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Scrap Metal Giants shows how scrap metal is handled in bulk by some truly large and exciting machines.
The programme starts at a site at Liverpool Docks where each week a couple of hundred cars are processed for 85% recycling. They form just part of the massive amount of scrap metal that goes through the shredder, sometimes as much as 150 tonnes an hour. After shredding and stockpiling, the ferrous metal is loaded onto ships by four very special high-rise Liebherr 984s. The source of metal scrap ranges from drinks cans to structures weighing several thousand tonnes.
The programme then moves to Norway’s coast where sections of decommissioned oil rigs are brought in by Thialf, the world’s largest crane vessel. Once on the dock the sections are moved by SPMTs to areas where they can be cut up for recycling. Here a huge demolition machine based on a Cat 5130B mining excavator carries a 25-tonne tool.
Balance cranes are designed to use the force of gravity as a substitute for some of the mechanical power in materials handling. In Belgium we see a number of E-Cranes. Back in the UK, another example of a balance crane the Sennebogen 880D unloads steel bars on the south coast.
Massive amounts of scrap metal are handled in steel mills. We visit Thamesteel at Sheerness, to see Swedish-made MultiDockers. We see how scrap metal is taken to the furnace and see it appear as steel billets ready for use once again.
This 88-minute programme is number eight in the Massive Machines series of DVDs.
Researched and scripted by Steven Vale, Massive Machines 8 was filmed by Roger Wiltshire and directed by Jonathan Theobald. Narrated by David Holt, the programme was produced by Old Pond Publishing.