Equipment report

Bandit Industries reaches $3 million settlement for alleged Clean Air Act violations

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Washington, announced a settlement with Bandit Industries Inc., Remus, Michigan, for alleged violations of the Clean Air Act for selling nonroad diesel engines and equipment used to process wood and waste that do not meet federal standards. Bandit has agreed to pay a $3 million civil penalty.

The complaint alleges that Bandit sold nonroad diesel-fueled engines and equipment that were neither covered by the certificates of conformity required by the Clean Air Act, nor exempt from that certification requirement under the requirements of the Transition Program for Equipment Manufacturers (TPEM). Additionally, as alleged, Bandit built and sold equipment with engines using older emission standards in exceedance of normal inventory restrictions, or “stockpiling.”

The settlement follows what Bandit says was its voluntary self disclosure to the EPA after it discovered one of its suppliers of engines shipped 2,300 diesel engines between 2012 to 2015 that Bandit understood to be legally conforming engines.

To meet current diesel-fuel emissions standards, equipment manufacturers generally modify their equipment designs to accommodate engines with additional and improved emissions control devices. In the TPEM program, EPA adopted transition provisions to provide flexibility to selectively delay compliance with emissions standards for up to seven years.

The complaint alleges that Bandit did not transition to the current emissions standards in time and sold equipment with older noncompliant engines, creating a competitive advantage over manufacturers offering compliant products.

Bandit says it does not admit liability and expressly denies any intentional or deliberate TPEM noncompliance in the agreement. “The settlement does not affect Bandit’s ability to continue to operate or supply quality products and services to its customers,” the company says in an issued statement. The company also states it has put measures in place to ensure all engines installed on their equipment will comply with the federal Clean Air Act.

A stipulation of judgment and a complaint were simultaneously filed in the Western District of Michigan. Since there is no court order stopping Bandit’s alleged violations in the stipulation, there is no public comment period.

Revised ANSI standard on mobile equipment receives approval

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), Washington, has approved the revision of the mobile equipment standard Z245.1-2017. This revision replaces the Provisional Amendment from 2014 and the standard from 2012.

Standard Z245.1-2017 applies to the construction, reconstruction, modification, care, maintenance, operation and use of mobile waste or recyclable materials collecting, transportation and compacting equipment.

This standard identifies requirements for refuse collecting and compacting equipment mounted on refuse truck chassis.

The revision of standard Z245.1-2017 includes removal of specific fall protection sections while acknowledging for each company to conduct a hazard assessment for its specific equipment, clarification of collection operation, transit and using the restraining device; and implementation of new signage.

Morbark enters partnership with Pronar

Morbark LLC, Winn, Michigan, has entered into a partnership with Pronar, a Poland-based company that specializes in the manufacture and sale of machinery and equipment for agriculture, municipal services and transportation industry, to manufacture trommel screens.

Available in four sizes, the mobile trommel screens, which will be co-branded Morbark and Pronar, are designed to work with a wide variety of materials, including soil, compost, municipal waste, coal, aggregate and biomass. A variety of drums are available with round or square holes and any mesh size.

Key features include a wide-opening doors for accessibility and quick switching of drums; pull-out platform, on which the engine and hydraulic systems are mounted; magnetic roller for removal of ferrous metals, which may be mounted on the rear and/or side discharge conveyors; and a hydraulic tipping grid large object removal.

Lindner shredder making ADC from demolition and renovation materials

A Urraco 75 DK mobile shredder supplied by the Lindner America, Raleigh, North Carolina, has been on the job since early 2016 at a demolition and nearby landfill site in Ontario, Canada. The unit has been set up to serve the decommissioning of the Chalk River Laboratories (CRL) site, which was operated by Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL).

According to Lindner, the 75 DK was on-site at the landfill to process noncontaminated waste, shredding wood, plastics and light materials from demolition, renovation and new building work. At the 15.4-square-mile site with around 160 buildings, the debris included pallets, construction timber, trees and brush, asphalt, metal containers, plastic pipes and furniture, says Lindner.

In addition to “significantly reducing the volume of the waste,” Lindner says the Urraco prepared the wood fraction into a compactible bulk product that can be mixed with regular landfill daily cover material and spread over the working face of the landfill at the end of every working day. The preparation of the alternative daily cover (ADC) helps CNL comply with a regulation to cover the waste collected during the course of a day with a 6-inch thick layer of wood and soil mixture, thus mitigating the need to bring soil just for this purpose.

CNL operates the 75 DK with a diesel engine and track system and with a nominal shredding capacity of up to 45 tons of wood per hour.

James Betts, section head of waste management operations at CNL, says, “Even now, we are shredding a volume of over 13,000 cubic yards every year, but this is likely to multiply quickly as we expand our work. The mobile self-driving Urraco meets our requirements down to a tee.”

The Urraco shredder is equipped with a contaminant recognition system and a reversing function designed to protect the tools from damage. Also standard is the discharge belt, the height of which can be adjusted by remote control. In the CNL installation, a magnet is positioned above it to extract nails and metals.

Major Wire expands US dealership network

Montreal, Quebec-based Major Wire Industries Ltd., has expanded its sales force to include four new authorized dealers in the United States, supplying Major’s complete line of screen media solutions for aggregate, mining and recycling operations. The domestic dealerships include Continental Equipment Co., Fenton, Missouri, representing Missouri, Arkansas, Southern Illinois and Eastern Kansas; McCourt and Sons Equipment Inc., La Grange, Texas, representing most of Texas, as well as Oklahoma, Louisiana and southern Mississippi; Northwest Screening Supply LLC, Lake Oswego, Oregon, representing Oregon and select counties in northern California; and Stone Equipment Co., Montgomery, Alabama, representing Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

According to James Siler, vice president of sales for North America at Major, these dealerships focus on being solution driven and customer oriented to help producers optimize their facilities and improve their processes for increased production.

“All of us at Major are very excited that we’re now partnering with these excellent dealers,” Siler says. “Already, they are doing an outstanding job getting our products into their customer locations.”

Siler also noted that several of these dealerships have put their sales professionals through the rigorous process of qualifying them to become Major certified screening experts. These experts include Pat and Mike Andrew of Northwest Screening Supply and Mark Prihoda and DeWayne Jackson of McCourt and Sons. Process Machinery Inc., Shelbyville, Kentucky, also has two Certified Screening Experts.

Ely Enterprises becomes Harris dealer

Ely Enterprises Inc., Lorain, Ohio, has announced it has been appointed by Cordele, Georgia-based Harris to be its distributor in Ohio, western New York, western Pennsylvania, southern Michigan and northern Kentucky. Ely Enterprises will offer the Harris/IPS line of equipment, along with factory parts and service.

Previously a Harris dealer for 18 years, Ely Enterprises President and Founder Ken Ely Jr. says he is excited at the opportunity to re-establish the company’s relationship with Harris. “We are very pleased to be rejoining the Harris team after more than a decade of separation,” he says. “The change in leadership and culture within Harris is both refreshing and exciting.”

Ely Enterprises says it looks forward to providing services to Harris customers.

Wink Equipment to build trailer plant in Kentucky

Wink Equipment Inc., a manufacturer of aluminum truck trailers, has announced plans to locate an aluminum trailer manufacturing operation in Dawson Springs, Kentucky. The company says it expects to produce between 400 and 600 aluminum side-dump trailers per year, to invest $1.55 million in the project and to hire 50 employees.

“We’re thrilled to start manufacturing in western Kentucky,” says Jimmy Wink, company president. “It’s a region I’ve known for years and, for our company, it offers the skilled workforce, raw materials and access to market we need.”

Wink founded American Trailer Mfg. in 1996 in Rockport, Indiana. After selling the company in 1999, he eventually opened Wink Equipment seven years ago to design, test and patent its own products, which it manufacturers under the Wink Trailers and American Trailers Mfg. (ATM) brands.

Assisting Wink Equipment with financing for the project, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) in October preliminarily approved the company for tax incentives of up to $480,000 through its Kentucky Business Investment program. The performance-based incentive allows a company to keep a portion of its investment over the agreement term through corporate income tax credits and wage assessments by meeting job and investment targets.

Wink also can receive resources from the Kentucky Skills Network. Through the Kentucky Skills Network, companies can receive no-cost recruitment and job placement services, reduced-cost customized training and job training incentives.

CBI and Terex Ecotec demonstrate composting equipment

Continental Biomass Industries (CBI), and sister company Terex Ecotec, both with U.S. offices in Newton, New Hampshire, exhibited at Compost 2017 from Jan. 23 through Jan. 25 in Los Angeles and put on live demonstrations of the CBI 6800BT, the Terex Phoenix 3300 trommel screen and the Terex TWT 500 windrow turner at the Lopez Canyon Compost Facility in Los Angeles on Jan. 26.

The CBI 6800BT horizontal grinder is capable of processing land clearing debris, pallets, clean industrial waste, stumps and logs. The Phoenix 3300 trommel screen comes with optional features such as a heavy duty tipping grid. The TWT 500 is designed for operators who recycle great amounts of waste in confined spaces.