Equipment Report

Ignite Attachments offers online ease of ordering

Photo courtesy of Ignite Attachments

Ignite Attachments has opened with the goal of offering accessibly priced attachments and three-point implements for compact equipment in the agriculture, landscape, rental and construction industries in a digital, direct-to-consumer storefront. The Moorhead, Minnesota-based company aims to deliver on speed, quality and equipment compatibility, providing an upgraded customer experience.

Ignite says its product lineup makes the equipment that businesses and homeowners already own more versatile and efficient. Additionally, its e-commerce experience is designed to help consumers save time and money when seeking parts and attachments.

“With Ignite, we’ve harnessed the spirit of working smarter, not harder,” Ignite Attachments Business Director Trisha Pearson says. “We saw an opportunity to provide a better experience all around for customers who demand more value. Simply put, our mission is to give consumers the right fit for the right price, right when folks need it to get the job done.”

In addition to 56 products at launch, the e-commerce experience includes transparent inventory availability, pricing models and the proprietary Fit-Finder—a reliable attachment finder that ensures each Ignite product is ideal for its intended carrier and use.

“The value attachments sector has been stagnant for a long time and has failed to change with the times. Products from nearly every other category can be purchased online with a few taps on a smartphone, but this sector has been left behind,” Ignite Attachments Lead Engineer Matt Foley says. “Ignite is here to challenge that status quo. Whether our customers are looking to replace worn attachments or add versatility to their equipment, we are dedicated to helping them get more done for less and faster.”

Ignite products are engineered to fit most compact equipment including compact tractors, loaders and excavators. The Ignite lineup includes:

• buckets for skid-steer loaders, compact track loaders and miniloaders;
• compact tractor three-point implements, including angle blades, box blades, rakes, rotary cutters, snow blowers and tillers;
• pallet fork assemblies; and
• miniexcavator buckets and couplers.

Bomag Americas signs All Roads Equipment as Virginia distributor

Bomag Americas, based in Ridgeway, South Carolina, has signed All Roads Equipment, Baltimore, as a new dealer of its specialty equipment line. Under the collaboration agreement, All Roads Equipment, a division of All Roads, will provide contractors in Virginia with sales, service and parts support for Bomag’s landfill and embankment compactor, cold planer and recycler and stabilizer equipment lines.

“We are proud to welcome All Roads Equipment branches into the Bomag network. All Roads Equipment offers extensive expertise in the commercial equipment market,” Bomag Americas Vice President of Sales and Marketing Cole Renken says. “It has built a well-earned reputation for working closely with its customers to provide experienced application consultation and outstanding support. With the lines the company offers, its teams are deeply entrenched in the waste and road building and rehabilitation industries, which makes this alliance a perfect fit for both companies.”

As a leading heavy equipment dealership on the East Coast, All Roads Equipment provides customers with “convenient, local support from five locations blanketing Virginia,” according to Bomag. All Roads Equipment offers services ranging from experienced sales teams, factory-trained service technicians and on-site mobile emergency repair to original equipment manufacturer aftermarket parts support, financing and leasing and rental programs.

“We are excited about our new partnership with Bomag to support the existing and future customer base,” All Roads Equipment President Mark Boyle says.

“Bomag’s premium brand product offering complements All Roads Equipment’s vision. All Roads’ century-long history of providing customer expertise and support and Bomag’s reputation of leading technology and innovation make this partnership attractive for us and the shared industries we serve. We look forward to working collectively for our customers to give the most robust uptime delivery experience possible,” he adds.

Colorbiotics offers recycled-content asphalt boost

Colorbiotics, based in Ames, Iowa, has introduced Biomag Hot Mix, an additive containing a soybean-based polymer it says enables the use of up to 50 percent recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) in high-traffic and heavy-load applications. This compares with using 20 percent to 25 percent RAP with competitive additives, the company says.

Using Biomag means highways and major arteries can maintain performance requirements while being constructed with more RAP and less petroleum polymer modification. According to Colorbiotics, tests have shown greater stress relaxation and elastic recovery in pavement with Biomag Hot Mix versus typical aging and stiffening that can occur over time with other additives, particularly in temperature extremes.

“Biomag [Hot Mix] is the perfect complement to our Invigorate additive,” Colorbiotics Product Manager Austin Hohmann says. “We now have two additive options that make asphalt construction more environmentally friendly, from parking lots to major interstates, in all climates.”

Colorbiotics says Biomag Hot Mix is an advanced soybean oil-derived additive that triggers chemical reactions inside RAP and stiffens binders to break down asphaltene aggregation. It also reverses the effects of oxidation in the final mix, the company says.

While other asphalt additives can offer a superficial change to the viscosity of the binder, Biomag Hot Mix improves the chemical properties of lower-quality binders, according to Colorbiotics. The company says as with its original Invigorate line, the new product “improves the recyclability of asphalt while still meeting performance-graded and performance testing specifications, with the added benefit of a soybean-based polymer for both binding and surface protection.”

“The same science that produces superior asphalt can help protect it,” Hohmann says. “It is powerful technology that should change the industry and create new standards over time. That is what we are working toward.”

Tomra sees need for wood-sorting advances

Photo courtesy of Tomra

Tomra, a European equipment and technology provider, says it is developing scrap wood sorting systems that will allow global retailer Ikea to meet ambitious recycled-content targets for some of its building products and furniture items.

In a late-October 2022 webcast hosted by Tomra Sorting Recycling, an Ikea presentation outlined the company’s plan to use recycled-content wood, and presentations by Tomra staff members covered the current status of the wood recycling market and “challenges and solutions to bring wood full circle.”

Jan-Olof Fechter, material expert and technique engineer at Ikea of Sweden AB, described how Ikea incorporates sustainability and recycling into its business and what the company’s long-term goals regarding recycled content include.

“To date, only 1 percent of furniture is reused, but 99 percent, which is equal to 800,000 metric tons of furniture, is recycled,” Fechter said of the situation in Europe. “These figures prove that recycling processes are in place and already supporting us on our way to producing greener products. However, there is still untapped potential we must start to access.”

In 2020, Ikea panelboards were made of 25 percent recycled content, Fechter said, while medium-density fiberboard (MDF) and high-density fiberboard (HDF) panels were made only of virgin material.

In 2025, Ikea aspires to increase the amount of recycled content in panelboards to 56 percent and in MDF and HDF boards to 9 percent. Fechter said sensor-based sorting will play a role in the recovery and production of panelboards and fiberboards using secondary raw materials.

Jose Matas, segment manager for wood sorting at Tomra, said current wood recycling market trends have been influenced by the energy crisis in Europe, the impacts of climate change and the industry’s increased reliance on recycled content to meet its sustainability targets.

“The energy crisis is hitting hard on us in Europe,” Matas said. “Many households turn to wood as an alternative heating source, therefore further driving up the already record-high demand for wood. Combined with the general lack of materials on the market, sourcing wood in sufficient volumes and qualities has become increasingly difficult and at all-time high prices.”

To access material and maintain profitable operations, Matas said the panelboard industry has increased its attention to recycling to the point that “both recyclers and wood-based panel manufacturers reap competitive benefits,” the company said.

Murat Sanli, wood sales engineer at Tomra, said a “holistic approach” can maximize recycled wood content.

“To exploit the full potential of recycled wood, we must concentrate on three pillars: the collection, sorting and recycling of waste wood,” he said.

Decisive for the final product quality, he added, are technology-driven sorting solutions.

According to Tomra, the industry increasingly recognizes the need to make use of waste wood since it contains valuable recyclable materials that, if properly sorted, can be used as high-quality recyclates to produce new wood-based panels.