Everything from a single source
Whether in carpentry workshops, sawmills, or industrial companies, residual wood waste is produced wherever wood is processed and manufactured. To ensure that this waste can be used as a valuable resource, UNTHA offers customized system solutions for residual wood recycling. Companies benefit from a perfectly coordinated system, save energy costs, and can reduce manpower requirements. This allows the team's experts to concentrate on their actual tasks in the business.
UNTHA has been developing high-performance shredders for over five decades. In addition, the team at the Austrian premium manufacturer plans and implements complete systems for waste wood recycling – including conveyor technology, metal separation, and integration into existing production processes. The aim is to optimally coordinate the entire material flow from shredding to energy utilization.
Intelligent system solutions for the wood industry
The LR and RS series of wood shredders can be operated flexibly as stand-alone machines or as part of a complete plant. Conveyor belts, trough chain conveyors, and magnetic separators ensure automated material flows – safely, efficiently, and with low maintenance. In addition, UNTHA takes care of the entire project management and adapts the plant to the circumstances on site. UNTHA's system solutions also have CE marking thanks to clearly defined interface transfers in accordance with EU standards. “Our system solutions are as individual as the requirements of our customers. From needs analysis and plant planning to commissioning, we take care of every step – including installation and service on request,” explains Markus Regelsberger, Sales & Business Development BU Wood at UNTHA.
The UNTHA product portfolio:
Conveyor technology: rigid and flexible screw conveyors, conveyor belts, trough chain conveyors, distribution technology for distributing wood chips in containers and wood chip storage facilities
Can also be designed to comply with ATEX
Metal separators: pipe, drum, and overband magnets
Wood chips centrifuge
Hydraulic tilting tables, special hopper solutions, and much more
OWI GmbH relies on UNTHA system solutions
The example of OWI GmbH, a family-run medium-sized company with locations in Germany and Hungary, shows how this approach works in practice. OWI has been producing molded parts from wood and plastic since 1927, including seat shells, loudspeaker housings, and technical components. The production process regularly generates large quantities of wood waste: plywood panels, veneers, pallets, MDF and solid wood residues, often with metal inclusions such as screws, sleeves, or metal plates.
The aim was to use residual wood with metal inclusions for energy generation in the company and to no longer dispose of it externally at great expense. In order to process the residual wood on site as efficiently as possible – i.e. in an energy-saving manner and with minimal personnel expenditure – the company opted for a system solution from UNTHA. An important criterion was that the wood chips were to be transported to the silo via the existing extraction system, but that metal separation was to be fully automatic – without any manual action. In addition to loading from above via a tipping box, it should also be possible to load the system at floor level via a feed conveyor with increased safety requirements. A particular challenge was to implement this concept in a very confined space while at the same time meeting the strict safety requirements.
The UNTHA LR1400, including peripheral equipment, is the optimal shredding solution for OWI: a powerful single-shaft shredder that can easily handle even particularly large and bulky pieces of material. The robust cutting mechanism is resistant to metal inclusions, and material handling is carried out via a specially designed feed belt with enhanced safety features. The wood chips produced are fed by a screw conveyor to a drum magnet, which automatically separates the metal content into a collection trough. At the same time, the extraction system transports the cleaned wood chips to the silo, which supplies the company's wood chip-fired heating system.
With the LR1400 residual wood shredder, OWI can process all the residual wood it produces—including metal inclusions—for thermal utilization. This has increased the available energy resources to around 300 tons of fuel per year. The company thus covers its entire annual heating requirement of around 1,300 MWh. This corresponds to the energy equivalent of 125,000 liters of heating oil or 133,000 m³ of natural gas – a value that equates to approximately 133,000 to 188,000 euros (estimated value, as of October). “The project at OWI is a prime example of how well-designed system solutions can take waste wood recycling to a new level. The plant runs fully automatically, requires hardly any intervention, and closes the material cycle within the company's own operations,” emphasizes Markus Regelsberger.
The customer also draws a positive conclusion: “The LR1400 meets all our expectations and the UNTHA team has also completely won us over. Initial consultation, detailed planning, installation, commissioning – everything from a single source and in great cooperation with our in-house maintenance team. We are very satisfied,” says Markus König, Production Manager for the wood division at OWI GmbH.
