8–10 T/H Wood Pallet Shredder Machine in Finland

Why Two Shredders Made Sense for This Finnish Recycler

The customer operates as a commercial wood waste collector and processor rather than a sawmill generating only one clean, homogeneous residue. Its incoming material comes from several channels, including logistics companies replacing damaged pallets, warehouses and industrial sites disposing of wooden packaging, construction and renovation contractors, and municipal or commercial wood-waste collection networks.

This creates a difficult feedstock stream. A broken pallet may contain relatively clean softwood but still carry nails. Construction timber can vary considerably in thickness and density. Old wooden products can include solid wood together with engineered panels, coatings, hardware or other unwanted components.

The customer had previously relied on manual dismantling followed by smaller crushing equipment. That arrangement worked at low volumes, but labor requirements increased rapidly when pallet and construction-waste deliveries accumulated. Large pieces also had to be reduced before entering the existing machines.

The investment was therefore not intended to replace every processing machine in the facility. The two RIBPC shredders were added as the heavy-duty size-reduction stage at the front of the customer's existing recycling process.

What the Wood Pallet Shredder Machine in Finland Processes

The principal feedstock is discarded wooden pallets and industrial packaging timber. The facility also receives selected construction and demolition wood and suitable discarded wooden products. The original project specification identifies pallets from logistics and industrial sources together with furniture and construction boards as the principal incoming materials. 

Not every piece of collected wood, however, should be treated as equivalent feedstock.

Metal fasteners such as ordinary nails and screws can be encountered in pallet recycling, and the machine must therefore be designed for much harsher service than a conventional fine hammer mill processing clean sawdust. But large metal brackets, steel plates, stones and other heavy foreign objects should still be removed whenever possible. Allowing a shredder to tolerate incidental nails is different from deliberately feeding unrestricted scrap metal.

The same distinction applies to treated or contaminated wood. Painted, coated, chemically treated or demolition-derived wood has to be classified according to its downstream destination. Material intended for energy recovery, wood-based panels or another recycled product must satisfy the corresponding acceptance and regulatory requirements.

RIBPC 1250*500a Configuration for the Project

The customer selected two RIBPC 1250*500a machines. The 1250 × 500 mm feeding opening provides the larger inlet needed for bulky recovered wood, reducing the amount of manual size preparation required before shredding.

These project parameters are consistent with the supplied RIBPC 1250*500a specification, including the 160 kW main motor, 28 hammers and nominal 4–5 T/H capacity for each machine. 

The actual hourly output should not be treated as a fixed number for every pallet or waste-wood stream. Capacity changes with wood species, moisture, bulk density, dimensions, contamination, required discharge size and feeding continuity. The 4–5 T/H figure is therefore a project/model reference rather than a guarantee that every mixture of recovered wood will run at exactly the same rate.

Why a Large Feed Opening Was Important

One of the customer's main objectives was to reduce manual handling before crushing.

A small wood hammer mill may perform well once wood has already been converted into suitably sized chips, but it is not an efficient first machine for whole damaged pallets and large boards. Someone still has to dismantle or pre-cut the material before it can enter the crushing chamber.

The larger inlet of the RIBPC changes that workflow. Depending on pallet dimensions and condition, intact or partially broken pallet sections can be introduced with substantially less preparation. Hydraulic feeding then controls how the material enters the crushing area instead of depending on workers to force irregular pieces into a small opening.

For a commercial recycling operation, that reduction in manual preparation can be just as important as the nominal tonnes-per-hour rating of the shredder itself.

Handling Pallets Containing Nails

The presence of nails was one reason the Finnish company required equipment specifically intended for recovered wood.

The heavy-duty crushing structure and replaceable wear components allow the machine to process wooden pallets containing normal embedded fasteners more effectively than equipment designed only for clean wood fiber. Nevertheless, the customer's operating procedure includes upstream inspection rather than assuming that anything attached to a pallet can safely enter the machine.

Large metal components and abnormal contaminants are removed before shredding. After size reduction, magnetic separation can also be incorporated downstream to recover ferrous metal liberated from the wood.

This point is particularly important when the shredded material will later enter a pellet plant. Nails that pass through the primary shredder should not be allowed to reach downstream hammer mills, pellet mills or conveying equipment.

Why the Customer Targets 20–40 mm Material

The original project specification identifies a conventional finished size of approximately 2–4 cm. For this customer, that size is best understood as primary shredded material rather than a universal finished product suitable for every downstream application.

If the material is accepted by an industrial biomass user at that specification, screened chips can potentially be supplied after the required contamination and quality controls. If it is destined for pellet production, however, 20–40 mm is only an intermediate size.

Pelletizing requires much finer and more uniform material. The shredded wood therefore passes through metal separation and, where necessary, secondary crushing before it reaches the pellet mill. Moisture also has to be controlled according to the requirements of the subsequent process.

Similarly, particleboard and other panel applications have their own requirements for particle geometry, contaminants and material classification. A primary pallet shredder prepares recovered wood for these processes; it does not automatically convert mixed demolition wood into finished MDF-quality fiber.

The Two-Machine Arrangement

The decision to buy two pallet shredder machines was based on the customer's incoming wood volume and maintenance strategy.

When both RIBPC 1250*500a units operate under suitable feed conditions, their combined nominal processing capacity reaches approximately 8–10 T/H. More importantly, the machines do not always have to run simultaneously.

During normal periods, the customer can operate according to incoming feedstock volume. When accumulated pallets arrive from logistics customers or construction wood deliveries increase, both units can be brought online. During scheduled hammer, screen or bearing inspection on one shredder, the other machine can remain available.

This is a more realistic reason for purchasing two machines than describing one machine as permanently waiting idle as a backup. For a commercial recycler, both units contribute to production while also giving the plant greater maintenance flexibility.

Where the Shredded Wood Goes

The customer does not treat every incoming wood stream as suitable for every market. Material is separated according to quality and intended destination.

Clean recovered pallet and packaging wood represents the most flexible fraction. After shredding and metal removal, suitable material can enter further processing for biomass fuel applications or be sold to approved industrial users according to their feedstock specifications.

Selected recyclable wood can also undergo additional processing for wood-product applications where the material satisfies the buyer's requirements.

Lower-quality recovered wood is managed separately according to its classification and permitted end use. This segregation is especially important in Finland and the wider European market because the commercial value of recovered wood depends not merely on particle size but also on contamination, treatment history and downstream compliance.

Metal Separation Became Part of the Process Design

Shredding pallets containing nails creates a second engineering question: what happens to the metal after the wood breaks apart?

RICHI therefore considered the shredder as one part of the customer's material-preparation system rather than an isolated machine. After the RIBPC reduces the pallets, exposed ferrous pieces become easier to separate magnetically.

For material going into secondary crushing, this separation stage protects downstream equipment and reduces the possibility of metal contamination in the final product.

Operators also inspect the magnetic separator and collected metal regularly. A sudden increase in large fragments can indicate that a particular incoming waste batch contains more hardware than normal and may require stronger upstream sorting.

Wear Parts and Maintenance in Pallet Recycling

Recovered pallet wood places a very different load on crushing components than clean sawdust.

The customer therefore pays particular attention to hammer condition, fasteners, screens, bearings and the feeding system. Wear is monitored by inspection rather than by assuming a fixed replacement interval, because pallet condition and contamination vary considerably from batch to batch.

The crusher machine uses detachable hammers so individual worn components can be serviced or replaced without treating the entire crushing assembly as a single disposable component. The supplied equipment specification also incorporates a heavy-duty housing and protected bearing arrangement intended for demanding wood-waste operation. 

The customer keeps the most important wear and service components available locally. This is particularly valuable with two machines because planned maintenance can be staggered rather than shutting down the entire primary shredding section.

Cold-Climate Operation Was Considered During Installation

A Finnish installation has operating conditions that are not relevant to every RIBPC project.

Recovered pallets stored outdoors can arrive with snow, ice or frozen moisture during winter. Frozen material changes handling characteristics and can increase shock loading. Operators therefore avoid allowing heavily iced or snow-covered waste to enter uncontrolled, and the storage arrangement is designed to keep the feedstock as manageable as practical before processing.

Hydraulic systems, lubrication and electrical components also need to be operated within their specified temperature ranges. Where equipment is installed inside an industrial building, maintaining suitable ambient conditions simplifies winter operation and maintenance.

These considerations were incorporated into the operating instructions rather than assuming that a machine commissioned during mild weather would require exactly the same procedures during a Finnish winter.

Installation Without Rebuilding the Entire Recycling Facility

The two shredders were incorporated into the customer's existing wood-waste operation. The project therefore concentrated on feeding, discharge, electrical load, maintenance access and downstream material handling rather than supplying an entirely new recycling plant.

Enough clearance was retained around each machine for hammer and screen inspection. The discharge conveyors were arranged so shredded material could move toward the subsequent separation and storage stages without requiring loaders to repeatedly handle material immediately below the crusher.

Because each shredder uses a 160 kW main motor, electrical supply and starting arrangements were confirmed before installation. The two units were also positioned so that maintenance on one would not unnecessarily obstruct operation of the other.

Commissioning started with controlled quantities of representative pallet wood. Feed rate and discharge characteristics were observed before moving toward sustained operation with mixed recovered material.

Customer Feedback After Production Started

“The biggest change is the amount of preparation we no longer have to do by hand. Before, our team spent too much time breaking pallets and preparing large boards for smaller equipment. Now the bulky wood enters the primary shredding stage much more directly. We still sort abnormal metal and unsuitable waste, but ordinary pallet nails are no longer the reason the whole process stops. Having two machines also means we can schedule inspection on one side without losing all of our shredding capacity.”

The customer also found that consistent primary sizing made the downstream process easier to manage. Instead of receiving a mixture of long boards, broken pallet sections and irregular hand-cut pieces, the following separation and secondary-processing stages receive a much more controlled material stream.

Shipping from Qingdao to Finland

The two machines were prepared for export from Qingdao Port, China. The original project configuration identifies Helsinki as the Finnish destination for the equipment. 

Before shipment, the machines and auxiliary components were checked against the packing list, and installation documentation was prepared for the customer's team. Because the project involved two heavy-duty units rather than a small standalone crusher, lifting requirements, unloading conditions and installation space had to be confirmed before arrival.

RICHI also supplied commissioning guidance covering feeding, inspection, wear-part maintenance, abnormal-load response and safe shutdown procedures. The purpose was to ensure that the customer's operators understood not only how to start the equipment but also how to respond when the highly variable recovered-wood feedstock changed.

Why This Project Is Different from an Ordinary Wood Crusher Installation

The wood pallet shredder machine in Finland was not selected simply because the customer needed smaller wood particles. The real requirement was to remove a labor-intensive primary preparation bottleneck from a commercial recycling operation.

Whole and broken pallets, packaging wood and selected construction timber are bulky, irregular and frequently contaminated with fasteners. A conventional fine-grinding hammer mill would still require extensive preparation before these materials could be processed. The RIBPC machines occupy an earlier position in the recycling chain: they perform heavy-duty primary size reduction so that metal separation, secondary crushing and downstream utilization become easier to control.

The dual RIBPC 1250*500a configuration gives the Finnish company a nominal combined capacity of 8–10 T/H under suitable operating conditions while allowing production to be adjusted according to incoming waste volumes. More importantly, it provides a processing route that is better matched to the physical characteristics of recovered pallet wood.

For recycling companies considering a similar system, RICHI Machinery evaluates pallet dimensions, wood types, moisture, contamination, required discharge size, hourly throughput and downstream use before recommending the shredder configuration. This ensures that the machine is selected as part of the actual recycling process rather than solely from a headline capacity figure.