographic range.
Rubber Conversion, based in Cerea, Italy, says it has closed a 2.5 million-euro ($2.78 million) financing round. Describing itself as startup active in rubber recycling, spanning pre- and postconsumer scrap, the company says it will the funds to expand its processing capacity and enter new geographic markets.
Financial backers in the new round include Rome-based CDP Venture Capital SGR through its Evolution Fund; Turin, Italy-based LIFTT, a venture capital holding chaired by Italian scientist and entrepreneur Stefano Buono; Swiss energy and raw materials firm ENET Energy; and what Rubber Conversion calls “a group of international business angel investors.”
Rubber Conversion was established in 2017 and patented what it calls cutting-edge industrial technology for rubber devulcanization. Compounds produced via the process are harvested from postconsumer products, including end-of-life tires, and from production scrap, the firm says.
Devulcanized materials then “can be used in significant percentages in new rubber products and goods, and represent an effective solution to optimize sustainability in the production cycle, reducing virgin raw materials use,” Rubber Conversion says.
The company maintains a partnership with Innovando, an Italian company in the industrial waste management and recycling sector. According to Rubber Converstion, Innovando “provides management compliance services, consulting, logistics and IoT (internet of things) solutions to implement end-of-life consumer product management programs and alternative fuels.”
“We are very pleased with the positive closing of this financing round,” says Francesco di Pierro, co-founder of Rubber Conversion. The funding, says di Pierro “confirms our vision of becoming an important player enabling even more sustainable strategies for rubber sector through material design and production waste management. Thanks to the new capital boost, we will strengthen production capacity, implement new business models and grow in new markets, further evolving our technology, developing our product range and strengthening our team.”
“Rubber Conversion technology represents an innovation best practice, both in terms of environmental sustainability and of raw material costs optimization, which is highly critical nowadays,” says Enrico Resmini, CEO and general manager of CDP Venture Capital.
“This is a business idea based on sustainability and lowering environmental impact that coincides precisely with our vision and our principle that economic development cannot and must not overlook the immediate context,” says Giovanni Tesoriere, CEO of LIFTT.
AG innovation served as an advisor to the transaction.