Productivity test: a growing fleet of Fuchs scrap handlers maneuvers through Triple M Metal's Ontario scrap facilities.

When scrap operations are spread out over several acres, deploying scrap handlers that can cover ground quickly and efficiently improves production measurably.

According to Oscar Moniz, director of operations at the Triple M Metal facility in Brampton, Ontario, improved production combined with much lower undercarriage maintenance costs have caused Triple M Metal to restock its fleet almost entirely with wheeled scrap handlers made by Terex Fuchs.

Moniz says the 53-acre shredder yard in Brampton provides the ideal case study for why the wheeled Fuchs machines have won over the operations department of Triple M Metal. "We've got 53 acres of piles of scrap,, and they can be varying distances apart, he comments. "With the Fuchs fleet, we can move the machines from pile to pile quickly, and it really helps our operations."

Triple M Metal currently deploys 21 hydraulic Fuchs scrap handlers at a half-dozen scrap yards in Ontario. The company's fleet consists of seven of the larger Fuchs 380 models and 14 of the Fuchs 360 models.

The machines perform a variety of tasks, according to Moniz, including feeding shredders, balers and other processing machinery as well as loading and unloading trucks and rail cars.

The machines are rubber-tired models, but even in the unpaved yards of Triple M Metal, Moniz says the increased mobility factor is notable. "We used to use all tracked machines, but now we've gone to all rubber tired. They absolutely move more quickly. One thing that sticks out is the maneuverability provided by the rubber tires."

Even more importantly, according to Moniz, the wheeled Fuchs platform has brought down maintenance costs dramatically versus the tread maintenance costs that Triple M had been accustomed to. "The maintenance cost per ton on these machines is very good," he remarks. Adding costs up since 2000, Moniz estimates that he has spent just 10 percent on undercarriage maintenance on the wheeled Fuchs fleet compared to what he would have spent to maintain tracked vehicles.

Triple M's Fuchs fleet uses a combination of magnets, grapples and mag-grapples to handle the scrap metal tonnage. The machines, which work diligently through the cold Ontario winters, according to Moniz, have been sold and serviced directly through the Terex Fuchs office in Southaven, Miss.

"We have purchased them through Tom Skodack and Terex Fuchs directly, and they have offered us terrific support directly from the U.S. office," notes Moniz. He adds that Triple M's devotion to Terex Fuchs has prompted the company to stock $500,000 worth of Fuchs replacement parts to perform its own maintenance.

"Our operators like everything about these machines--the flexibility and the way they maneuver around the yard, the elevated cab that lets them inspect while they load and the joystick controls," says Moniz. "And the managers like them because they are very, very productive."