Magazine

Stars in alignment

Award-winning Hadfield Wood Recyclers, one of the UK’s oldest and largest wood recyclers, relies on Komptech star screens.

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Geoff Hadfield founded Hadfield Wood Recyclers in 1980. The company processes more than300,000 tonnes a year of waste wood into recycled and sustainable products. Production sites all over the UK allow Hadfield to offer nationwide service.

looking for more

In 2012 Geoff Hadfield was looking to improve efficiency at the Manchester and Tilbury sites to meet increasing demands. Geoff contacted Tommy Flinn of Komptech GB to discuss ways to boost screening throughput and the quality of the end product. Geoff and Tommy quickly settled on star screening. A new Komptech Multistar L3 mobile star screen with three-fraction split was soon undergoing trials at the Tilbury site.

The machine outperformed all expectations for throughput and end product quality, with very low fuel consumption. Geoff was equally impressed with the high build quality and finish of the machine.

 

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going to the source

Geoff paid a visit to the Komptech factory in Oelde, Germany, to meet the design team and tour the production facilities and spare parts centre. He also visited a customer site to see Komptech’s largest star screen at work. After talking to the owner, Geoff ordered a mobile L3 for Manchester and a mobile XXXL for Tilbury, with delivery taking place in early 2013.

Over the past six years the L3 and XXXL have clocked in excess of 12,000 hours each and are still going strong. Both have proven extremely reliable, efficient and cost-effective, requiring only minor repairs. The XXXL screens at a consistent rate of 45 tonne per hour, with 90 per cent of the material being the finished product. The current set of XXXL stars have already run in excess of 5,500 hours and still have plenty of life left, partly thanks to the separation of ferrous and non-ferrous contaminants before the wood shred enters the machine, and partly due to the design and quality of the stars. The initial investment in what at the time seemed to be expensive Komptech machines has been more than recovered, in efficiency savings and in the ability to win more business due to the machines’ flexibility.

Demand set to increase

Hadfield will continue to evolve and grow to meet the ever-increasing legislative demands for wood processing. As demand for sustainable products continues to increase, Geoff would like to see Komptech develop a high efficiency wood shredder capable of producing “90 per cent plus” of end product with very little dust, to match the capabilities of its star screen range.

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