by Jon M. Casey
While there were a number of new products introduced at the Waste Expo 2015 held June 2-4 in Las Vegas, NV, three items stood out among the others when it comes to recycling wood and green waste. Two of these, the new Rotochopper HTS-2 dual shaft shredder and the Doppstadt Splitter® were on display at this year’s show, while the third, the Komptech Hurrifex combination stone and wind sifter, was not available at the time of the show due to previous demonstration commitments elsewhere. Together however, these three new products will give recyclers something to consider when it comes to improving their operations in the coming months.
According to Dave Whitelaw, who provided Waste Handling Equipment News with the photos that accompany this article (and who is also known as “The Grinder Guy” in our regular monthly column by that name), these three new tools for the recycling industry will provide recyclers with more opportunity to do a better job, more profitably, depending on their individual needs.
The first product, the Doppstadt Splitter®, is a sorting machine that was announced as a part of the Doppstadt product line, this spring. According to their press information, The Doppstadt Group is now the exclusive sales partner of this Günther GmbH Splitter technology in the US and worldwide. More information on the details of this product will be forthcoming as the unit’s official introduction takes place at the Doppstadt Expo in Calbe, Germany, June 24-26.
The second product of interest, the new Rotochopper HTS-2 dual shaft shredder, is designed to pre-process a variety of material including C&D waste, stumps, railroad ties and other forms of contaminated mixed waste. According to Monte Hight, Sales and Marketing Manager for Rotochopper, Inc., the Rotochopper line of grinding equipment started with the goal of turning waste materials into products like mulch and animal bedding. By integrating an upstream HTS-2 slow-speed shredder, a Rotochopper grinder can now turn an even wider range of raw materials, including contaminated wood waste, into finished products.
“For contaminated wood waste, a complete system comprised of a slow-speed shredder followed by a high-speed grinder offers an unbeatable combination of consistent uptime and low maintenance costs,” he said. “A slow-speed shredder takes the drama out of processing contaminated wood waste. The steel plates on railroad ties that can cause big problems for high-speed grinders can flow through a slow-speed shredder [and removed with magnets] without any cause for notice.”

“The addition of a slow-speed shredder like the Rotochopper HTS-2, in front of a high-speed grinder can have dramatic cost-saving benefits,” he added. “Maintenance costs go down significantly while uptime goes up. With the availability of slow speed shredders, high-speed grinders, hammermills and systems comprised of combinations of these machines, we have a solution for taking virtually any wood waste and turning it into a variety of useful products.”
Dave Whitelaw, representing Komptech US, reported Komptech recently introduced the Komptech Hurrifex, which combines a stone separator and wind sifter in a one machine. While Komptech was unable to exhibit one of their Hurrifex units at the Waste Expo this year, Whitelaw said that the demonstration unit is currently available to North American producers, and was out in the field being demonstrated, while the Waste Expo was taking place.

“With the Hurrifex, rock, stone, paper and plastic can be removed from materials such as, mulch, compost and C&D in one step with efficiency as high as 99%,” said Whitelaw. “The Hurrifex uses a force fan to separate the light fraction from the heavy fraction. Then it uses a suction fan to remove the airborne plastic and paper. Whether removing stone from Mulch and Compost or rock, brick and concrete from C&D, the Hurrifex can handle most any material. Even recycled concrete can be free of wood and plastic with the Hurrifex.”

Whitelaw said that when a recycler conveys material from a screen or a shredder into the Hurrifex, the Hurrifex could separate contaminated materials at the rate of about 75 yards per hour. The heavier material can be discharged onto a separate conveyor leaving the light fraction. The suction fan tubing is able to discharge paper and plastic into a container to collect the airborne materials. He added that most facilities have a contaminated pile that grows every year and with the Hurrifex, those materials can be turned into usable products and disposal costs can be reduced greatly.

With the ever-increasing need for new equipment to make material processing more efficient and profitable, these three new units, when implemented in their respective working applications, will help recyclers do a more effective job while producing a higher quality product for their customers. For readers who are interested in a Komptech Hurrifex demonstration in the US or in Canada, interested recyclers may contact Komptech for a demonstration at: 720-890-9090.