315 Ton Scrap Metal Shear: Sizing for Mixed Yards

The 315-ton class exists because of a specific kind of yard: the one whose intake is genuinely mixed. Not light scrap with the occasional heavy piece — that is a 200-ton yard with ambition — but a real weekly blend of rebar and profile, plate and section, the odd heavy item and a lot of everything in between. The Q91-315 is built for that yard, and this article explains what changes when you step up from the entry class, what the machine is rated for, and how to tell whether your operation is a 315 yard or should skip straight to a 400 or a 500.

For the full buying framework across the range, our guide to buying a scrap metal shear from China covers the decisions that apply to every tonnage class.

What the 315 Is Rated For

These are the published figures for the class — the numbers we quote against.

Specification	Q91-315
Rated force	315 ton
Typical output	25–45 tons per day
Continuous cutting	30 mm plate
Occasional cutting	50 mm plate
Duty	Two-shift operation, growing-yard feed

Read the duty row as carefully as the force row. The 315 is specified for two-shift operation on a growing yard’s feed — that is a different build conversation than the single-shift entry class, and it is why this machine is the natural second purchase for yards that started on a 200 and found themselves running it harder than it was dimensioned for. Frame, seals and hydraulics are quoted against the duty you declare at quotation, not the duty you wish you had.

The Mixed-Yard Reality

A mixed yard is not a yard with heavy material. It is a yard whose material varies — rebar one day, plate offcuts the next, sections and the occasional heavy piece through the week. That variety is what defeats undersized machines, because a machine rated for your light days stalls on your heavy ones, and a machine rated for your heavy days is over-built, over-powered and over-priced for your light ones.

The 315 lands in the middle for a reason. It carries the same gantry architecture and PLC control as the whole scrap metal shear range — vertical guillotine blade on a rigid frame, hold-down clamping, hydraulic push feed — scaled to a class that takes 30 mm continuously and reaches 50 mm when the day allows. The blade specification follows the same logic as the entry class: tool steel hardened for abrasive ferrous scrap, four-sided reversible heads, a spare kit sized to the duty you declared.

Where the 315 Sits Between Its Neighbours

Choosing between the classes around the 315 is a question about your heaviest routine piece and your daily tonnage, in that order.

Class	Rated output	Continuous / occasional	The operation it fits
Q91-200	20–40 t/day	Light duty / ~60 mm sections	Light scrap, rebar, profile; one-person operation
Q91-315	25–45 t/day	30 mm / 50 mm	Mixed ferrous, two-shift, growing yards
Q91-400	35–55 t/day	40 mm / 55 mm	Commercial yards, steady sections and plate
Q91-500	45–60 t/day	50 mm / 65 mm	Demolition feed, concrete-adhered sections

Notice the overlap. A yard at 40 tons a day of mixed material could take a well-configured 200 or a 315, and the honest answer depends on the heavy tail of the distribution, not the average. Count the pieces in a normal month that exceed your candidate class’s continuous rating — if heavy pieces are a weekly event, size for them; if they are a monthly event, size for the average and keep the right blade configuration for the exceptions.

Making the Second Shift Real

Most 315 buyers are stepping up from the entry class, and the transition changes the yard more than it changes the machine. The 315 is built for two-shift duty — that is what the rating means — but the operation around it has to keep up. Crane cover across both shifts, blade rotation planned inside the week’s rhythm, and discharge handling that does not become the bottleneck at shift change are all yard decisions rather than machine decisions.

Buyers who plan those three alongside the order are running two productive shifts in the first month. Buyers who treat the machine as the whole change discover the yard is the constraint, and the machine gets blamed for a problem it did not cause. The good news: none of those three problems is expensive to fix at the planning stage, and all three are expensive to fix after installation.

Configuration at This Class

As with every machine in the range, the 315 is configured before the build rather than sold as a fixed package. The conversations that matter at quotation:

• Material profile. The three heaviest pieces you cut in a normal month, the plate thickness that shows up weekly, and whether concrete-adhered material is routine or occasional. The blade configuration and steel grade recommendation follow this list.
• Power supply. Available voltage and frequency, spare kilowatts, and the starting method — confirmed with your electrician before the build. Motor ratings in this class commonly exceed what a small yard’s existing supply can start cleanly.
• Duty declaration. Single shift, two shifts, or three. A build quoted for two shifts on mixed feed is a different machine than one quoted for one, and the difference is invisible on a price sheet and obvious in year three.
• Discharge plan. Where cut pieces accumulate and how they leave the yard. A machine whose cut pieces bank up under the box spends half its shift waiting for clearance.

When to Skip the 315 Entirely

Two honest cases point buyers past this class. If your intake is dominated by continuous HMS 1 & 2, the answer is the Q91-630 — the watershed class for continuous heavy-HMS duty, rated at 60 to 80 tons per day with continuous cutting at 60 mm. And if your feed is demolition material with routine concrete adherence and tonnage already past 45 a day, the 500 is the machine that survives it. We would rather quote you the right class than the available one, and the quotation will say so in writing either way.

Send your scrap type, heaviest routine pieces, daily tonnage, shift pattern and power details, and the quotation comes back within two business days with the specification sheet your electrician and foundation contractor can work from. If the honest answer is a different class, that is what the quotation will recommend.

What Mixed Feed Does to Blade Planning

Mixed feed is the hardest material to plan blades for, because no single rotation interval fits it. A week of rebar and profile treats the edge differently than a week of plate offcuts, and a fixed “rotate every X tons” rule written for one material mis-serves the other. The planning method that works at this class is tonnage-based with a material modifier: track tons processed per edge, then adjust the interval against what the material mix actually did to the edge.

Three habits make the tracking cheap. First, log every rotation with the tonnage and the dominant material of the period — the log is what turns blade replacement from an emergency into a purchase order. Second, inspect the edge at every rotation rather than assuming the interval: a chipped edge found early is a rotation, and a chipped edge found late is a scrapped blade. Third, keep one spare set on the shelf. At two-shift duty the machine does not wait for a shipment, and the 48-hour spare-blade channel exists for the set you did not plan to need.

The same logic applies to the regrind cycle. Four-sided reversible heads buy four lives per blade before the set goes for professional sharpening, and the sharpening quality — correct angles, no overheating, seat condition on reinstallation — decides whether the next cycle matches the last. Buyers who treat the regrind as a scheduled line item get consistent blade life across sets; buyers who treat it as an emergency repair get a different result every time.

Buyer FAQ

Is the 315 enough for continuous HMS?

No. The 315 is a mixed-feed machine with occasional heavy capability. Continuous HMS 1 & 2 duty starts at the 630T class, and we will redirect the quotation there if your intake says so.

What is the 315’s daily capacity?

25 to 45 tons per day, with the position inside the band set by material type, loading efficiency, cut length and running hours — the same honest range logic as the rest of the range.

200 or 315 — how do I choose?

Count heavy pieces per month, not average tonnage. Weekly heavy events point to the 315; monthly ones keep a well-configured 200 viable. The 200-ton material boundary article covers the entry class in detail.

Can the 315 run a second shift?

Yes — two-shift operation is what the duty rating is built around. Declare the shift pattern at quotation so the build is specified for it.

What documentation comes with the machine?

CE and ISO 9001 certification, factory load test before shipment, and a documentation pack with schematics and foundation drawings your contractors can work from.