Tri-State Bulk Handling knows it takes some serious equipment to unload a ship the length of two football fields. So serious that the New Jersey-based company has called in the muscle of New Holland equipment.

Working in New Jersey’s Port of Camden, Tri-State is using three New Holland EC160 excavators and two New Holland LW230 wheel loaders, all purchased from Modern Construction Equipment Co., Hightstown, NJ.

The New Holland machines help move the white slag, which Tri-State imports from Europe. The company processes the material as an additive to solidify cement mixes. The slag, a glass furnace by-product of European steel manufacturing operations, is refined and a 20- to 30-percent concentration is added to act as a concrete hardener, providing stronger cement.

The material is unloaded from ships like the CIC Splendour, a Torento, Italy-based vessel 107-ft. (32 m) in width. The New Holland EC160s are dropped directly into the ships’ hulls for excavation. The seven hulls of the CIC Splendour are each approximately 100 ft. long by 100 ft. wide by 50 ft. high (30 by 30 by 15 m).

The New Holland EC160 is a 35,000-lb. (15,875 kg), full-size excavator. The buckets on Tri-State’s EC160 feature rounded shovel teeth to prevent damage to the hull as the excavator scrapes slag from its walls.

The LW230 is a 5-yd. (4.5 m) class wheel loader with 230 hp (171.4 kW). Tri-State’s LW230 has been modified with a 7-yd. (6.4 m) bucket for enhanced load-moving capability.

“This is a great opportunity to show the construction world just how reliable and productive New Holland iron is,” said Bob Pelouze, sales representative, Modern Construction Equipment. “It’s going to be hard to beat us.”

The crane used in Tri-State’s operation is a Kochs Marine, multi-purpose, custom crane. The crane removes the slag from the hulls after excavation by the New Holland machines. As slag piles up on the shipyard, it is loaded into trucks using Tri-State’s Fiat-Allis wheel loaders and transported to the processing plant.

According to R. Page Lyons, owner of Tri-State, all indications are that the test will be a success. “If [the New Holland Equipment] keeps working like this for five years, they’ve got a customer for life,” said Lyons.

The company’s processing plant is a conveyor system that transports raw slag left by the trucks into a grinding mill. The slag is refined and then conveyed to a silo where the finished product waits for export. The processing plant will start operation at the end of March or beginning of April.

Tri-State is currently running 16-hour days and expects a total of seven or eight ships this year. That number is expected to increase to 10 or 11 in 2002.

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