by DONNA CURRIE
BCA Industries makes a lot of interesting products for the paper recycling industry, even if they weren’t originally built for that purpose. “Reduction equipment that works well for heavier and denser materials can work for paper,” John Neuens, BCA’s sales and marketing director said. “They just last longer and work faster as we have proven in the insulation, pulp and cardboard industries.”
The company was founded by twin engineer brothers Doug and Joe Bartelt, who started out doing car restoration and building hot rods. From working on cars, they moved into making mechanical and decorative metal items, then built their first shredder when a worldwide company asked them if they could build something that was portable and could be used in the back of a garbage truck. Of course they could!
That set them off on a new trajectory, making portable shredders. “We’re the king of the portable shredders even though half of our sales are larger custom stationary systems,” Neuens said. The 1000 series machines are very popular because they’re simple to use and “cheap to keep.” Neuens said that maintenance is always considered when machines are designed because customers can’t afford downtime. “They’re designed to avoid catastrophic costs,” he said, so maintenance and repair costs are low and many of the replacement parts are readily available, off-the-shelf components.
One interesting use of the small portable hydraulic shredders is in the rejected product destruction business. “The beauty of the portable shredder is not always that it’s portable,” Neuens said, since many of the portable shredders never move once they’re in place. “What is most appealing is that the shredders are turnkey,” so there’s no need for an electrician, a pad, or a building just for the shredder. Right now, the portable shredder can be found in over 20 different countries.
On the other side of the size spectrum is “The Beast,” which is the 2000 series shredder that is currently being used by one of the largest battery recyclers in the world. To keep downtime low and maintenance costs reasonable, the machine has a series or cluster drive of eight smaller hydraulic motors rather than one large motor. If one motor goes out, the machine still operates, but with a slightly lower torque, until a new motor can be installed when it’s convenient to take the machine out of service for a short time.
Another intriguing machine is the patented single-pass chipper-shredder. This machine does the work of two, since it shear-cuts and chip-cuts without the need for screening. “It’s truly a revolution,” Neuens said.The machine has many uses, from turning cardboard into z-shaped squiggles that are perfect for use as packaging materials, to turning lightweight plastic grocery store bags into confetti. It can also handle uncured rubber and other heavy, dense materials chipping to a size as low as 3/8 x 3/8 in a single pass.
Neuens said that this machine is “central to our future,” and there is a large market for it beyond the industries they are currently selling to. To address that larger market, they’re looking to license the machine. The chipper-shredder often appears at trade shows where, Neuens said, “We still have engineers who don’t believe it – they look underneath for a screen.” Besides the usual recyclables, the machine can handle wet and mixed materials like MSW as well.
That’s not the end of the innovations, since the company designs custom machines, like the one that was built for recycling clothes hangers. Neuens explained that hangers are very difficult to recycle, since they ball up and tangle. The custom machine eliminated the need to have people separate the hangers by hand.
While Neuens is in the marketing department, he has an affinity for the design and engineering work that the company does. Before he joined BCA, he had a metalworking background, had an architectural woodworking business, and designed a boat for refueling marine vessels. He contracted BCA to build his invention and liked the company. Soon, he was working with them.
“When a customer brings you your custom problem, you have to come up with custom solutions,” Neuens said, and that’s something that BCA can do. “In scrap, everyone is different,” he said. Even if the materials are the same, desired end product may be very different, so he tries to get to know the customer’s business. “We determine what would be the best for the markets they are in.”
Unlike some owners who transition into management only positions, the Bartelt brothers do much of the engineering work and split their responsibilities when working on a new machine. “They literally design together,” Neuens said. “There is a synthesis of their different disciplines – there is a review process between the brothers that is organic.”
“There is nothing greener than quality,” Neuens said. While recycling is part of the green movement, and using recycled materials is certainly part of the cycle, Neuens pointed to the longevity of their products or any other product as being the most green part of the business. “What is greener,” he asked, “something that is made from recycled products, or something that doesn’t need to be replaced for 30 years?”
Published in the July 2018 Edition