An exodus from the easy road

It all started in 2007. Exodus Machines Inc., Superior, WI, was founded by Bruce Bacon, co-founder of Genesis Attachments, a producer of mobile shears for the metal recycling industry. By December, Bruce had been joined by Jim Campbell, now VP of manufacturing, and Greg Bacon (quoted throughout the article), VP of sales, service and marketing, to establish a business plan and begin work on customer research and feasibility studies to build purpose-built wheeled materials handlers.

“When we went out and talked to the customer base, we found that they weren’t happy with the way they were being treated by other manufacturers of material handlers. All based outside of the United States, the foreign machine manufacturers had long lead times and high costs for replacement parts and service. The customers also felt they weren’t being heard with suggestions for new features on the equipment,” says Greg Bacon.

With an established need in the industry, Exodus Machine Inc. was officially formed in April of 2008. It was decided that it would never be sold to an outside company, and profit sharing and contributions to local charities were established as part of the company bylaws.

Only a month later, the company’s first employee, Adam Bennis, chief engineer, began work on the machine design. The company worked together with local suppliers and design firms to develop the MX447; in fact, the entire machine is Wisconsin-built and is the only wheeled materials handler in the industry that is designed and built entirely in the US.

Machine specs

Born from blank-slate design, hundreds of hours were spent interviewing machine operators, maintenance personnel, equipment owners and managers to determine design parameters and machine features. The machine has been designed to be flexible and accommodate a variety of operator types in the targeted market of scrap metal recycling. “As we reach other markets such as the waterfront or wood handling industry, we will build a machine tailored to them, but for now we’re focused on scrap metal recycling,” says Bacon.

The company was given the rare opportunity to build the machine from the ground-up. Using finite element analysis (FEA) and strain gauge testing to ensure durability, the engineers designed the machine structure with continuous welds, continuous chamfering and beveling to reduce stress concentrations. Oversized pins and bushings were used to go above and beyond industry requirements.

Finding suppliers can prove difficult with low machine volumes, and Exodus was no exception. “Sometimes there were only one or two manufacturers able to supply us with the component we were looking for, and they typically wanted to deal in larger volumes,” says Bacon.

One of the most difficult components to find a supplier of was the machine’s wheel axles. Looking into alternatives, Exodus decided to use a planetary wheel drive instead of the traditional transfer case and rear end gearbox with wheel end-attached drive axles. “We feel like we came up with a better product as a result of that, so it worked out in our favor,” he says.

Exodus’ MX447 houses a John Deere 9.0L, 275-hp Tier III compliant engine system combined with a Parker IQAN computer system. The IQAN system monitors the hydraulic pump pressures, valve positions and fluid temperatures as well as electronic inputs and outputs. Engine diagnostics include fault codes and hydraulic pressure spikes tracked either through the modem to a dealer or owner, or through an on-board system for the operator to monitor. The electronic control system is integrated into the machine to allow the base platform to be customized for each customer based on what features are needed for the specific scrap yard.

Parker also supplied its load-sensing control valves with post-compensation to allow oil sharing and pre-compensation to allow lower pressure functions to operate without going over relief. Two 75-gallon per minute (gpm) Bosch Rexroth pumps together supply 150 gpm to the machine’s main functions at 4,800 psi.