1000 Ton Scrap Metal Shear: Mill-Grade Buying
At a thousand tons of shearing force, the purchase stops being a machine decision and becomes a plant decision. The buyers at this class are mills, large processors and plant operators whose downstream stage — a furnace, a baler, a shredder line — depends on the shear delivering a specification, not just tonnage. The Q91-1000 is quoted against that dependency, and this article covers what mill-grade buying means: the published figures, what the duty row hides, the questions plant buyers ask that yard buyers do not, and why the specification conversation at this class is the purchase.
New to the range? Start with the general buying guide, then come back for what changes at plant scale.
The Published Figures for the Class
| Specification | Q91-1000 |
|---|---|
| Rated force | 1000 ton |
| Typical output | 100–120 tons per day |
| Continuous cutting | 100 mm plate |
| Occasional cutting | 130 mm plate |
| Bale capability | Specified capability for baled scrap |
| Duty | Mid-size plants, high-throughput yards |
Two rows separate this class from the yard machines below it. The bale capability row exists because mill intake includes baled material — bales that arrive at the box and must be cut without stalling the cycle — and the capability is specified rather than assumed. And the duty row names the buyer: mid-size plants and high-throughput yards, operations where the shear is a stage in a line rather than the whole plant.
What Plant Buyers Ask That Yard Buyers Do Not
The questions change at this class, and the change tells you what the purchase is really about.
What is the seal specification? At 100 to 120 tons a day, a hydraulic seal is not a wear part — it is a production risk. Plant buyers ask about seal grade and expected life because they are pricing downtime, not parts.
What is the replacement time on a wear part? The question is not whether parts are available but how long the machine is down when one is needed. At this duty the answer is a procedure: what is pre-staged, what needs a crane, how many hours from stop to running.
What spares are on the shelf? Spares depth is a staffing and inventory commitment rather than a line item, and the serious plant buyers make it before the order rather than after the first failure.
How does the machine behave on baled material? The bale capability row on the sheet is a specification, and plant buyers want to know what happens at the boundary — a bale denser than expected, a bale with the wrong wire, a bale that arrives cold.
None of those questions appears in a yard buyer’s checklist, and all of them decide whether a plant-scale machine holds its output figure. That is what mill-grade buying means.
The Duty Conversation at Plant Scale
A 1000-ton machine quoted for two shifts on mill feed is a different build than one quoted for one, and at this scale the difference compounds. Frame specification, hydraulic package, cooling capacity, wear-liner strategy and the spares kit all follow the declared duty. Buyers who declare the duty they wish they had get a machine that fights their operation in year two; buyers who declare the duty they actually run get a machine that disappears into the production plan.
The same discipline applies to the material list in the plant conversation. Plate at 100 mm as a daily diet, baled material as routine intake, and the occasional 130 mm piece when the week allows — the configuration, blade specification and hold-down are all quoted against that list. Send the three heaviest pieces from a normal month with the inquiry and the build is specified against reality.
Pairing the Stage Behind
Most 1000-ton buyers are running a line, and the stage behind the shear is usually a baler. The two stages work when they are sized against each other: cut output feeds the baler’s chamber without stockpiling, and the bale spec is the one your buyer accepts. Plan the handoff at quotation rather than after installation — drop height, buffer space and the handling between box and chamber all get signed off against your site plan.
Operations that spec the stages as one line are running material in the first week; operations that buy them apart spend month one rebuilding the connection. The full range maps the cutting stages, and the baler range covers the compression side.
Where the Class Sits
| Class | Output band | Continuous / occasional | The operation it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q91-630 | 60–80 t/day | 60 mm / 80 mm | Continuous HMS, two-shift |
| Q91-1000 | 100–120 t/day | 100 mm / 130 mm | Mid-size plants, high-throughput yards |
| Q91-1250 | 160–200 t/day | 120 mm / 150 mm | Heavy-plate production lines |
| Q91-1600 | 200–240 t/day | 150 mm / 190 mm | Steel mills, three-shift continuous |
Below this class the 630 is the heavy-yard watershed; above it the 1250 becomes a production machine judged on cut consistency. The step from the 630 to the 1000 is the step from yard to plant — a different operation rather than a bigger one, and the quotation reflects that.
What the Quotation Should Contain
At this class the quotation is a specification document, not a price sheet. Four things belong in it:
- The declared duty — shift pattern and material mix, written down, because the build follows it.
- The bale capability specification — what the machine does on baled intake, and at what boundary, confirmed rather than assumed.
- The spares and wear-part plan — what ships with the machine, what sits on your shelf, and the replacement procedure for each wear part at this duty.
- The commissioning plan — test runs on your material, operator training across shift teams, and the first-month schedule around your production plan.
Send your material profile, heaviest routine pieces, shift pattern, power details and the downstream stage, and the written quotation comes back within two business days with the specification sheet your electrician and foundation contractor can work from.
The Seal Specification Conversation
At 100 to 120 tons a day, the hydraulic seal is the wear part that decides whether the machine is a production asset or a repair history. The conversation at quotation is short and specific: what seal grade is specified, what is the expected life at the declared duty, and what does replacement involve in hours and crane time. Plant buyers price that conversation before the order because they are pricing downtime rather than parts — and the seal specification that comes back is one of the clearest signals of whether a factory builds for duty or for the brochure.
The operating half of that conversation is oil. Cleanliness and temperature decide seal life as much as the seal grade does, which is why the filter schedule and the weekly oil check belong in the commissioning plan rather than in the manual. A plant that runs oil discipline gets the seal life the specification promised; a plant that skips it gets the failure the specification warned about.
The Bale Boundary
Bale capability is a specification with a boundary, and the boundary is where plant buyers should push. A bale denser than specified, wired differently than expected, or arriving cold after a winter in the yard is a different cut than the bale the configuration was written for — and at 1000 ton the machine takes it, but it takes it at the edge of the cycle rather than the middle. The honest quotation states the bale density and wire type the capability covers, and the operations that verify their intake against that boundary in writing are the ones whose cycle times hold. Ask for the boundary; a factory that states it is a factory that has tested it.
The Reference Installation
One verification is worth more than any certificate at plant scale: a reference installation at a comparable duty, in a comparable market, that you can speak to or visit. A factory with ten years of mill-scale deliveries can produce one; a factory quoting its first plant order will deflect, and the deflection is the answer. Ask for the reference with the quotation — material profile, shift pattern, years in service — and ask what the operator would do differently. The second half of that question is where the useful information lives, and a factory confident in its builds will have heard it before.
Buyer FAQ
What is the 1000’s daily capacity?
100 to 120 tons per day, with the position inside the band set by material density, bale proportion, loading efficiency and running hours.
Can it cut baled material?
Yes — bale capability is a specified feature of this class. Tell us the bale density and wire type your intake produces and the configuration is confirmed against it at quotation.
What plate does it handle?
100 mm continuous as a daily diet, 130 mm occasionally. Routine plate past 130 mm points at the 1250-ton class.
Is on-site commissioning available?
Yes. Remote commissioning support is standard, and on-site installation by our engineers can be quoted where the site requires it — typical for first-time automation buyers at plant scale.
What warranty comes with the machine?
A standard one-year warranty with extended main-frame coverage available per order, CE and ISO 9001 certification, factory load testing before shipment, and spare blades shipped within 48 hours by DHL or FedEx to your port or site.