A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English) known as a scrapyard (Hiberno-English, British English and New Zealand English) or junkyard (American English), is a business that dismantles wrecked or decommissioned vehicles. Its usable parts are sold for vehicle repairs, while unusable metal parts are sold to recycling companies. Other terms include wreck yard, wrecker's yard, salvage yard, breaker's yard, dismantler, and scrapheap. In the UK, car salvage yards are called car breakers, and motorcycle salvage yards are known as bike breakers. In Australia, they are often referred to as wreckers.
Types of wreck yards
Scrapyard
Operation
A salvage yard provides car removal services for disposing of old, non-functional vehicles. Vehicles can be towed or driven to the yard, where they are arranged in rows and stacked. Some yards maintain inventories of usable parts and locations of cars. Many yards use computerized inventory systems. Approximately 75% of a vehicle can be recycled for other purposes.
Satellite part finder services are now commonly used to contact multiple salvage yards from a single source. In the past, charged premium rates for calls and sent faxes to salvage yards to inquire about parts availability. Today, these services are web-based, with parts requests instantly emailed to salvage yards.
In high-demand salvage yards, popular car parts are pre-removed and stored in the warehouse for immediate customer access. Some yards offer self-service options where customers can remove parts themselves at a reduced cost. This model is commonly known as a "You Pull It" yard.
typically call salvage yards to inquire about the availability of specific items. If the requested item is in stock, customers are asked to leave a deposit account and pick up the part later. Customers or their usually install the part, but some salvage yards offer installation services.
Salvage yards typically dismantle vehicles to resell parts such as headlight, seats, exhaust system, , and . Late-model vehicles may have body sections removed and stored as inventory. Engines and transmissions are often sold to auto-parts companies for rebuilding and resale. and in good condition can be resold. Some salvage yards sell damaged but repairable vehicles to hobbyists or collectors who restore them for personal use or resale. These individuals are known as "rebuilders".
Once vehicles in a wrecking yard are stripped of usable parts, the remaining hulks are typically sold to a scrap-metal processor. The processor car crusher on-site using a mobile baling press, shredder, or flattener. Final disposal involves a hammer mill that smashes the vehicle remains into fist-sized chunks. These chunks are sold by the ton for further processing and recycling.
==Gallery==
See also
- Historischer Autofriedhof Gürbetal, Swiss wrecking yard which resembles a museum
- Vehicle graveyard
- Vehicle recycling
- Victory Auto Wreckers
Bibliography
- Junkyards, Gearheads and Rust, salvaging the automotive past, David N. Lucsko, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016
External links
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