Page 71 from: Out now: issue 5!
TECHNOLOGY EXPERTS
America discovers the Lidex:
Copex inaugurates its first shear at Gold Star Metals in Texas
The French leading manufacturer of
shears and balers for ferrous and
non-ferrous metals, which
celebrated its 70th birthday last
Autumn, has just commissioned the
USA’s first Lidex 1400 tonnes scrap
shear with side compression at
Gold Star Metals’ (GSM) new scrap
yard in Channelview (Houston,
Texas).
Emotion is in the air. This is a multi-million US dollar
investment for GSM and the first Lidex delivered by
the Breton manufacturer to America. There’s plenty
of scrap available for the inaugural tests. Thousands
of tonnes of concrete reinforcing bars, H irons and
metal skips are waiting to be sheared. The shear is
fed by a new Liebherr 934 fixed electric crane with
a reach of 20 metres. The metal skips are first com-
pacted like matchboxes. Combined with the high
force of the hold-down, the large cutting width
delivers an excellent density. The same applies to
the rebars, which are compacted laterally and then
vertically, strongly enough to split concrete blocks
intermingled with the scrap metal, thereby boost-
ing density.
The shear is part of the Lidex range of Copex side-
squeeze compression shears. It has a box of 8m by
2.60m, 1m in height, a cutting width of 1 350mm
and a nominal force of 1 400 tonnes, making it the
most powerful Copex shear in the USA.
COMPLETE AUTOMATIC CYCLE
The general manager of the GSM, Jignesh Ratani,
explains: ‘We have seen the difference with other
equipment manufacturers – Lidex is the only
machine that offers a complete automatic cycle
which for us is the biggest asset and it puts us in
the forefront of the metal recycling industry’.
Copex is the only manufacturer to offer an auto-
matic cycle that includes compression and shearing.
On this machine, everything has been designed to
reduce cycle times: the oversized lid, the patented
kinematics of the preload table and the latest
hydraulics. This explains the high speed of work
and the great performance of the machine. The
GSM Lidex will process 10 000 tonnes of scrap
materials per month.
CHANGING THE BLADES
‘Safety is our number one priority at GSM,’ says
Ratani. ‘The unique system, which consists of a
maintenance platform and a specific tooling devel-
oped by Copex’s design office for the change of
blades on Lidex shears, allows this critical operation
to be carried out extremely quickly and safely with-
out any danger to our personnel or operations.’
The system demonstrates the commitment of
Copex to offer concrete solutions to facilitate main-
tenance and, from its conception, make the opera-
tion of the machine more ergonomic and more effi-
cient.
For GSM, which exports its output primarily to
South Asian and South East Asian countries, Copex
will play a significant role in achieving high-quality
material in a much faster turnaround time and will
bring the company to the next level on its opera-
tional supply chain.
There is nothing better than this expression of faith
to augur well for the future of Copex in the US mar-
ket, where smaller capacity portable shear balers
from Copex’s other flagship range Reflex are
already installed at several sites. GSM, like all other
American customers, will benefit from the support
of Shearcore which, as well as selling the machines,
provides the technical service in collaboration with
Copex in France.
Terry Sturgell Sr (SHEARCORE), Jignesh Ratani (GOLD
STAR METALS), Frédéric MALIN and Lionel LE MENTEC
(COPEX), Benjamin Rochbach and Bruce Bacon
(SHEARCORE).
The GSM LIDEX has a cutting force of 1400 tons, a box of
8.00 x 2.60 m and a hydraulic of 5 x 110 kW. Note the very
large cutting width of 1350 mm desired by GSM and made
by COPEX.
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