Kienpointner GmbH had been interested in UNTHA wood shredders for quite some time, having come across UNTHA repeatedly at trade fairs and having attended a tour of the plant in Kuchl a few years back. Last year, the purchase of a new wood shredder became urgent, when the unit that Kienpointner had used up to that point had to be replaced after a fire. However, Kienpointner had a highly unusual request: The machine would have to be installed in a pit and therefore needed to be as compact as possible. In the LR1000 wood shredder from UNTHA, the carpentry business finally found the right solution.
For Gerhard Kienpointner, Managing Director of Kienpointner GmbH, things couldn’t have gone better: “Our unique situation only allowed for very specific shredder dimensions. Besides performance and quality, this was the main criterion for our decision to purchase a unit from UNTHA. The shredder also needed to be accessible from all sides, as we need to climb down a ladder into the pit to perform maintenance activities. Another important factor was that the feed system had to be flush to the ground, as we not only process waste from machines that we tip into the hopper using a forklift, but also pre-cut solid wood parts from outside our business and residual wood that we push directly into the shredder through an opening at ground level”, Gerhard Kienpointner explains.
Heating material for the entire business
The LR1000 wood shredder used by Kienpointner is fed every day. Volumes vary, depending on what materials are currently used in the various projects. Materials include all kinds of residual wood, from boards to plywood, solid wood to cut-offs. The shredded material is taken directly to the interposed filter and then on to the silos. It is used exclusively for on-site energy production and heats the office building, the production site and the on-site furniture showroom all year round. Although Gerhard Kienpointner can’t say exactly how much shredded material is used for heating, he provides the following ballpark figures: “Our silos hold around 44 m3 per ring, which is exactly the amount that we need to heat the entire site on a cold winter’s day with temperatures from minus 5 to minus 10 degrees. If you apply this to the entire year, you get an approximate idea of what sort of performance we require from our shredder.”
UNTHA comes highly recommended
Kienpointner has so far been completely happy with the purchase. The unit runs smoothly, and there have been no disruptions so far. “We have nothing but praise for our unit, and several other carpentry shops have asked us about it. We were more than happy to recommend UNTHA to them”, says Gerhard Kienpointner.