Place for storage and dismantling of used automobiles
This article is about scrapping automobiles. For the scrapping of ships, see
Ship breaking
.
Old cars rusting away
A scrapyard in the UK, showing cars stacked on metal frames to make it easier to find and remove useable parts.
Crushed cars stored at a scrapyard
A
wrecking yard
(
Australian
,
New Zealand
, and
Canadian English
),
scrapyard
(
Irish
,
British
and
New Zealand English
) or
junkyard
(
American English
) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned
vehicles
are brought,
their usable parts
are sold for use in operating vehicles, while the unusable metal parts, known as
scrap
metal parts, are sold to metal-
recycling
companies. Other terms include
wreck yard
,
wrecker's yard
,
salvage yard
,
breaker's yard
,
dismantler
and
scrapheap
. In the United Kingdom, car salvage yards are known as
car breakers
, while motorcycle salvage yards are known as
bike breakers
. In Australia, they are often referred to as 'Wreckers'.
Types of wreck yards
[
edit
]
The most common type of wreck yards are
automobile
wreck yards, but junkyards for
motorcycles
,
bicycles
,
trucks
,
buses
,
farm equipment
,small
airplanes
and
boats
or
trains
exist too.
Scrapyard
[
edit
]
A scrapyard is a recycling center that buys and sells scrap metal. Scrapyards are effectively a
scrap metal
brokerage
.
[1]
Scrapyards typically buy any base metal; for example,
iron
,
steel
,
stainless steel
,
brass
,
copper
,
aluminum
,
zinc
,
nickel
, and
lead
would all be found at a modern-day scrapyard. Scrapyards will often buy electronics, appliances, and metal vehicles. Scrapyards will sell their accumulations of metals either to refineries or larger scrap brokers. Some scrapping companies offer generous payouts ranging from $250 to $20,000, depending on the condition of the vehicle.
[2]
Metal theft
is committed so thieves can sell stolen copper or other stolen valuable metals to scrapyards.
[3]
Operation
[
edit
]
When an automobile is severely damaged, has malfunctioned beyond repair, or is not worth the repair, the owner may sell it to a junkyard. In some cases, when the car has become disabled in a place where derelict cars are not allowed to be left, the car owner will pay the wrecker to haul the car away. Salvage yards also buy most of the wrecked, derelict, and
abandoned
vehicles that are sold at auction from police impound storage lots, and often buy vehicles from insurance tow yards as well. The salvage yard offer car removal services, allowing individuals to dispose of their old, non-functional vehicles responsibly, will usually tow the vehicle from the location of its purchase to the yard, but occasionally vehicles are driven in. At the salvage yard, the automobiles are typically arranged in rows, often stacked on top of one another. Some yards keep inventories in their offices, as to the usable parts in each car, as well as the car's location in the yard. Many yards have computerized inventory systems. About 75% of any given vehicle can be recycled and used for other goods.
In recent years it is becoming increasingly common to use satellite part finder services to contact multiple salvage yards from a single source. In the 20th century, these were
call centres
that charged a premium rate for calls and compiled a facsimile that was sent to various salvage yards so they could respond directly if the part was in stock. Many of these are now Web-based with requests for parts being e-mailed instantly.
A "you pull it" junkyard in the United States
Loading a barge in New York
Often parts for which there is high demand are removed from cars and brought to the salvage yard's
warehouse
. Then a customer who asks for a specific part can obtain it immediately, without having to wait for the salvage yard employees to remove that part. Some salvage yards expect customers to remove the part themselves (known as "self-service yards"), or allow this at a substantially reduced price compared to having the junkyard's staff remove it. This style of the yard is often referred to as a "You Pull It" yard.
[4]
However, it is more common for a
customer
to call in and inquire whether the specific item they need is available. If the yard has the requested item, the customer is usually instructed to leave a
deposit
and to come to pick up the part at a later time. The part is usually installed by the customer or agent ("the customer's
mechanic
"); however, some salvage yards also provide installation services.
The parts usually dismantled from automobiles are generally any that can be resold such as the light assemblies (commonly known as just "lights", e.g.
headlights
, blinkers, taillights), seats, parts of the
exhaust system
,
mirrors
,
hubcaps
, etc. Late-model vehicles will often have entire halves or portions of the body removed and stored on shelves as inventory. Other major parts such as the
engine
and
transmission
are often removed and sold, usually to auto-parts companies that will rebuild the part and resell it with a warranty, or will sell the components as-is in used condition, either with or without warranty. Other, usually very large, junkyards will rebuild and sell such parts themselves. Unbroken
windshields
and
windows
may also be removed intact and resold to car owners needing replacements. Some salvage yards will sell damaged or wrecked, but repairable vehicles to amateur car builders, or older vehicles to collectors, who will restore ("rebuild") the car for their own use or entertainment, or sometimes for resale. These people are known as "rebuilders".
Once vehicles in a wrecking yard do not have more usable parts, the hulks are usually sold to a scrap-metal processor, who will usually
crush the bodies
on-site at the yard's premises using a mobile baling press, shredder, or flattener, with final disposal occurring within a
hammer mill
which smashes the vehicle remains into fist-sized chunks. These chunks are then sold by multiple tons for further processing and recycling.
Gallery
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
Vehicle scrap yards
at Wikimedia Commons