LAWR

WEIGHING TECHNOLOGY Established in 1966 as a family-owned skip hire business, Winters Recycling has been in the waste industry since 1986 with a company philosophy of investing in new technology. So, it recently invested in its second weigh- bridge from French weighing technol- ogy specialist Precia-Molen. The firm opened its £3m materials recycling facility last year. It is licensed to take in 100,000 tonnes of waste per year. The site has created 30 jobs and recycles core products such as: paper, cardboard, plastics, wood, metals, plasterboard, green waste and textiles. It diverts 90-95% of its material from landfill. The facility is for Hertfordshire and working in tandem with the Environment Agency and Hertfordshire County Council, Winters Recycling intends to address the burgeoning problem of waste in the county. With this commitment in mind, the firm says it was essential that it could depend on what it describes as a robust and accurate weighbridge that could take the strain. Winters says that it has found its new VS400S up to the daily task of weighing all incoming and outgoing traffic (including despatch of all construction and demolition material from the MRF for crushing off site) through its busy recycling centre. Its VS400S is 15m long and has the capacity to weigh 50,000kg. Winters also own and operate a second site in Southgate, London where it has operated a VS300CS weighbridge for some time. Speaking about why he invested in a second weighbridge from Precia-Molen, company director Liam Winters says: "It made sense to invest in a second Precia-Molen weighbridge at Hitchin as the Southgate operation has found their weighbridge both accurate and reliable." With the Hitchin site processing approximately 100,000t per annum of waste materials; a fleet of 40 trucks, managing 2,500 skips including the daily arrival of third party skips, ensures the weighbridge is kept busy at Hitchin. Liam Winters concludes: "With business increasing and more going over the weighbridge daily it is imperative that we can depend on a brand that we can trust with the peace of mind that it is fully backed by a comprehensive Precia-Molen service contract." 16 Local Authority Waste & Recycling February 2014 On-the-spot weighing An incentive to throw away less waste MOBA, a leading provider of bin weighing and identification systems, has launched a new product to identify waste bins via an antenna from a distance of up to five metres. This system uses ultra high frequency identification and abolishes the need for hand terminals. According to the firm, this will greatly speed up collections and reduce expenditure on additional peripheral devices. The new method is based on the principle of backscattering: the antenna, which is mounted on the back of the vehicle cab, transmits a signal with a frequency of 868 megahertz. The transponder captures the signal and reflects it directly to the antenna. 'Dead spots' [Spots where there is no 'connection' between antenna and transponder; spots where the antenna does not catch the signal from the transponder] are circumvented through the continual movement of the antenna and transponder. MOBA says that this system can now be used to automatically identify roller, skip and depot containers when emptying. The driver does not have to get off and on the vehicle and there is no other person needed to detect the container's transponder with a hand- held scanner. Traditionally, it was only possible that way due to limited ranges. Even when driving through gates or standing on stationary weighing stations, bins can be quickly and reliably identified by means of gate antennas without it being necessary to manually detect them using a hand-held scanner, the firm says. Its new products were unveiled at the IFAT Media Dialog exhibition, held in Munich in December. The exhibition gave the press a glimpse of many new products that would be shown at the main IFAT exhibition in May this year. MOBA also presented an on-board weighing and bin identification product to help 'pay-as-you-throw' schemes, which is now gaining a great deal of interest from waste companies in the UK. The John Lewis Partnership, for example, is already exploring how, with the help of one of their main waste contractors, Simply Waste Solutions in partnership with MOBA, to turn this from concept into a reality. John Lewis Partnership's Mike Walters says: "This could just be the catalyst to help us further reduce the amount of waste we produce whilst at the same time achieving even greater levels of recycling. There would then be a clear incentive for us to throw less areduce our overall operational costs." WEIGHING TECHNOLOGY Weighing up materials Gloucestershire-based RDS Technology has launched a new Loadmaster a100 on-board weighing system, described by the hi-tech electronic monitoring and control systems specialist as being the new industry benchmark in terms of accuracy and ease of use in difficult conditions and terrains. RDS supplies its products to the mobile machinery industry. The new technology combines edge sensor technology and signal processing techniques. It aims to provide precise and weight information. On-board weighing scales are used in a wide variety of material handling applications where material is loaded into trucks, bays or processing lines. By measuring hydraulic pressure in the lift cycle, the RDS range of on-board weighing scales give a display in the cab of each bucket load and the total material loaded. According to the firm, its Loadmaster a100 is suitable for use with up to ten different attachments. For example, buckets or forks, the system can be retrofitted onto wheeled, telescopic and tractor type loaders. Business development manager Mark Evans tells LAWR that RDS' new product allows data to be shared across the world and has seen strong demand. RDS says that its Loadmaster has been designed to be operated within the fastest loading environments and toughest of conditions compensation for uneven, sloped ground and restricted loading areas, reducing cycle times and maximising tonnes per hour performance. It also has GPS recognition, whereby the instrument on the loader knows its position in relation to an individual product bay. Recycling firm Pearce Group uses the Loadmaster a100's sister product, called the Loadmaster 8000i, for its wheeled loaders. It also uses a Liftlog 100+ on-board weighing system for their fork trucks to speed up operations and enhance productivity. At the firm's St Albans headquarters, a fleet of forklifts is used to unload trucks coming back from customer collections. Waste paper is graded and the Liftlog 100+ is used to weigh each skip or container which is tagged. Once processed, clamp trucks, also fitted with Liftlog 100+, load bales onto trucks for shipping out to paper and plastic mills to be recycled. The site also handles tin cans, plastic, wood and glass. Pearce Group spokesman Robert Pearce says: "We can be sure the 30 tonne bulkers are loaded correctly first time before passing over the weighbridge negating the need to return back to the yard. It has made a big difference..." February 2014 Local Authority Waste & Recycling 17 Tel: 01527 526112 www.redforge.co.uk HOW MUCH MORE CAN YOU TAKE? Helping you carry the load. Vehicle overloading fines can be up to £5,000 per axle and GVW, meaning that a 3.5T vehicle could incur a maximum of £15,000! Advice and systems are available from Red Forge to help you know what your vehicle is carrying. RF.Howmuchmore86x125 27/3/08 17:11 Page 1

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