Co-Authored By Lee Lassiter & Dusty Zeigler
Wrapping in the landfill does not sound very rhythmic, but there is a whole lot of wrapping happening on the working face of landfills! Whether it’s wire, cable, rope, string, or even plastics, these materials seem to cling to all types of equipment traversing garbage in the fill, causing operators’ headaches. Hold your lyrics though, there is a landfill compactor out there that is designed for a “no wrap life”. The Tana Landfill Compactor, first built in the 1960s, is now ‘mashing’ trash in landfills all over the world. Tana is said to be the world’s first compactor designed for the sole purpose of saving airspace, and it certainly uses its engineered efficiencies to do just that!
The always obvious difference about Tana is the tandem full-width drums, which together are the most essential features of the machine. Comparably, three and four-wheeled compactors are prone to material blow-out and materials wrapping in between wheels. With Tana’s Drums, the space between wheels is eliminated, allowing the full-width drums to elude the dangling wrappers!
So, what if the drum cleats pull that proverbial intertwined ball of fence wire up toward the drum housing? Well, between each corrugation of drum cleats, there are cleaner bars on both the front and rear of the drum. In a peeling-like fashion, these cleaners force the wire away from the drum housing as the drum rolls. Much like presents on Christmas day, it is a swift unwrapping. Cleaner bars are typically set closer than 10 mm and adjusted periodically. Let’s not forget the flat bar steel drum guards underneath the housing, which disallow materials from infiltrating the interstitial space.
*Same landfill pictured above
Grab your tortilla maker… There are Wire Cutters mounted on the front and back sides at the end of each drum. Set at less than 3 mm and adjusted periodically for maximum efficiency, these cutters capture wire while using the weight and force of the machine’s hydraulics to provide strong and constant cutting action.
Though Tana stands on a squatty 66” inch diameter drum size, the 2 feet 9 inches of Ground Clearance is a very lofty comparison to other compactors. There are no underside mechanical gearboxes or drivetrain systems for wrappers to become lodged for a day’s ride around the landfill. Farewell to the shadow tail of mattresses, no more remoras hitching rides for a ten hour work shift. The Tana rolls right on over the foams and the wire coils.
Spotting out those wiry nests and cling-ons comes as an easy chore in the Tana’s cab due to its all-glass and forward cab mount design. Ensconced atop the forward section of the machine is the two-door high-visibility operator’s office, where the operator can see from eyebrows to bootstraps. Being able to avoid the snare before it happens eliminates downtime and the rigors of removing all wrap.
To learn more about Tana Landfill Compactors, visit https://www.humdingerequipment.com/products/landfill-compactor/. If you have questions about Tana landfill compactors or drum wrapping, contact your regional sales manager or local dealer, who can be found at https://www.humdingerequipment.com/sales-service/.
