Company Wrench Awarded Patent for CP100 Mag Combo

May 29, 2015

Company Wrench and owner Brad Hutchinson received a patent for the CP100 Magnet Combo heavy equipment attachment he invented that significantly decreases the danger of demolition projects and makes the jobs more efficient. This versatile product can both pulverize concrete and collect the metal using just one attachment. "We finally have a product where one operator can sit safely in the seat of the machine," Hutchinson said. "They can pulverize the concrete AND mag the rebar. They don’t need to leave the safety of the excavator cab and stay out of harm’s way.” Processing crushed concrete at demolition or recycling sites to extract rebar can be dangerous and time consuming. The CP100/Mag Combo consists of a 65,000-pound excavator with an attachment to pulverize concrete at the end of a long arm. The bucket also contains a magnet, which the operator runs over a pile of crushed concrete to pull out the metal rebar within.

The inspiration for the CP100/Mag Combo originated after visiting job sites and listening to existing customers discuss their safety and labor cost issues. "We had multiple customers who suggested if you could find a way to do both with one machine, it would be a great advancement," Hutchinson said. "So we got to work on it right away." Hutchinson and the Company Wrench engineering department spent about 18 months devising and refining the CP100 and received the patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office on December 27 of last year. The patent is valid for 20 years and prevents anyone else from marketing or building the same type of equipment.

"Concrete pulverizers and magnets are existing technology," Hutchinson said. "But the redesign of the two together is what got us the patent —¬ processing the concrete and recovering the rebar with one single machine. It's an application patent where you're taking existing technologies and making a new process out of it by joining them together."

The Komatsu PC270 excavator with the patented combo unit is available for sale or rent from Company Wrench. The pulverizer/magnet unit is available on its own but an excavator must be modified if not bought as a package. See the Cp100 Magnet Combo in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9-gyIKceXM.