IN THE HEAT OF THE NORTH

Ronny Edefall has run Ro Svets & Rep. AB in Kiruna in Sweden since 1992. It’s his job to keep the heat on when the mercury falls, here above the Arctic Circle.

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Kiruna is the northernmost city in Sweden. Temperatures below freezing are common as early as September. “There’s no such thing as too cold for us,” says Ronny Edefall. “The longer and colder the winter, the better for our business.”

Over the space of 25+ years this family owned business has grown to employ 25 people. Ronny runs the company together with his son Johan, and still operates his machines. “If we take in a job, we see to it that it gets done on time. And that sometimes means that the boss has to roll up his sleeves,” says Ronny.

 

EVERY BEGINNING IS HARD

“It started as just a simple workshop where I did repairs and welding,” says Ronny Edefall “We grew into a service provider for construction and earthmoving work, and then about eight years ago we bought our first shredder. That let us start making woody biomass out of waste wood and forestry residue, and we sold the renewable fuel to the local biomass cogeneration plant.”

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THE RIGHT MACHINES

“We used to use a fast chipper from another manufacturer. But contraries in used wood often caused stoppages, and repair costs were sky-high. So I started looking around for a shredder with a low-speed drum.” A service company in the area suggested that he take a closer look at the Komptech Crambo.

“Before we bought theCrambo I had never seen one in operation. But the YouTube videos were very impressive. And then Sonny Strandberg of our local Komptech dealer Aksel Benzin AB guaranteed the machine’s performance. At that point the decision was made. About three weeks later a new Crambo 5200 with tracked chassis was in our yard. When we put it into operation I thought, ‘That’s a damn fine machine.’”

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A QUESTION OF QUALITY

Since then the Crambo has chewed through about 10,000 tonnes of used wood and forestry residue and turned it into fuel.

Sometimes material needs to be shredded twice in order to meet cogeneration plant requirements. “So I’m also interested in a screener that can give me a defined grain while automatically returning overlengths to the shredder,” says Ronny. Komptech has just the thing with the Multistar One, and a demonstration is planned by Komptech dealer Aksel Benzin AB using their demo machine. A ferrous and non-ferrous metal separator like the Metalfex could also be worth looking into for Ronny. The decision for a machine like that ultimately depends on how much non-ferrous metal there is in the waste wood and whether separating it out brings higher prices for the biomass product.

SERVICE IS CRUCIAL

The biggest challenge for a machine operator this far north is the availability of spare parts, since packages can sometimes take days to arrive. “Aksel Benzin is addressing the problem by setting up a small warehouse here at our facility,” says Ronny approvingly. He can draw from the stock as needed.

Sonny Strandberg of Aksel Benzin AB says that “in a remote place like this, good service is essential to keep machines running right.”

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