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16. April 2023

Converting Wood Waste to High-Grade Fuel With new RUF briquetting machines, the Weihele sawmill reduces its electricity consumption by around a quarter

At Weihele Holz GmbH, the new flagship among the RUF briquetting machines passed the stress test and thoroughly proved itself in everyday use in a field test. The RUF 1200 needs 25 percent less electricity while offering an approximately 5 percent higher working speed.

Max Weihele is firmly anchored in Ostallgäu with his sawmill, which, with him, is now in the hands of the second generation. The mid-sized company is specialized in domestic larch wood and KVH structural lumber, which it supplies mainly to carpentry businesses in the region. Fueled by customers’ appreciation of the individualized support, quality, and reliability it offers, the company has grown to more than 50 employees and now processes around 15,000 to 20,000 cubic meters of wood per year, with further expansion planned.

 

Energy saver: The new RUF 1200 briquetting press used by Weihele Holz needs a quarter less electricity than the predecessor model did and is 4 to 5 percent faster. Figure: RUF Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG
Max Weihele: “We were so happy with the RUF 1200 that we decided at the beginning of the year to keep it and immediately order a second one of the same type.” Figure: RUF Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG
Max Weihele (right) and RUF sales manager Bernd Ellenrieder: They organized the last field test of the new RUF 1200 in Max Weihele’s sawmill. Figure: RUF Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG

Weihele is also valued for another product: Since 2007, the business owner has been using RUF machines to press the wood shavings from the woodworking operations into briquettes, which fuel retailers are happy to purchase. The Weihele briquettes are highly sought after because they are made exclusively from clean wood shavings. With this raw material, the briquettes burn longer in wood stoves, etc., and therefore also give off a steady heat for a longer time.

Shavings Volume Reduced By Three Quarters

One of the main reasons why Max Weihele turned to briquetting almost 20 years ago was the massively simplified handling of the shavings. Weihele explains: “The same amount of loose shavings we used to send to companies in the particleboard industry using four trucks is now brought to our customers, the fuel retailers, in the form of briquettes by a single truck.” Another disadvantage in the past was: the loose shavings always had to be transported in closed containers so that the wind would not blow them away. With briquettes, this is no longer necessary.

Pressed into compact cuboid briquettes, the shavings can be used directly as carbon-neutral fuels and have a higher value. Like all fuel prices, briquette prices fluctuate – but because the same can be said for loose shavings, sale of briquettes always represents the better alternative in terms of economics.

After achieving good results with the first RUF press, Weihele exchanged it for the more powerful RUF 1100 in 2009. Starting in 2013, he doubled his capacity with a second RUF 1100.

The RUF 1100 was premiered in 2007. This new development contributed two innovations that the market was increasingly demanding: a higher throughput per individual machine and a larger briquette format of 240 x 70 mm with a weight of 1.7 kg. This briquette is based on the log format, but offers the advantages of all wood briquettes: a high density and, as a result, a long burn time. With this format, the company Ruf rounded out its offering at the high end. In addition to the classic 150 x 60 mm size, the 240 x 70 mm format can now be offered to end customers as an ideal wood fuel.

Removal: Via two discharge rails on each machine, the briquettes are pushed up to a height of about two meters and then fall into big bags. Figures: RUF Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG
Removal: Via two discharge rails on each machine, the briquettes are pushed up to a height of about two meters and then fall into big bags. Figures: RUF Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG
Valuable fuel: From the briquetting machines, the wood briquettes fall directly into big bags. They are sold to fuel retailers like this or stacked on pallets. Figures: RUF Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG
Valuable fuel: From the briquetting machines, the wood briquettes fall directly into big bags. They are sold to fuel retailers like this or stacked on pallets. Figures: RUF Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG

Stress Test Passed With Flying Colors

When the company RUF 2023 wanted to test its latest development, the RUF 1200, in practice before launching it on the market, Max Weihele was the perfect partner. A longtime user, open to new things, and, above all: “We have already been working exceptionally successfully with Max Weihele for a very long time. That’s why I was sure that we would receive absolutely honest feedback from him. Whether it was when problems arose with the machine or everything was running as expected,” stresses RUF Sales Manager Bernd Ellenrieder.

The sawmill began testing the RUF 1200 in mid-2023. Max Weihele’s conclusion is clear: “We were so happy with the machine that we decided at the beginning of the year to keep it and immediately order a second one of the same type, which will be installed in mid-2024.”

The RUF 1200 doesn’t just work with the familiar reliability – like the RUF 1100 before it – but it even offers a slightly higher performance with its 55 kW main motor than the predecessor model, the RUF 1100+, did with a 75 kW motor. According to Max Weihele’s experience, the RUF 1200 is 4 to 5 percent faster.

A Quarter Less Electricity Consumed

The main reason for the higher efficiency is the completely revised hydraulic power unit concept of the new machine. The machine produces 1 metric ton of wood briquettes while consuming less than 50 kWh of electricity, thus offering energy savings of greater than 25 percent compared with the previous top-of-the-line RUF model. That pays off. According to RUF’s experience, briquetting presses run for about 5,000 hours per year on average at customer sites.

Max Weihele stressed the importance of efficiency in all aspects in the conceptual design of his briquette production facility. He explains: “The briquetting machines run fully automatically at our site. Through dust collection systems, the shavings from the planning machines are routed to a buffer unit, which supplies the two RUF briquetting presses with shavings via two screw conveyors.” Once enough shavings have been collected, the presses start automatically and stop when there is no more material to process.

Weihele benefits from the fact that the presses are designed for 24/7 unmanned operation. The business owner points out: “The presses are turned on Sunday evenings and turned off on Friday evenings. Once a week, we give them a quick cleaning. Operation doesn’t create any other work for us.” The RUF 1200 compresses the wood shavings with a press pressure of up to 1,700 kg/cm2 into briquettes with a cross section of 240 x 70 mm. Their height is approximately 90 mm. The machine has an automatic briquette length measurement function and fills the die with enough material to ensure that each briquette is the same height and weighs 1.5 kg. The RUF 1200 can process up to 1,090 kg of wood shavings an hour. The finished briquettes fall straight off the discharge rails into big bags.

In principle, the machine can also be adjusted to produce briquettes weighing 1.7 kg each, which then weigh a good 10 kg as a package of six. The machine can also be equipped to produce briquettes with a 240 x 80 mm format.

Reliable Machine – Perfect Handling

Weihele offers briquettes in two variants to purchasers: loose in big bags weighing around 800 kg each or stacked on pallets weighing a metric ton each. For the pallet variant, packages containing eight briquettes each are formed, automatically shrink-wrapped, and stacked onto the pallets.

Depending on how much wood is being processed and which products are being manufactured, the sawmill produces between 10 and 20 metric tons of briquettes a day. For this, the company uses about four fifths of the wood shavings produced. With the rest, heat is generated for operation and the three drying chambers, in which the residual moisture content of the wood is reduced to 12 to 15 percent prior to further processing. This range is also ideal for briquetting.

Max Weihele sums up the experience: “With the RUF 1200, everything went really well, as expected: deadlines, machine, service – we will continue to be a loyal RUF customer.”

Packaging: Employees stack together eight briquettes at a time, which are then automatically wrapped in film to form a package. Figure: RUF Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG
On the way to the customer: Fuel retailers purchase the briquettes packed loosely in big bags or as packages of eight stacked on pallets. Figures: RUF Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG
On the way to the customer: Fuel retailers purchase the briquettes packed loosely in big bags or as packages of eight stacked on pallets. Figures: RUF Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG

Weihele Holz GmbH . . .

. . . is an owner-operated sawmill with downstream wood processing operations in Görisried in Ostallgäu. The company is specialized in solid larch, spruce, and oak wood, which is used for ecological and sustainable construction. It primarily supplies carpentry businesses in the region with KVH structural lumber, glulam, wood for facades and decks, and other products. The family-owned company was founded in 1972 and currently employs more than 50 people.


Weihele Holz GmbH
Phone: 08302 922 09 0
Email: info@weihele-holz.de
Internet: https://www.weihele-holz.de