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Article Excerpt: No Maintain, No Gain

 by General Kinematics,

Here is an excerpt of an article from the September – October 2011 issue of MSW Magazine featuring General Kinematics high performance, low maintenance vibratory recycling machines.
 
Machines Moving C&D
As might be expected for its weight, C&D waste gives MRF equipment more of a beating. However, careful maintenance will keep the lines running.
 
Palatine, IL’s MBL Recycling has been using equipment from Crystal Lake, IL’s General Kinematics Corp., www.generalkinematics.com for the past five years. “We own two of their finger-screen decks and one airknife de-stoner,” says MBL’s co-owner Robert Lenzini. “The de-stoner takes lights from heavies, cleans up the rocks and bricks, and takes other stuff—such as paper, plastic, wood—out of the stream. This certainly helps, as we take mixed loads of C&D debris. The de-stoner will take out everything from a 1-inch rock, which is then crushed to road aggregate.” GK Single Knife De-Stoners use air instead of water to separate heavy product from light product, eliminating the mess and environmental hazards water separation creates.
 
Lenzini performs all needed daily maintenance, which may account for his machines’ robust “health.” “The screens are very simple; an electric motor runs them, and some of its parts are still original! The airknife is also electricity-driven. Once in a while we have to replace a bushing on an arm, but that’s not so bad—that’s a low-cost maintenance item. Once a week we clean the lower deck on the big screen, as it collects dirt buildup. The smaller deck doesn’t have any maintenance needs. A little bit of grease on fittings once a week, maybe six to eight areas on each unit, and grease applied to other parts of the plant—belt fittings, et cetera—and that’s about it.”
 
MBL Recycling uses finger screen decks. “Ours is a two-line system: A and B lines. Recyclables are cut into two different sizes. We screen to 12-inches or smaller on the A line. Material then goes to a 3-inch screen, removing dirt, et cetera—then items go to the B line. At that point, the airknife system blows everything from the rock. Wood goes into a grinder, creating a 3-inch-minus product.”
 
The operation, which is all under-roof, runs eight-hour shifts, five days per week, “…although we’re open a half-day on Saturdays for intake.” Is Lenzini’s business an outgrowth from landfill prohibitions? “Not in Illinois, yet. Chicago did say 50% of C&D waste has to be recycled; there are two or three plants in the city proper, so we don’t see too much of theirs. Almost anything can go into landfills; we haven’t seen a push for restrictions in the suburbs just yet. The push here was LEED certification; companies went green, and they get LEED points from recycling. Another advantage we offer: our intake rates are a little cheaper than tipping fees at a landfill.”
 
Whatever cardboard and paper that comes in gets recycled. “Everything else gets shipped out to someone else for further use, and the wood is burned for fuel. We’re recycling asphalt shingles and send that to someone who turns it into hot mix. There are not yet wallboard recycling programs in Illinois. In fact, US Gypsum in Waukegan asked us about recycling theirs—I wondered, Why don’t they reuse it?”

General Kinematics Corporation, incorporated in 1960, was established to market, design, and custom fabricate innovative vibratory equipment for the foundry, recycling, mining, and processing industries. Today the company continues as one of the world’s largest suppliers of vibratory processing equipment and has evolved into an industry-leading EPC firm. Headquartered in Crystal Lake, IL, General Kinematics has seven global locations providing engineering and support to a world-wide customer base. GK is a third generation, family-owned company and is ISO 9001 certified.