When Boris Grinstein took over the reins of his father's recycling business, in 2018, his first goal was to develop new business and clients.
Action Metals has been serving the Dallas and Fort Worth area since 1994. The younger Grinstein could see that the business was in need of some renewal, and increasing the volume of material in the yard would underwrite his plan to invest in new equipment.
Step one of the plan was highly successful. More material was getting processed and revenues were on the rise. The second step, however, became problematic. Grinstein recalls, "We got an excavator and a company converted it for scrap handling. They raised the cab, extended the boom and added a counterweight."
But the crew at Action Metals soon learned that the converted excavator was absolutely not the solution they had hoped for.
"It was an awful experience," says Grinstein. "It wore out real fast. The conversions took the machine ‘way out of spec'. Everything was vibrating. The cab was swinging like a pendulum. We tried welding in some reinforcements for the cab but they didn't help."
Looking for a better idea, Grinstein reached out to a nearby branch of ASCO Equipment, the Dallas area's distributor for SENNEBOGEN purpose-built material handlers. "Around Dallas, you see SENNEBOGEN everywhere," says Grinstein. "One yard has five of them running. They have a good name. When you see the green, you know the work is going to get done."
Grinstein had looked into earlier models of SENNEBOGEN machines several years ago, but he had some reservations about their design at the time. He was pleased to see that, with the new E-Series models, his concerns had been addressed. After comparing three models in the lineup, he placed his order for a crawler-mounted 821 R-HD scrap handler.
"The cycles are faster, so we move more material. I'm very hands-on with equipment and this is an awesome machine. We can load a trailer full of HMS in just 12 minutes, which would take 20 to 30 minutes using the excavator. I finished one trailer load in just 8 minutes, and weighed it in at 79,000 lbs. The 821 has good reach and the elevating cab has great height; we don't even have to go up all the way to see into the trailer. And there's no shake. It's very stable even when we're crashing down on the load. Our operator used to get lower back pains and aches from all the vibration. Not now. And as we say, happy operator, happy yard."
As well as moving more scrap, Grinstein finds that the new SENNEBOGEN is reducing costs for his yard, too. He reports no downtime for the machine, and fuel costs are lower.
Since the SENNEBOGEN went to work, Grinstein has retired two of his older machines. The 821, he says, can do its own clean-up by easily attaching a magnet in place of the grapple - a five minute operation. "This has a smart generator setup," he says. "It detects faulty connections so, if there's any problem, it won't power the magnet. It protects itself from shorting out the generator and from damage to the magnet. That was a recurring problem with the excavator."
"I hesitated about the money for this kind of new machine," he admits. "But a lot of yards will do what I did: they have an excavator and just put a grapple on it. It's cheaper. But the SENNEBOGEN is really better financially. Every dollar is the best spent money - I make my payment, and I know I'm not spending any other money on my crane. I'm being efficient."
