A while back we got in touch with Jamie Davies at Davies Salvage LTD, (who, if you remember, was featured in ATF Professional about a year ago) to see how his business in Nottinghamshire was doing. Jamie was very positive and in the conversation mentioned how he had recently bought a dismantling system from RSL Engineering which he highlighted was helping his business grow and returned more value from his vehicles. Intrigued to know more, we got in touch with RSL Engineering’s owner, Richard Page, to find out more about their bespoke dismantling equipment.
Pre 2006 Richard Page, was working as a mobile engineer in the farming community before realising his passion of designing and manufacturing excavator attachments. Then in the summer of 2006, RSL Engineering Ltd was born. Richard set up in a garage using wooden templates with early designs of the now universal thumb grab. Orders began pouring in and after two years the space was outgrown and operations moved to a new workshop in Barnet and again repeating the expansion cycle by moving to Aldenham in Hertfordshire 3 years later. “Keeping true to form we will be looking to expand once again in Q4 this year”, says Richard.
As a businessman, Richard, who is not the sort of person to ‘rest on his laurels’ he looked extensively into car dismantling systems and it seemed that other systems on the market were quite expensive. RSL designed and produced their first dismantler six years ago for a client in Nottingham.
Ever the engineer, Richard was able to adjust the system to work with the clients needs, in this case, they required pincers and another system was produced just as the scrap market plummeted. However, since then word has got around in the car dismantling world and RSL are gaining many new clients in the UK and also exporting their system into the EU, taking orders from Poland and Hungary whilst working on new enquiries from Finland and the US.
Social media has also played a big part in RSL’s development. Richard said, “Each day we get several new requests for the car system and our other attachments. Our Youtube video car system now has over 2500 views”. www.youtube.com RSL’s core belief is to produce design led, high functioning, cost effective products in house and the ability of supplying equipment to all sized scrap yards. The cost of their systems vary from job to job depending on the clients requirements. Part of the system can include their original ‘crab claw’ and a pincer like attachment which removes engines, gearboxes and wires. Another advantage of the RSL dismantling system is that they are one of a few companies manufacturing in the UK. Because they make equipment in house, it proves to be very cost effective for the end user and maintains RSL’s market leadership.
All systems are made to order with a current lead time of approximately 4 weeks.
Each system can dismantle 25+ cars per day depending on the operator, making it a worthy bit of kit for any yard.
One of our clients is consistently dismantling over 1400 cars in a six month period. The service doesn’t end with a sale at RSL, they offer an ongoing maintenance service and build great relationships with their clients.
Going back to Jamie Davies, owner of Davies Salvage LTD, who has now had the dismantling system in his yard for several months. He told us that he wanted to increase productivity and in turn create more income. So far the unit is proving to do both. He said that because of the straight forward controls, within a week the user knew exactly how to use it. He said that they are not using it to its full capacity as yet but they are dismantling approximately 30 cars a week, quite productive considering it is only used for 2 hours a day. The advantage is that vehicles coming in don’t need to be stored, it works like a ‘conveyor belt’ – vehicles come in on the same day as going out – dismantled. He said that there are few machines which you can make your money back in such a short space of time. So far, two tonnes of wire has been salvaged. He said to make the return, a total of 40 tonnes would be required, a figure, Jamie is confident will be reached relatively quickly.
Since writing the above (as it has now been several weeks since we spoke to Jamie), he told us that a further two staff members have been hired – a driver and an office assistant to keep up with the demand of vehicles coming in. They have also increased their vehicle output with the RSL system by dismantling approximately 10 cars a day, therefore salvaging a further three tonnes of wire. Jamie said that he has so far been pleased with the results of the unit but part of the efficiency is down to the good service that RSL provides. He told us that Richard is a “man to trust”.
Although Richard designs the units, he said “we are not breaking new ground but we offer decent kit for a decent price”.
So far the team at RSL Engineering have made 15 dismantlers, a number which is sure to increase in the future.
If you would like to find out more about their kit, call 0203 305 6509 or email sales@rslengineering.co.uk or take a look at their website: www.rslengineering.co.uk