HAI invests in briquetting press for top recycling rate
Hammerer Aluminium Industries (HAI) has invested in a modern briquetting press in Ranshofen for the efficient recycling of aluminium chips. The aluminium expert is thus consistently pursuing the path of maximum recycling rates in the interests of sustainability.
Ranshofen (08.07.2025) – Hammerer Aluminium Industries (HAI) in Ranshofen is constantly expanding and refining its recycling expertise in the interests of a sustainable aluminium industry. The new briquetting press for aluminium chips will further increase the recycling rate at the site.
Effective return to the production cycle
The manufacture of aluminium products generates production waste and aluminium chips, which are consistently collected at HAI in Ranshofen and fed back into the production cycle in the casting department. COO Dr Markus Schober explains: “The proportion of sawing and milling chips in our production is constantly increasing. In recent years, we have invested heavily in production technologies so that our customers receive finished products and not just a standard profile that they have to process themselves. That’s why recycling our own production waste is an important issue that also guarantees the absolute purity of the alloy.”
With an ambitious sustainability strategy, HAI can boast impressive figures: By using around 80 percent secondary aluminium as well as primary aluminium, which is produced entirely with electricity from renewable energy sources, the CO2footprint of the products supplied by HAI is well below the European average and a fraction of the global average.
Chip briquettes as an effective recycling method
Melting down loose aluminium chips results in high oxidation losses during storage and melting. This is why HAI is increasingly relying on briquetting the aluminium chips produced. Aluminium chip briquettes can be stored without loss and used almost indefinitely in Casting Ranshofen’s melting units. The material yield increases by around 8 % compared to melting down loose chips. Another advantage is that the briquettes are largely free of cooling lubricants. This means that they produce hardly any waste gas in the melting furnace.
The new RUF 90/3900/120 briquette press at the Ranshofen site is currently working eight to ten hours a day, five days a week, and will produce around 1,000 to 1,500 tonnes of chip briquettes in its first year of operation. This figure impressively emphasises the effects of an ambitious sustainability strategy that aims for a closed cycle as far as possible.
Designed for efficient operation
The chips are collected at all saws and machining centres at HAI in Ranshofen and transported to the briquette press by forklift and tipped into the collection hopper. The press starts automatically when there are enough chips in the hopper. The finished chip briquettes land in a collection container via two discharge rails. The briquettes are then transported to the foundry for remelting. In this way, an efficient process has been realised to further increase the recycling rate.
Effective return of aluminium chips to the production cycle
Loose aluminum chips in the collection container
Photo credits: RUF briquetting presses
The HAI Group
Hammerer Aluminum Industries employs 1,900 people. Founded in 2007, the company is headquartered in Ranshofen, Upper Austria, and has eight other locations in Germany, Romania, Poland and South Korea. HAI can look back on a special success story. It combines the dynamism and innovative spirit of a young company with the experience of a traditional business. In 2024, HAI achieved a turnover of 823 million euros in the three production areas of casting (foundry), extrusion (extrusion) and processing (mechanical processing). The HAI Group’s products can be found in the construction sector as well as in automotive and transportation technology, electrical engineering and mechanical and plant engineering.
Media contact:
Elfriede Dicker, Executive Assistant
/ Marketing & Communication HAI Group
Hammerer Aluminium Industries Holding GmbH
Lamprechtshausener Straße 69, 5282 Ranshofen, Austria
marketing@hai-aluminium.com