3/17/2009 How crushed cars become metal studs for green housing
The Oregonian

Rob Boydstun of Miranda Homes has had a steady stream of visitors to his model home in North Portland since our story about his revolutionary new product -- affordable green housing using recycled steel studs -- ran in HGNW.

"We're giving an average of two tours a day," says Boydstun. "There's no shortage of interest."

He's also hoping to build a subdivision of about 100 of his homes in Clackamas County. (More on that next week.)

But some readers have asked more about the process that turns the crushed cars (like the stack featured on the Feb. 26, 2009, HGNW cover) into the coils of galvanized steel that Boydstun then manufactures into metal studs.

Here's how it works: Local scrap metal companies, Metro Metals Northwest is one, take junked cars, crush them, then break them up in a massive chipper -- a huge set of jaws that crunches the cars into tiny pieces. From there the pieces go to a centrifuge, which separates the glass, plastic and steel fragments. The steel pieces are then loaded into rail cars and shipped to steel mills around the country. (The glass and plastic pieces are also recycled.)

Nucor Steel then melts the crushed pieces in smelters and rolls the liquid metal out into giant slabs of varying thicknesses. The slabs are converted into different products, including metal plating, tubing and steel coils.

Boydstun purchases 8-inch-wide galvanized-steel coils from Nucor to manufacture into the steel studs he uses in his manufactured homes.

Boydstun says recycled steel is much more affordable than raw steel, which must be mined.

"We probably couldn't afford it if it was made out of raw steel," he says.

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