Abstract: A scrap shearing machine of the kind comprising an upper knife support which has an upper knife fixed to it and is vertically movable in a frame, a stationary lower knife and optionally also a vertically movable tamper, which is mounted immediately upstream of the cutting plane of the shearing machine, is provided with a bending plunger which acts on the scrap downstream of the cutting plane of the shearing machine. The bending plunger is movable in the frame in advance of the upper knife so that it comes into contact with the scrap before the upper knife comes into contact with the scrap. Preferably the bending plunger is fixed to an underface of the upper knife support and is inclined across the machine substantially parallel to the cutting edge of the upper knife.

Abstract: In a hydraulic scrap shearing machine having scrap shears at one end of an open feed channel which is wider than the mouth of the shears and which has one of its opposite side walls movable towards the other to squash scrap placed in the feed channel to a final width which will allow the scrap to be pushed by a feeder ram along the feed channel and into the mouth of the shears, the movable side wall is formed by the working faces of a main hydraulic ram and an auxiliary hydraulic ram which can be advanced independently of the main ram, the working face of the auxiliary ram being situated adjacent the mouth of the shears and being shorter than the working face of the main ram measured in the direction of the feed channel. Normally the main and auxiliary hydraulic rams are operated so that their working faces, together forming the whole of the movable side wall, are advanced and retracted together.