The Problem...
Three Compacted 40 cu. yd. Containers a week

L.A. Gear, Inc. of Ontario, Calif., is an innovative leader in the athletic shoe industry. Operating in a highly competitive market, quality control in the production process must be superior. The plant's waste stream consists of three compacted 40 cu. yd. containers a week, 78% of which is athletic shoes. Defective, returned and test athletic shoes were sent to the landfill for disposal but were scavenged and returned for credit, costing L.A. Gear thousands of dollars annually.

 

The Solution...
A BloApCo Top-feed Piggyback Shredder

The BloApCo team visited the L.A. Gear facility to work with the customer to determine: (1) the specifications of the waste stream that needed to be processed, (2) space availability, and (3) the operational design parameters. Then, the BloApCo engineering team designed a solution to meet these specifications. The resultant design incorporated a BloApCo top-feed piggyback shredder which discharges the destroyed product directly into a compactor. The system utilizes a feed conveyor which is loaded from inside the building.

The shoes are co-mingled with general plant and office waste including corrugated boxes, pieces of wooden pallets, and floor sweepings. All waste is loaded manually and broadcast across the shredder infeed conveyor for even feeding of the shredder. This results in MAXIMUM PRODUCT DESTRUCTION. Because the athletic shoes are thoroughly shredded, it is impractical for anyone to scavenge and return any defective shoes. In addition, the BloApCo shredding system paid for itself in less time than predicted.

Once again, BloApCo worked with a customer to engineer a solution to solve a waste handling problem.