New star screen improves mulch production at Lowe Products

Lowe Products, Shepardstown, West Virginia, has added a Neuenhauser 2F star screen to its operations, improving mulch production efficiencies and reducing company costs, according to Lowe Products.

Lowe Products is one of the largest mulch and topsoil producers in West Virginia, serving the Maryland, Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., and eastern West Virginia markets.

The company was founded in 1972 by John D. Lowe Jr. and his wife Betty. John Lowe had experience in the lumber industry and with the byproducts they produced, such as slab wood, wood chips and bark material. The company transitioned through the years to processing these lumber byproducts into a high-grade bark mulch. Lowe Products currently produces 27 products that range from shredded hardwood mulches to a variety of soil products.

Lowe Products operates four automated bag lines that can produce 32,000 units of bagged products per shift. All bags are palletized, fully shrink-wrapped and capped for ultimate customer satisfaction.

Scott Lowe, vice president of Lowe Products, inherited his father’s innovative nature and was all ears when told how he could reduce his mulch production costs significantly by adding a Neuenhauser, with U.S. headquarters in Liverpool, New York, star screen into his operation. The ability to reduce regrind by as much as much as 70 percent was the first fact that caught his attention. The grinders the company run burn $200 worth of fuel per hour and the ability to reduce its operating hours by two-thirds with a machine that burns $10 of fuel per hour sounded like a no-brainer on paper, company officials say.

Emerald Equipment Systems, Liverpool, New York, hosted a demonstration to show the Neuenhauser 2F would keep pace with the company’s 1,100-horsepower grinders, which produce up to 650 cubic yards per hour, and also to establish that the screened product was of the same quality as double-ground mulch.

According to Lowe, the Neuenhauser 2F star screen has met the company’s needs; the unit has been in operation for three months at the height of mulch season.

Lowe says, “We have seen significant cost savings other than the grinder fuel usage that we did not initially consider. We have eliminated a loader out of our operation as we do not have to double handle 70 percent of our mulch and also grinder wear costs have reduced dramatically because we are not feeding fines back through the mill.”

The Neuenhauser 2F screen Lowe purchased is a two-way spilt wheel unit, featuring a 22-foot, 6-inch, variable speed star deck with low wear polyurethane stars. The low maintenance, user-friendly design features a diesel hydraulic power pack, a modular star deck that can be removed in 15 minutes and a simple control system that can be programmed to make different sized products, the company says.

Lowe adds, “Our experience with Neuenhauser screens has been very positive. The innovative technology and its ability to produce a high-quality product definitely meet the high standards of excellence that our company requires. This screen is set apart from the others because of its high production rates, its simplicity to operate and to work on, its low fuel consumption, its ability to cut production cost and the extremely low maintenance cost overall.”

Emerald Equipment Systems is the Northeast U.S. dealer for the complete line of Neuenhauser screening technologies comprised of star screens, trommels and flipflow screens units.