Cyr Helps Zalev Build Scrap Metal Processing Plant

Cyr rehabs, installs press, revamps materials handling for steel industry supplier.

R.J. Cyr Co.  has made a critical contribution to an iron and steel scrap processing plant that will serve North America’s needs well into the next century.  Cyr updated a cold briquetting press, installed equipment and rehabbed the existing materials handling systems. 

Zalev Brothers Limited,Windsor, Ontario, buys steel turnings and cast iron borings, which it presses into briquettes.  These are rail shipped to steel mini-mills, integrated steel producers, and foundries in six Canadian provinces, 33 U.S. states, and Mexico.

Late in 1995, ZBL started up a $1 million-plus state-of-the-art cold briquetting plant that delivers a superior product at a competitive price.  The plant incorporates numerous features for protecting both workers and the environment, and has significant capacity to expand.

Says President Maxwell Zalev: “By the year 2000, the North American steel industry will increase net annual production capacity by 16 million tons.  Eleven million of these tons will come from scrap. We’ll help meet that demand for scrap.”

“Nice problem to have”

Zalev has made briquettes since 1938. Its older facility has five small cold briquetting presses.  The firm shipped about 25,000 tons of cold briquettes annually in 1994 and 1995.  Additionally, operates a world class hot briquetting plant (its flagship operation) with capacity well in excess of 10,000 tons annually.

“With the new plant, we’ll expand to about 75,000 tons by 1999 and will still have capacity to accommodate future growth,” Zalev stated.  “Excess capacity puts us in an excellent position to take advantage of the increased demand for ferrous scrap.”

The new press makes an improved briquette, which has an 8-in. diameter (vs. 4.25-in. for the product from the older presses), measures 7.5-in. thick (vs. 2.5 to 3-in.); and weighs 35 lbs. (vs. 10 lbs.).  According to Zalev, the new briquette is denser and easier to handle; there’s also less breakage, and fewer fines.

Every year, ZBL buys about 200,000 tons of steel turnings and cast iron borings, mostly from the auto industry and its suppliers in the Windsor/ Detroit region.  This scrap, which contains oil lubricant and some moisture, is trucked to ZBL’s 37-acre headquarters and stored.

Turnings and borings are difficult for mills to handle, but become more usable in briquette form.  Briquettes cost less than other grades of scrap, but meet industry needs for iron units.  This gives a price advantage.

ZBL zones off raw materials according to chemistry in its storage yard and performs quality control checks in its onsite lab.  Briquette chemistry is precisely controlled.

“Our competitive edge is that we’re registered ISO-9002 and QS-9000,” says Zalev.  “Ford has certified us Q1.  We’re QE at Chrysler and Q1 at Rouge Steel. No other source beats us on quality.”

“Went straight to Cyr” 

We, “went straight to R.J. Cyr Co. ,”when it was ready in the autumn of 1994, to start planning the new facility, says Zalev.  “They’re reputable, reliable, and understand our business,” he stated.  “They’ve done excellent work for us for many years*, so we have a great deal of confidence in them, and much respect.”

When the project began, ZBL had a Lindemann cold briquetting press in storage.  “We purchased that press in England ten years ago at a very advantageous price,” says Zalev.  It was nearly new.

To house the Lindemann press, ZBL built a 2,500 sq. ft. addition, which was completed in early 1995.  Next, ZBL and Cyr began the conveyor engineering.

The new plant has above-ground conveyors. “Raised conveyors are easier to run and maintain,” says Zalev.  “Wastewater discharge is better, which minimizes environmental impact and, we don’t have anyone working in pits, which improves plant safety.”

“Working from a strong foundation”

According to Randy Cyr, Zalev had 30-year old materials handling equipment that was “basically in good shape.”

“We revamped it to work with the new press – made the bucket elevator taller, lengthened the scraper conveyor, and built chuting between the bucket elevator and the storage hopper.”

The materials handling system is stand-alone.  Cyr reconfigured one of the two bucket conveyors that fed ZBL’s older plant to serve the new press.  Now, front end loaders in the storage yard dump raw materials into a receiving hopper.  From there, it moves up the bucket conveyor and is chuted into a storage hopper from which the press is fed.

The project was successfully completed “without a major engineering endeavor or critical paths,” Cyr adds.  “This required careful management by our engineering shop and field people.  But work was completed on time.  The plant is up and running – and producing briquettes.”

“You can readily see the differences between our old plant and the new one,” said Zalev.  Now, PLCs govern critical processes; controls are state-of-the-art, assuring superior productivity and throughput.  Even the lighting is better.  The new cold briquetting plant takes us a long way toward our goal of being a world class metal recycler.”

* R.J. Cyr Co.  has assisted Zalev Brothers Limited in projects of all types since the early 1960’s.

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