Technology
Although Schnitzer Steel is an industrial company that has been in business for over a century, today’s Schnitzer Steel is a modern company using modern solutions to tackle traditional industrial problems and improve its businesses.
Our overarching business goal is to be an efficient and competitive producer of recycled metal, auto parts and finished steel products. We are making significant investments across the company in processing and manufacturing improvements and information technology to improve these efficiencies, all of which positively affect our company’s bottom line and continue our company’s growth. At the same time, many of these investments also help improve product and service quality, reduce our company’s environmental footprint and increase safety for workers and customers.
At Schnitzer Steel, innovation is everywhere. Some examples include:
Processing and Manufacturing Improvements:
- Mega-shredders. These state-of-the-art processing machines provide increased throughput with reduced energy consumption and produce better quality shredded metal preferred by steel mills and foundries. (View an animation of the shredding and separation process)
- Electrical substations. We have installed new ultra-efficient power substations at our facilities with mega-shredders to support them and further reduce energy consumption.
- Separation technologies. We have adopted various processes including Eddy Current Separators, Induction Sorting Systems and others to separate ferrous metals, nonferrous metals and shredder residue. We are constantly looking for better ways to recover more ferrous and nonferrous metals from the waste stream so fewer materials are sent to landfills. (View an animation of the shredding and separation process)
- Waste water collection. Some of our facilities feature cutting edge water processing systems to further protect the environment and the surrounding communities.
- Shreddervision. Our innovative infrared camera helps shredder operators see through the usual smoke, fog, steam and darkness to better manage the flow of material. As a result, production output is improved, equipment damage is prevented and downtime is reduced.
Information Technology:
- Standardized cross-company systems and infrastructure. Running a global company with 100+ locations efficiently requires a set of robust enterprise systems and a solid networking infrastructure like the ones we’ve developed and continue to enhance.
- Point Of Sale systems. Our self-service auto parts stores utilize this to value cars to be purchased and track parts that have been sold.
- Parts Interchange system. Our self-service auto parts customers use this system to identify all vehicle makes, models and years that contain the part they need. In many cases, a single part can be found on a wide variety of makes and models of cars and trucks.
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