“We enjoy going to the events sponsored by the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries and seeing our friends in the industry,” added Bob. “When I go to these ISRI meetings, the Kaplan name is well-known. Everybody knows my grandfather and father. They have established a great tradition for the company that we are building on today.” Bob has been a board member of the Northwest Chapter of ISRI the last six years and now serves as president of the organization.
Growing with customers
At one time, railroads and heavy industry in the Twin Cities were a source for much of the scrap metal recycled at the operation, Reuben Kaplan said. “We used to get a lot of scrap metal from farm equipment, but today farmers have one machine that does the work of 10 or 12, so there’s not as much. The biggest contributor today is the automobile. That segment just keeps growing and growing.”
Kaplan’s other scrap metal sources come from a wide range of manufacturing companies and machine and metal stamping shops in the Twin Cities. The company has more than 150 rolloff containers used to collect scrap metal at customer sites and transport it back to the company’s yard. Kaplan’s, which employs 20 people, receives scrap from customers within a 50-mile radius of its headquarters and ships recycled materials to mills and foundries in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. Much of Kaplan’s finished product from its automobile
A Komatsu WA450 with forks makes stacking crushed cars look easy. “Komatsu
equipment has worked so well for us and has fit our needs as we have grown,” said
Kaplan’s president, Harold Kaplan.
recycling operation goes to a nearby North Star Steel plant, where the material is used primarily to manufacture rebar and steel billets.
“To process materials for North Star Steel, we use an automobile crusher, baler and shear,” said Harold. “We preprocess all the automobiles for the shredder at North Star Steel. When it comes to all of the scrap metal we process for the mills, you have to meet their specs. The shear processes for the number one and number two grade metals we recycle and the baler makes square bales for the steel mills.”
Over the decades, the tools, equipment and methods used by Kaplan’s to recycle materials has changed dramatically. “It started out being tough hand work using tools like a sledge until the first acetylene torch was used,” noted Reuben. “Then it evolved into using heavy equipment, going from cable cranes to the hydraulic scrap handlers we have today. So technology has really changed the industry, making it much more productive and less labor intensive.”
Custom-built scrap handlers
Custom-built material handlers have made a big difference in productivity for Kaplan’s. When the company relocated to its present yard, Kaplan’s initially subcontracted out its automobile processing to crush, shear and bale the recycled cars. Then they turned to Road Machinery & Supplies Company and veteran territory manager Denny Hook to supply a large and productive fleet of Komatsu equipment, including purpose-built scrap handlers. Now the yard is all Komatsu, including a new PC300 scrap handler equipped with a magnet. RMS service technicians at the Savage Service Department customized and delivered it this past fall. Modifications included a cab riser and a 20 kW generator housed in the machine’s counterweight and protected by a special cooling panel.
The new scrap handler, which has a lifting capacity from 6,500 to 7,000 pounds, is now working alongside two other Komatsu PC300s in the yard –– another scrap handler with a magnet attachment and a unit with a LaBounty MSD50 shear. Additionally, the company uses Komatsu WA450-1 and WA450-3 wheel loaders with forks, primarily in the car processing operation. The WA450-1 also is outfitted with a quick coupler so the operator can quickly and easily change attachments.