Max Aicher Umwelt uses a Sennebogen 835 mobile material handler to process slag

Indispensable to the steelworks and so to the recycling system too

Steelworks processes are finely coordinated and timed with each other - from the delivery of old scrap, to smelting and right through to loading steel products and processing slag, the system is reliant on constant functionality. Machine downtime means congestion in the flow of the system, or even a complete standstill. To prevent this happening, Max Aicher Umwelt in Meitingen, who processes slag for Lech-Stahlwerke, has gone with its long-standing, tried and tested method and acquired its third successive green machine, the new Sennebogen 835 mobile material handler. 

For the last 34 years, Max Aicher Umwelt GmbH has been an important part of Lech-Stahlwerke in Meitingen. The site, which employs 25 people, processes all the steelworks' co-products and by-products, in particular the electric arc furnace slag (EAFS). In this way the company sustainably contributes to the reuse of the lava-like, solidified molten material as a construction material in many different areas. For example, when it comes to building roads, slag is a welcome alternative to gravel and grit. The slag as a by-product is thus recycled and conserves natural resources. Max Aicher Umwelt processes 200,000 tonnes of electric arc furnace slag annually on its 35,000 sqm site in Meitingen.

"A standstill on our site can, in a worst case scenario, lead to a standstill across the whole steelworks. When we are buying machines, a 24-hour all-round machine service is absolutely essential for us!" says Benjamin Kinlinger, Division Manager of EAFS Processing at Max Aicher Umwelt in Meitingen. With the Sennebogen sales and service partner Fischer & Schweiger the ideal support could be found: Thanks to the close proximity of the companies they can react quickly and reliably in an emergency. "You can only really judge a machine's consumption rate once it has been bought and put to work in real conditions. But even here Sennebogen keeps the promises made in advance."

As well as being reliable, the mobile material handling specialist is a multi-functional, powerful, and, above all, robust machine that is used in Meitingen with a magnet and an orange peel grab. It sorts, for example, larger and smaller pieces of slag weighing up to 10 tonnes. A 231 kW diesel engine, configured to meet stage V emissions standards, drives the huge undercarriage and all the work processes. One highlight: using just 13.9 liters of diesel per hour, the 45.5 tonner's thriftiness has impressed those on site. "You can only really judge a machine's consumption rate once it has been bought and put to work in real conditions. But even here Sennebogen keeps the promises made in advance," explains Kinlinger.

As the name suggests, the diesel machine's efficiency is down to the Sennebogen Green Efficiency principle. The hydraulic oil flow rate is optimally adjusted to the tasks being carried out by the machine, and, depending on the power required, the right amount of oil is pumped through the large-scale pipes to achieve the best level of efficiency. In addition, the machine has series standard in-built automatic idle and stop functions that reduce and/or completely halt consumption when the machine is not in use for brief periods of time. This means that the machine can always be operated in a fuel efficient way, without direct input from the operator.