These machines are manufactured with rotor widths ranging from 600 to 2000 mm and with drive capacities between 45 and 315 kW. The knife design is segmental, thus ensuring a quick and easy exchange of the cutting tools.
Typical applications are: heavy, thick-walled semi-finished products in PE, PP, POM and PA, pipes with high wall thicknesses and large purgings. Thick-walled materials are not the only materials that are quite difficult to recycle; the same applies to aramid fibers (commonly used for manufacturing bullet-proof vests), carbon fibers and composite materials, they are labelled as "difficult to grind".
Among the different applications, we obviously also have to consider contaminated plastic waste that is highly abrasive and if the machine is operated with blunt knives, this means a high strain for the rotor and the housing: cracks and fractures have to be avoided during a harsh non-stop operation.
Why a one-step solution. Very often there is not enough space to install a two-step solution. Another aspect is the limited capacity of a preliminary size-reduction unit. The quality of the ground material is often deteriorated if a shredder has "munched on it" before: the thin-walled flakes do not have good flow properties and no good bulk density. Another aspect why you may opt for a one-step size-reduction solution is small batch sizes with an important cleansing process. And last but not least, two machines mean double maintenance and reparation work.
In case of heavy-duty applications, very often it is easy to separate the wheat from the chaff: there are only few suppliers in the market capable of providing an appropriate solution. The answer is the rotor design: only a rotor that has been forged as one single piece guarantees stability: welding seams cannot break since they do not exist. The rotor knives cannot shift since they have been fixed at a stopper. This design is also an enormous advantage for cleaning operations since there are no "dead spots" where material rests can deposit.
HERBOLD MECKESHEIM can supply wear-plated rotors and housings equipped with an exchangeable wear zone.