“The compre­hen­sive recycling of metal waste is an inte­gral part of high-qua­lity acti­vi­ties at the Vie­remä fac­tory,” says pro­duc­tion mana­ger Esa Pent­ti­nen.

At the Vie­remä fac­tory, metal waste gene­ra­ted in pro­duc­tion is recycled effec­ti­vely. Accor­ding to pro­duc­tion mana­ger Esa Pent­ti­nen, Ponsse aims to be especially res­pon­sible by doing things right and lea­ding the way in envi­ron­men­tal mat­ters.

“The recycling of metal waste is an inte­gral part of the sys­tem to ensure that all recycled mate­rial gene­ra­ted at the plant finds the cor­rect route towards reuse. Metal recycling is also financially pro­fi­table,” Pent­ti­nen says.

When pro­ducing the world’s best forest mac­hi­nes in Vie­remä, some excess metal is gene­ra­ted in each phase.

“Parts manu­fac­tu­ring accounts for the most sig­ni­ficant part. For example, chip­ping gene­ra­tes metal waste that must be proces­sed before recycling. Scrap metal is also recycled, inclu­ding pieces of metal sheets and unsa­leable items that can no lon­ger be fixed or reused,” Pent­ti­nen says.

“In addi­tion, waste inclu­des pieces of wel­ding elect­ro­des, nozz­les, steel, drill bits and threa­ded rods. Of course, they only account for a small part of the total metal waste volume.”

Metal covers 25–30 per cent of the factory’s total annual waste volume, ran­ging from seve­ral hundreds of thousands of kilo­grams all the way to half a mil­lion kilo­grams. The goal is to reduce the volume of metal waste in ope­ra­tions.

“Through opti­mi­sed plan­ning and pro­duc­tion, we seek to con­ti­nuo­usly reduce our waste volume. Eli­mi­na­ting waste is one of Ponsse’s major goals, and achie­ving it calls for the invol­ve­ment of all func­tions, star­ting with research and deve­lop­ment.”

Chip­ping waste gene­ra­ted by mac­hine tools at the Vie­remä fac­tory end up in an auto­ma­ted col­lec­tion sys­tem under­neath the floor. The waste is forwar­ded to a briquet­ting mac­hine, which sepa­ra­tes cut­ting fluids before compres­sing the waste into briquet­tes. The process pro­duces high-qua­lity recycled raw mate­rials for furt­her proces­sing. Waste from mac­hi­nes not con­nec­ted to the chip col­lec­tion sys­tem end up in the same place.

Esa Pent­ti­nen, who has wor­ked for 26 years at Ponsse, says that metal waste was already recycled during the early years of his career. 

“We have also care­fully sor­ted cop­per, brass, alu­mi­nium and steel for seve­ral years now. The goal is to reduce the volume of mixed waste in ope­ra­tions and recycle eve­ryt­hing we can.”

“The pro­fes­sio­nals wor­king at the Vie­remä fac­tory unders­tand the impor­tance of metal recycling and waste sor­ting and are fully com­mit­ted to achie­ving our goal,” Pent­ti­nen says.

“Recycling and sor­ting work like a charm. There is prac­tically no metal in mixed waste, and no other types of metal in steel.”