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Dedicated material handler makes a major impact for scrap metal recycler

Spring 2017

Processing and selling everything it buys has been a winning proposition for decades for Mryglod Steel & Metals. The environmentally aware company has a well-earned reputation for returning scrap metal back into the manufacturing cycle.

However, an uncooperative economy began to put a damper on the firm’s business model in 2014. In seeking a solution to the increasingly large inventory that was building up at its 10-acre facility, the company purchased its first machine specifically designed for sorting and handling scrap.

“Previously, we did this work with crawler excavators that we converted, either with our own magnet or grapple,” says Travis Mryglod, who owns the company with his brothers, Bradley, Tyler and Kyle, along with their mother, Sandra. The brothers became full-time employees in 2007 when their father, Kevin, passed away.

After evaluating its equipment needs, the company purchased a Doosan^® DX300MH-5 material handler. “The timing could not have been better,” says Mryglod, referring to both dealing with the immediate inventory buildup as well as operating the recycling business in the future.

Early last spring, with the economy turning sluggish and commodity prices dropping, company sales slowed.

“One of the steel mills we sell to makes tubular goods for use in the Canadian oil fields,” Mryglod says. “The demand for those products has been down. That market and lower prices across the board meant we did not haul as much as we typically do. As a result, our yard was extremely full for eight months. We had to tighten up everything.”

That meant focusing on efficiency and being prepared for when demand came back. “We knew that once the yard was full, we had to do something about handling and moving the material,” he says. “And we had to do it efficiently because commodity prices were low.”

The arrival of the DX300MH-5 material handler coincided with sales increasing and, as a result, the company was able to move scrap metal around and load trucks more efficiently.

The impact was immediate, especially in working with large buyers such as the Evraz North America steel mill in Regina.

“We are hauling as much material to that mill per day as our trucks will allow us,” Mryglod says. “Prior to purchasing the DX300MH-5, we were not able to get all of our trucks loaded in one day. Now we can get them all loaded in an afternoon and have them inspected and weighed for departure the next morning. There are days when one of our drivers can make his first delivery and get back in time to make a second delivery to the mill before 2 p.m. Travel time to Regina is 1 hour and 20 minutes one way, so the ability to quickly reload the truck is critical to making the second trip.”

With demand picking up, the Mryglods are able to send out four trucks per day, including a 75-cubic-yard tri-axle dump trailer, two 60-yard tandem dump trailers and a 40-yard tandem truck with a dump body. The 75-yard model is the one that usually makes the second trip.

Big increase in efficiency

“The material handler, which is mainly used to load trucks, has doubled our efficiency,” Mryglod says. “The elevated cab allows us to see down into the boxes of the trucks without having to wonder where our attachment is going. We now get maximum weight in each load because we are able to fill the entire box. Plus, we don’t need a spotter anymore.”

The material handler, he notes, really helps for piling the material once it is prepared and ready to ship. It has 15 feet more reach than anything the company used previously.

He also rates the machine high in fuel efficiency. “The fuel use to product-loaded ratio is probably half what our old machines would do.”

The DX300MH-5 has a 358-net-horsepower engine and an optional hydraulic cab riser, straight boom and droop-nose stick, counterweight and rotating grapple-ready hydraulics. An optional generator was added to the machine to provide power to operate a magnet attachment for the DX300MH-5.

All of these attributes are making a noticeable difference for what the Mryglods are able to accomplish. The two excavators that were replaced by the Doosan material handler in the yard are now available for off-site work.

“All of our other equipment has been out recently on clean-up projects,” Mryglod says. “At a power plant we hauled away their scrap after they made annual improvements. We also worked on a large farm where we cut up and prepared surplus equipment such as combines and trucks. With the material handler taking care of sorting and loading in the yard, our other equipment can be out working in the field. That will allow us to get maximum use from all of our machines.”

The company purchases scrap metal from industrial manufacturers, railroads, auto salvage yards, metal dealers and individuals. Most of the metal comes from obsolete machinery and equipment such as autos, railroad cars and tracks, home appliances and construction debris.

The Mryglod facility processes the incoming scrap metal by sorting, shearing, shredding, torching and bailing. It then turns much of the metal into pieces that are the size, density and purity required by steel mills and foundries for melting and for use in the production of new finished steel and other products.

“Our family understands that buying scrap metal is only half the equation; we need to put it back into the metal manufacturing cycle,” Mryglod says. “Recycling has always been important to us.”