Fit for purpose: FPT chooses the right SENNEBOGEN for every job

Tony Benacquisto is charged with keeping all of those facilities equipped to perform profitably. “I’m the one that goes out to find new equipment,” he explains. “I have to find the most efficient way of doing something and see how we can improve our bottom line.” Among Benacquisto’s recent “finds” is a new electric drive SENNEBOGEN 840 scrap handler, commissioned in March of 2015 at FPT’s Strong Steel Products yard in Detroit, MI. He chose the 840 to feed flattened cars and #2 scrap to the largest shredder in the region. But this isn’t the first time his search for cost-effective equipment has led him to SENNEBOGEN. All tolled, FPT operates several SENNEBOGEN material handling machines. The Strong facility also has a rubber-tired version of the new machine, an 840 M model, and another electrically powered machine, a SENNEBOGEN 835 R-HD, is running at the nearby FPT Kronk facility. “We’ve had the 835 electric going for 4 years and had great success with it. So we had the measurable results from it to compare numbers when we were looking for a new electric drive machine.”

To match up with the mega-shredder, Benacquisto knew he wanted electric drive. “I’ve had electric equipment in the past, going back to our electric overhead cranes. I knew the efficiency of electric as compared to diesel; when you add the rising price of diesel to the maintenance cost of diesel, it far exceeds what electricity costs. With the way the price of diesel was jumping a year ago, it just made sense to go electric.” The Strong Steel site is a 9-acre yard and processes in excess of 200,000 tons per year. The operation is purely focused on shredder throughput. Flattened automobiles arrive on trailers. They are fed through the shredder and ferrous material is separated by a magnet. The clean material is shipped to customers by rail and truck. The SENNEBOGEN machine was chosen to perform simply, quickly and reliably.