Briquetters

Stop Leaving Money on the Table – How to Maximize Aluminum Scrap Value with PRAB’s Briquetting and Conveyor Systems Most metalworking operations think about aluminum scrap the same way they’ve always thought about it — as a byproduct to manage, not an asset to optimize. In previous years, that mindset was understandable. Today, with aluminum prices up more than 46% […]

There’s a calculation most manufacturing operations never run. It goes like this: take the machining scrap pounds of copper, brass, or bronze chips your facility generates per week, multiply by the current scrap price ($3.40–$5.10/lb depending on grade and cleanliness), subtract the discount your scrap dealer applies for oil contamination and loose bulk, and compare that to what you’d earn […]

Aluminum has dominated the commodity headlines this spring — but copper prices have been quietly building a more consequential story. While aluminum’s challenge is supply: mines capped, smelters disrupted, capacity maxed — copper’s challenge is something fundamentally different. It’s demand. Demand that no amount of new mine construction can keep up with, demand from industries that didn’t even exist a […]

If you machine aluminum for a living — or manage operations that do — the market news probably isn’t a surprise at this point. Aluminum prices on the London Metal Exchange climbed to their highest levels since 2022 this spring, driven by a combination of geopolitical disruptions, structural supply constraints, and rising global demand. What that means in practical terms: […]

In real manufacturing environments, very few plants start from scratch. That’s a “Brownfield” integration vs. a “Greenfield” installation. Most facilities already operate with a mix of: Legacy conveyors Third-party shredder systems Standalone briquetting machines Decentralized CNC coolant filtration systems Older industrial oil water separators Fragmented wastewater treatment systems Capital equipment decisions were made over decades—often by different plant managers, under […]

Manufacturers continue to invest heavily in automation, machining technology, and process optimization. But as labor availability tightens and operating costs become more volatile, many plants are finding that automation alone is insufficient. This is where the “Closed-loop factory” strategy becomes important. The limiting factor is rarely the machine tool; it is the supporting infrastructure. A growing number of manufacturers are […]

Variance Is the Hidden Enemy of Capital Planning: Solved with FREE Test Before You Buy Programs For most CFOs, the greatest capital risk is not technical failure. It is variance—the gap between what the business model predicts and what the asset actually delivers once installed. In an era of higher interest rates, longer approval cycles, and tighter board oversight, that […]

Metal Chip Processing Is Now a Profit Center Metal chip processing directly affects: Metal Scrap resale value Coolant recovery and reuse Haul-away and storage cost Floor space utilization Yet many systems are still selected without application-specific data. Why Generic Performance Data Fails Chip Geometry and Coolant Chemistry Matter Two aluminum (or any metal) plants rarely produce the same chips. Differences […]

Capital Risk Has Replaced Technology as the Primary Barrier: Solved with ‘Test Before You Buy’ Programs Across North American manufacturing, the dominant constraint on automation is no longer access to technology. It is access to certainty. Volatile energy pricing, extended approval cycles, higher interest rates, and compressed shutdown windows have transformed how capital projects are evaluated. Today, even technically sound […]

How PRAB Reframes Capital Investment as a Fast-Return, Low-Disruption Strategy: Metal Chip Processing Solutions Across manufacturing, metal chip processing systems are increasingly recognized as essential to operational efficiency, safety, and sustainability. Yet two objections still dominate: high initial cost and integration downtime. These concerns are understandable—but they are also increasingly misaligned with how modern metal chip processing projects are actually […]