Wheeldon go green on waste

Situated adjacent to the M60 in Lancashire and centrally between Manchester and Bury, Wheeldon Brothers handle over 60,000 tonnes of waste on an annual basis. The family-owned company has been trading for over half a century and in that time have built up an enviable reputation for delivering a cost-effective and reliable service.  The company has been built around a core of industrial, commercial, and domestic clients with the family quick to respond to the ever-changing trends in waste management.

Long gone are the days when waste is just sent to landfill with the company now actively sorting, segregating, and recycling over 90% of the material they handle away from landfill on an annual basis.

The company handles a wide and diverse variety of materials and is constantly looking for ways in which to recycle material to avoid sending it to landfill. With much of the everyday recyclables picked out at one for the company’s sites, the resulting material, an MRF product, is sent to their Bury site where it is further processed into an SRF (Solid Recovered Fuel). SRF is a high-quality alternative to fossil fuel and is produced from mainly commercial waste including paper, card, wood, textiles, and plastics which cannot be further recycled. Solid recovered fuel has gone through additional processing to improve the quality and value of the material. SRF is considered to be a more refined fuel with a low moisture content and an energy content around two-thirds that of coal. Not only can SRF be used in Energy from Waste plants as an alternative to fossil fuels, but it can also be used in cement kilns and other industrial processes.

With over 30 trucks collecting waste material from across the region, Wheeldon Brothers have an ever-growing volume of material to potentially process into SRF and to manage the incoming material they have turned to Molson Green to supply a new Sennebogen 817E, an 18.5 tonne compact radius material handler for the plant.

“We have used a variety of machines over the years, mainly on tracks.” Martin Bickerstaff, Yard Manager commented. “When we came to look at replacement material handler, we decided to change tact and go for a more mobile, wheeled machine. We did have an issue though as the building size limits what we can squeeze into it. After looking at various products we decided that a Sennebogen 718E was the ideal solution in terms of size and capabilities as it has to be able to load the plant, sort material out and load wagons with outgoing material.”

The 817E is the smallest material handler in the German manufacturer’s range. Built at their Straubing plant near Munich, the 18.5 tonne material handler comes with a 8.5m pin height and reach allowing it to easily fill the bulk tippers leaving the site. The impressive ground level reach of 8m means it can service the Linderer shredder from a single point whilst remaining far enough away from the sloping roofline. The machine’s industrial K8ULM configuration allows it to carry a 300-litre rotating selector grab.

Sitting on a long, wide undercarriage with two pairs of stabilisers provides the 817E with a very stable platform to work from. Even at full reach and cross carriage, the machine doesn’t flinch and remains glued to the floor at all times.

The Sennebogen’s compact upper structure ensures the tight spaces in the processing area isn’t impacted by a large tail swing. Hidden beneath the compact frame is the clean, burning heart of the machine. Powered by a fuel-efficient, 100kW Cummins F3.8 engine, the 817E meets current StageV emissions regulations thanks to the manufacturer’s Single Module™ after treatment system, which combines DPF, SCR and urea dosing in one unit and ultimately takes up 50 percent less space and weighs 30 percent less than other systems. The entire engine and cooling pack is situated under a single, gullwing-style door on the offside of the machine, which opens wide to allow easy servicing access. The opposite side of the upper structure contains the Sennebogen’s unique electrical panel, which allows the easiest access to the entire electrical heart of the machine. With the restricted headroom in the building, the Sennebogen’s Maxcab is unable to rise to its full height in some positions but is able just to make that bit of difference to the operator and allow them a clean line of sight into the shredder when required.

Working in the dark and often dusty environment, Sennebogen’s standard LED lighting package cuts through the gloom with ease.

 ongside a couple of wheeled loaders and having it mounted on the wheeled undercarriage has increased out productivity immensely.” Martin commented. “As the loaders are handling material coming into the plant, we can now quickly move the Sennebogen out of the way to load the bulkers.”

As this is the first Sennebogen to arrive on the fleet, the Wheeldon team have been very pleased with the machine so far. “Molson did exactly what they said they would do.” Martin explains. “They showed us the demonstrator machine and what it was capable of and on that performance, we bought the machine. It’s really made a huge difference to our productivity and our ability on site.”