Since 1997, CUP Recycling GmbH in Germany has been part of the WERNER group of companies, a family-run company in the waste disposal industry.
CUP operates a processing plant for C&D waste, waste wood and green waste in Germany, whereby materials are cleaned of impurities and shredded into all standard grain sizes with raw materials being returned to the economic cycle.
CUP needed a new waste wood processing plant for an annual volume of 30,000-60,000 tonnes of waste wood of all grades.
“Our end product specifications were, firstly, a high-quality chip 0-100mm for reuse (chipboard industry), and secondly, a pre-shred of 0-300mm for thermal recovery (generation of process steam and electricity),” said Ralf Berninger, Technical Operations Manager at WERNER RC GmbH /CUP Recycling GmbH. “However, the challenge was that the processing building had already been built and the available space had therefore already been determined.”
The system, which was designed by HAAS, was built in a way that the company could process pre-shredded material separately. This meant that the remaining part of the plant (almost 70 per cent) was not in operation during this time. According to Berninger, this guaranteed a minimisation of costs in terms of wear, maintenance, and energy consumption.
Kurt Palmer is a sales specialist for CEMAC, which is the authorised representative and sole agency for HAAS equipment in Australia. He sees the similarities between the German build and projects CEMAC has worked on locally. Making the most of available space is something the company is used to dealing with in its builds.
“Space constraints are always a problem with most projects,” he said. “Being able to design a plant or processes to fit into an existing space creates challenges. And with this project, the challenge wasn’t necessarily around the equipment itself but how their equipment was laid out. Although HAAS is known for its shredding equipment, which is fantastic, it also designs and builds the complete process. The challenge was in the material handling of the plant.”
Several people and departments at HAAS are always involved in the planning of a technical concept. Taking the specific requirements into account, German-based HAAS specialists Sascha Kloft and Patrick Szubrin designed the layout. A technical design engineer then drew up the final drawing, which was presented and optimised in further meetings with CUP.
Palmer said although the fit was tight, there were certain types of machinery that had to be included such as the primary shredder, and a secondary hammermill that was needed to reduce volume down to 100mm minus.
“Then it’s about separating the valuables like the timber, the brick, the fibre, the plastics, etc,” he said. “The challenge is getting the material from one piece of equipment to the next in a way that makes sense, which efficiently utilises the space that you’ve got, but also transfers that material efficiently so that it’s well presented for the next piece of equipment. That might be an screen, eddy current or magnet, or it might be an optical sorter. With this project it was a big challenge.”
HAAS’s experienced mechanical engineers manufactured the individual plant elements from quality materials and components. All electrical and hydraulic installations were completed in-house at HAAS.
“Every HAAS system is custom-made, adapted to the process specifications and the available space,” said Maik Fischer, service engineer at HAAS. “All components fit precisely, subsequent welding or flexing on site is eliminated. In this plant, for example, we have integrated solid maintenance platforms so that access is possible to all relevant points. The construction on high platform pillars also ensures ground floor accessibility where needed, even with forklifts and lifting platforms.”
Approximately 120 tonnes of steel and 100,000 screws are installed in this system. The heaviest single piece, beside the 21-tonnes pre-shredder, weighed about 12 tonnes, so the availability of crane support during assembly was essential.
“The system was about fitting in an additional process to recover more raw materials and recyclables than what they were previously,” said Palmer.
How it works
The TYRON 2000-E XL 2.0, equipped with fine tools 9/9-4, pre-shreds the waste wood. The electric overband magnet separates the exposed coarse iron parts. A bi-directional conveyor transports the pre-shredded waste wood (0-300mm) either to the storage bay outside the building or to the ARTHOS 1600-E hammermill for secondary shredding.
The ARTHOS shreds up to 40 tonnes of pre-shredded waste wood per hour to a size <100mm. The ballistic chute guarantees trouble-free operation and therefore protects the hammermill, therefore downtimes are minimised.
A heavy chain conveyor equipped with an automatic chain tensioning and lubrication system transports the material to the non-ferrous separator. The reversible screw conveyor underneath the non-ferrous separator enables a special fraction to be discharged directly into processing building or, alternatively, the end product to be transported onwards to the fully automatic storage bay filling. Finally, the end product is transported with a movable conveyor belt to the required storage bay (in total five bays).
The plant is equipped with a dust suppression system. State-of-the-art misting technology binds the existing dust.
Optimally controlled
The control room is located in a container in the processing building, from there the plant is controlled. In addition, two mobile tablets allow flexible control and operation of the plant. During commissioning, the CUP Recycling team received training in operation and maintenance of the system.
What types of issues were taken into consideration when the plant was commissioned?
“Can we get to it to maintain it? Can staff get to it to monitor it? Are we presenting the material from the previous processing machine to the next machine in a way that allows that machine to work the best it can?” said Palmer. “For example, you don’t want to feed a vibrating screen and have a conveyor belt at 90 degrees, because the material’s just going to drop in the middle. And then there’s power requirements and cabling, too.”
What would Palmer’s advice be to those who are thinking about building a new plant and need help with the scope?
“Engage with us early,” he said. “That engaging with us early in the project means that we can assist with a guide through the challenges right at the start. All too often, especially if it looks like it’s a new extension to that building, we need to take into consideration things like the positioning of the roof – is it a peak roof, or curved? Is there going to be a gantry crane in the way?
“One other thing is that customers tend not to clearly define is what outcome they’re looking for, so we help with that. Finally, we ask, ‘what is the budget?’ Technically, most materials can be recovered for recycling or reuse. Typically, it doesn’t always make sense to do so and that is where we can help to make the correct decision.”