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Types of Car Crushers

Car Crushing Machine

One of the first Car Crushing Machines was invented by Allen B. Sharp and Richard A. Hull, both assignors to Al-Jon Incorporated located in Ottumwa, Iowa. The patent for the Car Crushing Machine was filed on March 22, 1965 and patented on August 16, 1966. This United States Patent was primarily examined by Walter A. Scheel. The reason they came up with this invention is because scrap cars were too big and bulky to transport to the sites that turn them into reusable material, and the cost to transport them was unethical because, at times, it would cost more to send it than the car was worth because transportation costs were determined by weight. Since uncrushed cars were less dense and took up more space, even for a short haul, the scrap cars were worth less than it cost to deliver them. Before then, car crushing methods consisted of dropping heavy weights on cars, which was time consuming, sometimes costly, and produced inconsistent scrap sizes. With this Car Crushing Machine, a car is fed through a hydraulically powered jaw and is slowly flattened as it goes through, similar to how a pasta machine flattens pasta dough. The car scraps are flattened into dimensions of six inches tall by five to six feet wide, similar to the length of its original size. The design of this machine is meant to be portable so it can move to anywhere cars have been gathered by being within the legal size of highway transport. The machine can be operated by a single person.

Mobile Car Crusher

The Mobile Car Crusher was invented by Charlie Roy Hall in the city of Wadley, Georgia in the year 1996 and was patented on August 12, 1997. The primary examiner of this United States patent was Stephen F. Gerrity. As a condensed version of a standard car crusher, a mobile car crusher has a smaller opening with lower output, so it can only crush smaller sized C-class cars. This machine is mobile as a result of its dual functions: a travel mode for highways, which is when the hydraulic cylinder guiding posts are lowered, and a working mode, when the hydraulic cylinder guiding posts are raised. There are two guiding posts on either side of the machine, with hydraulic cylinders inside of them. The guiding posts protect the hydraulic cylinders from external interference. The hydraulic cylinders are what is used to apply pressure to the car, with a crusher hood to spread the pressure evenly and crush the entirety of the car. A heavy-duty lowboy trailer is attached to the bottom of the mobile car crusher and can only be transported using a semi-trailer truck. Due to the increase in car production, scrap metal became high in demand, so the mobile car crusher was made to increase efficiency of gathering scrap metal. Lifespans of cars were also  decreasing, so the amount of cars being sent to large centralized car crushing facilities rose. Consequently, facilities needed to outsource to mobile car crushers so they could keep up with the increased volume of automobiles.

External links

• "Where Old Cars Meet Their End And Start Over", November 1930, Popular Science bottom of page 61 shows the first type car crusher in action
• "Pounds Per Square Inch Crusher Table" Engineering Weekly, September 2012, p68.
• "Giant Press Bales Autos." Popular Science, August 1948, p.119.
• Car Crushing Machine patent
• Mobile Car Crusher patent