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WiN woodworking INTERNATIONAL 2022/1

WiN - woodworking INTERNATIONAL is the international magazine for the woodworking industry. We report on all aspects of woodworking from board materials, wood treatment to machines, tools and technical know-how, from timber engineering supplies to the latest developments in technologies and markets.

WiN - woodworking INTERNATIONAL is the international magazine for the woodworking industry. We report on all aspects of woodworking from board materials, wood treatment to machines, tools and technical know-how, from timber engineering supplies to the latest developments in technologies and markets.

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SUSTAINABILITY<br />

Fireplace briquettes from discarded wooden pallets<br />

Pallet manufacturer, Füngeling, has set up a lucrative new business field, meanwhile using 3 briquetting presses from RUF. Discarded<br />

wooden pallets are processed by the company in Erftstadt, to wood briquettes which are highly prized by fireplace users as CO 2<br />

-neutral<br />

fuel. And the business should continue to grow.<br />

Up to 40,000 pallets are handled per day<br />

Currently, between 30,000 and 40,000 pallets<br />

are in and out of the company every day.<br />

About four-fifths of the pallet business is accounted<br />

for by tailor-made solutions in which<br />

Füngeling’s employees take over the complete<br />

process for customers. This means that they put<br />

new pallets in their customer’s yard in good<br />

time, take back the used ones after circulation,<br />

inspect and repair them, if necessary, return<br />

them to the cycle or discard them. Customers<br />

ultimately pay pro pallet cycle, which is easily<br />

calculable, and no longer have to concern<br />

themselves with handling. In addition, the company<br />

supplies wooden transport packaging for<br />

a wide variety of products from automobile engines<br />

to 5-ton construction crane cabs.<br />

Füngeling always makes sure that nothing<br />

is wasted. If pallets have become unsightly after<br />

a few uses, for example with food, he uses them<br />

in other industries, such as the stone or paper<br />

industry, where they continue to provide good<br />

services. If a pallet is irreparably damaged, it is<br />

usually not completely retired, but dismantled<br />

and the still usable parts used for new pallets.<br />

If you do not make this effort, a pallet’s lifecycle<br />

might consist of ten uses, reports Füngeling.<br />

“We get 20, 30 or even 40 uses,” says the<br />

entrepreneur.<br />

Packaging station: A 10 kg bundle is created from 12 briquettes each. (Pictures: RUF Maschinenbau)<br />

The conservation of nature, recycling, waste<br />

prevention and high economic efficiency are not<br />

contradictions for Heribert Füngeling. The fact<br />

that good business can be done with recycling<br />

and the economical use of resources is proven<br />

by the qualified forestry master with his company,<br />

Füngeling Industrieservice. The core sector<br />

of the group is the business with wooden<br />

pallets and disposal services for industrial companies,<br />

which the resourceful entrepreneur has<br />

built up over the past two decades.<br />

At his company’s headquarters in Erftstadt,<br />

North Rhine-Westphalia, he produces around<br />

2,000 tons of wood briquettes annually from<br />

discarded pallets. The recycling company started<br />

this line of business about eight years ago<br />

with a used RB 440 briquetting press from RUF.<br />

In the meantime, he is using two more RUF 500<br />

systems, the most recent of which Füngeling<br />

has only just put into operation.<br />

Füngeling was self-employed with his forestry<br />

business when, more or less by chance, he<br />

was asked in 1990 to take over a small business<br />

that produced pallets with a single employee.<br />

For him it was a tryout, and he continued his<br />

forestry business. It is still a component of the<br />

group of companies, which employs a total of<br />

about 170 people. “But the pallet business soon<br />

grew so much that I concentrated primarily on<br />

it,” reports the entrepreneur. With smart business<br />

models – such as all-round carefree packages<br />

for customers – he drove growth and later<br />

also entered the industrial waste disposal<br />

branch.<br />

Sales of the wood briquettes picked up<br />

speed rapidly<br />

Despite this intensive use of the material,<br />

it was a thorn in his side for a long time that<br />

he had to get rid of numerous pallet boards at<br />

some point, without much benefit. “I would like<br />

to process everything that is generated here in<br />

my yard,” is his philosophy. He was looking for<br />

a sensible solution and found it in briquetting.<br />

And so about eight years ago, he started a trial<br />

with a used RUF RB 440.<br />

He was also absolutely right with this decision.<br />

Soon the business was running very well.<br />

Only quality-tested, clean, natural A1 waste<br />

wood is used. The larger the chips from which<br />

the briquettes are pressed, the more similar the<br />

briquettes look, when burning, to solid logs.<br />

Because the briquette business was gaining<br />

more and more momentum and is still growing,<br />

Füngeling procured two more briquetting lines<br />

24 No. 1 • March <strong>2022</strong>

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