Ramping up capacity in Tyrol

Ragg Recycling is among Austria’s biggest scrap metal processors. The company recently welcomed 50 or so fellow recyclers from Austria, Germany and Switzerland at their main yard near Innsbruck.

Purpose of the visit: to learn more about the Ragg’s latest purchase, an impressive, 1 300-tonne cutting force Lidex shear from French recycling equipment manufacturer Copex.

The machine was ordered at the peak of the Covid pandemic in 2019 and installed in 2020 to replace the previous 1 000-tonne unit, in use since 1982. A total investment of EUR 2 million includes control room, power station and conveyor belts.

‘With more and more scrap coming in, we needed a faster and less energy consuming machine,’ says Ragg’s managing director Petra Mussmann.

The new shear delivers beyond expectations, according to Mussmann.

‘In the first weeks we really had to get used to its fast operation. We almost ran out of scrap to keep it running whereas before there was often too much scrap waiting,’ she laughs.