Page 66 from: Recycling International July issue | 2022 + TOP 100!

Making the best use of car body metals:
the Pollini Group’s new system
Pollini Group has 250 employees at six sites in Northern Italy and a total

production area of 45 000 square metres. Owned by the Pollini family for three

generations, the group specialises in the recycling of end-of-life vehicles and

maximising the recovery of components using the best available technologies,

such as the Panizzolo Recycling Systems Mega 1100 series hammermill.

Here, Matteo and Giacomo Pollini share the story of their companies, why they

chose Panizzolo and their vision for the future.

create a new accessory tool: a rotating
platform that allows the operator to
dismantle one vehicle after another,
minimising downtime due to moving
and re-positioning cars, while increas-
ing the safety of our workers within
the production area.

YOUR LAST TREATMENT STEP
CONSISTS OF GRINDING
THE BODYWORK. WHY DID
YOU CHOOSE PANIZZOLO
TECHNOLOGY?

Matteo: Almost all of the scrap pro-
cessed by Pollini srl comes from what
cannot be recovered at our other
branch. Among this, the material par
excellence, is the bodywork of end-of-
life vehicles, on which we perform the
final treatment stages. Until a few
years ago, after a volumetric reduc-
tion of the vehicle, we operated this
process with a single-shaft shredder
which could not meet our recovery
quality requirements. The company
has always been at the forefront of
technological investments to keep us
competitive so we decided to discard
the old machinery, preferring a ham-
mermill for the quality of ferrous and

Matteo: Our companies were found-
ed by our grandfather Lorenzo some
40 years ago. Later the management
passed to our parents and then to us,
the third generation of this family
business. Today, Giacomo presides
over Pollini Lorenzo & Sons while I
manage Pollini Srl, which deals with
scrap disposal and recycling in our
dedicated scrap treatment plant. Of
the input material, 80% comes from
Giacomo’s operation and 20% exter-
nally. We use industrial loaders, press-
es, shears, pre-grinders and, of
course, our new Panizzolo Mega 1100
series hammermill.
Processing starts with a selection of

parts, after which the smaller vehicles
are pressed while the others are pre-
ground and fed into the new hammer-
mill. Our aim is to recycle and recover
as much material as possible. We sell
on the metal output from our treat-
ment plants to other companies or
directly to steel mills, depending on
the grades we have.

Giacomo: Pollini Lorenzo & Sons is
authorised to dismantle petrol, diesel,
LPG, natural gas and electric vehicles.
We purchase incoming vehicles from
dealerships and workshops, from depot
tenders and companies such as FCA –
from which we take back production

rejects and prototypes – and from pri-
vate customers. The inflow is around
20-25 000 vehicles per year. We have
also recently expanded our pick-up ser-
vice for all types of buses and lorries.
The process involves reclamation, dis-
mantling – an almost entirely manual
process – and the evaluation of indi-
vidual parts. Reject parts are sent to
the grinding plants while those in
good condition follow a meticulous
process of quality control, registration
and cataloguing, and are then stored
in our warehouses. These boast
around 350 000 items catalogued and
ready for resale and are divided into
manual picking areas and high-density
vertical automated warehouses
designed for quick access, space-sav-
ing and goods preservation.
Through our shops and e-commerce,
we sell spare parts to workshops,
body shops and private customers
throughout Italy. E-commerce, which
had been planned for several years,
was quickly introduced at the begin-
ning of 2021 to cope with the restric-
tions caused by Covid-19. The online
market is growing steadily, now cover-
ing about 10% of parts sales, although
the public and companies still prefer
our physical shops (covering about
50%) and telephone sales (covering
the remaining 40%).

WHAT ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT
DO YOU USE IN YOUR
MACHINING PROCESSES?

Matteo: In our in-house workshop, we
make prototypes of technologies that
can facilitate certain tasks. At Pollini
srl, we have designed and built a vice
to position the material so we can
rotate and move the vehicle at will. It
means we can more easily remove cer-
tain materials such as the windscreen,
bumpers and engine.

Giacomo: At Pollini Lorenzo & Sons,
we have also used our workshop to

Giacomo (left) and Matteo Pollini: ‘We’ve always been at the forefront of technological investments.’

Pollini specialises in the recycling of end-of-life vehicles and maximising the recovery of
components.

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