Behind the scenes: The making of e-drive part 2
This is part 2 of 3 of our sneak-peek behind the scenes in the making of e-drive - our electric alternative to hydraulic shredders.
In case you missed part 1, you can see it here.
Now it’s time for the next ‘chapter’.
In this interview, we talked to another colleague, Application Manager Dorthe Larsen from our Commercial department:
Testing: A crucial step of development
When developing a new product – and especially when developing new technology as was the case with our M&J P250e – countless hours are put into the development.
Technical drawings are made and revised. Calculations are revisited repeatedly. Different materials are considered, and their unique benefits are meticulously reviewed.
A material might have one set of benefits when considered in isolation and contribute with entirely different benefits when it becomes part of an intricate structure where thousands of parts work in tandem.
Every little detail matter when building machines powerful and durable enough to shred hundreds of tonnes of waste every single day.
As part of the development process, testing is key.
At M&J, we start early.
Once the prototype was built and the technical preparations were complete, we initiated the tests to make sure the shredder runs smoothly, has the required torque to shred almost any type of material, and lives up to our strict requirements in terms of uptime.
After that, we moved on to live testing, because there is no simulation when it comes to waste. The prototype must be tested in the real world – and it has to have been running for a significant amount of time for the test results to be reliable.
For this to be done, we partnered up with a suitable site where the prototype could run side by side with a comparable, hydraulic waste shredder.
Side by side with the bestseller
Only comparisons with a shredder with similar specifications would be useful, as we needed to test the capacity and gain size. So, we ran the comparison with a M&J 4000 S PreShred. Given that this was the winning recipe we improved even further when making the P250, there could be no better comparison.
The two powerful shredders ran side by side with full capacity one hour at a time. Throughout the duration of the testing process, different waste types and different knives were tested to map performance on various materials as well as to test the grain size.
In order to determine the gran size, the grain samples were analyzed by an independent engineering company.
We tested, again and again, to ensure that we could deliver a homogenous output and an accurate capacity.
With a historical track record as impressive as ours, our customers are used to a barre that’s set high and therefore they have high expectations to us – with good reason – and we do our utmost to live up to it.
e-drive: A unique solution
There is no doubt that testing is a big part of the development process at M&J. We put extensive resources into it, and make sure that tests are both rigorous and carried out over a long period of time.
Even more so with the new technology of the M&J P250 e-drive.
Along the way, we’ve made improvements, so the shredder launched at IFAT was up to the standard we are known for.
And the P250 quickly became the talk of the town. For the performance in terms of capacity as well as the savings in operational energy consumption it offers – not to mention the unique way our solution works.
We make use of the energy generated when the torque peaks, due to the axles being reversed or stopped, an approach that optimizes energy utilization in addition to protecting the cutting table and extending its life.
If you want to know more about our e-drive, please check out the M&J P250e.
In the third and last part of our behind-the-scenes interviews, we will focus on the future of e-drive with our Head of Research and Development, Jens Vestergaard Nielsen, and our Product Development Manager, Johannes Kjærsgaard.