BOBCAT S70 Skid Steer Loader Shows Enhanced Efficiency at Battery Smelting Site

In a major step towards improving productivity and safety in battery recycling operations, Bobcat S70 Skid Steer Loader successfully demonstrated its performance at a lead smelting site. The results showed a significant improvement in furnace loading times with reduction in fuel consumption, leading to higher productivity and enhanced operational safety.

Optimizing the Lead Recovery Process: The recycling process begins with the manual disassembly of used batteries. Skilled workers separate lead from the plastic casing, ensuring efficient material recovery. Once extracted, the lead is mixed with soda ash, charcoal, and rolling mill waste, which are essential for the smelting process. This mixture is then loaded into a rotary furnace using a special attachment that fits a 2-ton capacity forklift. (Traditionally, this loading process, which is entirely manual, took around 45 minutes).

Smelting Operations: The rotary furnace, powered by natural gas and preheated to 1000°C, processes the lead mixture in 3 charging cycles over 3 to 4 hours. Each cycle consumes approximately 1100 units of gas, yielding a total of 10 tons of processed lead. After smelting, the molten material is allowed to cool in a trolley container. Once cooled, workers manually separate the slag from the lead, which is then cut and prepared as the final product for dispatch to battery manufacturers.

S70 Skid Steer Loader A Gamechanger: During the demonstration, the S70 reduced furnace loading time from 45 minutes to just 20 minutes, saving 25 minutes per cycle. This led to:

Reduced burner idle time, improving heating efficiency
Lower natural gas consumption, cutting operational costs
Less physical strain on workers, promoting safer working conditions

In addition to its impact on smelting efficiency, Bobcat S70 also demonstrated its versatility through attachments such as the Breaker as a substitute for battery dismantling, and the Grappler for improved scrap handling. The Skid Steer Loader also enhanced jobs like Battery Breaking, Material Shifting, Mixing and Loading Operations.