Bruce help eliminate downtime for Clearway Group

Bruce design bespoke Hardox bucket to Volvo loading shovel

Bruce are the exclusive Hardox wearparts manufactures in Ireland. Clearway are Ireland's largest processor and exporter of scrap metals, with an international customer base. Clearway's processing facilities are situated in Belfast, Portadown, Dublin, Cork and Athlone using the most advanced technology to ensure the high quality supply of ferrous and non-ferrous materials. Exporting around 200,000 tonnes of material a year they have no time for downtime.

Over seven years ago Clearway purchased a Volvo loading shovel for loading and transporting scrap steel in their yard. They had previously found that mild steel buckets were not suitable to withstand the wear from engine blocks and large pieces of scrap metal and therefore had a shorter wear life.  

Having had experience of the wear and toughness of Hardox plate on their baling machines and chutes Paul Murphy, owner and managing director of Clearway Group,  approached Bruce  with a view to designing a bespoke Hardox bucket to withstand the arduous conditions experienced in handling scrap metal.  He was extremely pleased with the design and long wear life and today after 17,000h it is still in excellent condition.

Due to increased business Clearway recently purchased an additional Volvo loading shovel and once again worked closely with Bruce to design a bespoke bucket made from Hardox 450 for the new machine.

Paul Murphy also wanted to ensure the tyres of the loader did not come into contact with the material, as scrap metal is extremely abrasive and continuous contact caused the tyres to wear quickly leading to extra cost and downtime.

Bruce have designed a bespoke bucket that was much wider than the standard bucket to ensure the material does not come into contact with the tyres and that is also much shallower to accommodate the weight of the material.

High hardness combined with high toughness is the special feature of Hardox wear plate. The high hardness reduces the wear rate of the bucket and the toughness ensures that the bucket is better able to withstand blows and retain its shape.

The Bruce Hardox buckets have earned the ‘Hardox in my body’ stamp of approval, which guarantees that the steel used for your bucket meets all of the strict demands made on the wear steel for buckets. The sign guarantees that the user of the bucket has invested in a first-class product in terms of wear resistance, impact strength and weldability.

Paul commented: ‘Our first bucket performed so well it was a natural choice that we should purchase another Hardox  bucket. With no downtime and excellent wearability; using Hardox is certainly the best long-term decision keeping my productivity to a maximum.’

Clearway also use Hardox liners for their hopper and feeder, Hardox bespoke tiles on their cyclone and Hardox in many other areas of their plant.