Hellweg launches granulator the ‘market has been waiting for’ | Sustainable Plastics

The new LSZ 150/100 edge strip shredder is the granulator the ‘market has been waiting for’, managing director Mark Hellweg said

Hellweg Maschinenbau has returned to Fakuma with a gift for the recycling industry. The new LSZ 150/100 edge strip shredder is the granulator the ‘market has been waiting for’, managing director Mark Hellweg told Sustainable Plastics on the show floor.

The new machine is a less-is-more kind of gift. It has no blade, no screen, no infeed device, it does not require regular resharpening of the toothed rollers, and it makes very little noise.

“No blades, no big rotation, no screen, no maintenance, no noise – it’s almost a fantasy, the machine the market has been waiting for,” Hellweg said.

The LSZ 150/100 is designed to efficiently shred profiled edge strips – a task that is challenging for conventional granulators. Manufacturers of plastic sheets with edged geometries, such as thermoformed dimpled sheets, are often left with trimmings that can interfere with the recycling process. Edged profiles can easily get stuck during the feeding process and damage the granulator. Hellweg’s new shredder addresses this issue with a 600 mm oscillating probe arm, which compensates for variations in edge shape, whilst an integrated switch prevents damage by regulating the shredding process.

The standout feature of the shredder is its four robust toothed rollers made from solid tool steel billet. Unlike other systems that rely on a separate, infeed mechanism, the LSZ 150/100 uses its rollers to guide and tension the edge strips away from the sheet material during granulation. This allows for reliable shredding regardless of the strip's shape. And because the machine uses rollers rather than blades, its operation is quiet.

“These applications are usually very noisy because the blade is hitting the material, and the sound is moving over the body of the surface and going out of the machine. With our machine there is very little noise,” Hellweg explained.

Development process

The LSZ 150/100 was first developed 15 years ago but had since been forgotten. It started as a custom order from a client who ordered 10 machines. It wasn’t until last year that Hellweg was reminded of the machine’s potential. After receiving a request from another customer to process an edged sheet material, Hellweg remembered he had already developed a machine to do just that.

A phone call to his original client revealed that the machine was still ‘running great’, 24/7, and without having replaced a single part in the past 15 years. Hellweg produced a new exemplar for last year’s client and got to work on testing the new machine for further production.

Testing ongoing

Hellweg admitted the LSZ 150/100 is the machine in the company’s portfolio he knows the least about. It is so new that is still in the ‘test-test-test’ phase, he said.

"I created another test model for myself because my understanding of this machine is still limited. I don’t know exactly how thick the input material can be. Now, I’m asking all my customers for input, since everyone knows us as a company that loves testing. I may not know all the specifications for every material, but I have a general idea of the range we’re working with. That’s why I’m asking customers to send their materials to me.”

Hellweg has already tested 10 types of material, and expects to get 50 expressions of interest by the end of Fakuma to test more materials.

“At the show, I’m collecting different samples for testing, and I've already made a test model, which I’ll be sending to customers. The machine is designed to work with a variety of materials and thicknesses, but I’m still determining the exact range. For example, I think the minimum thickness for ABS is around 0.1 millimeters, but I’m unsure about other materials, like HDPE film. So, I’ll need to figure out those specifics."

The teeth on the LSZ 150/100 rollers currently measure 3 millimetres and Hellweg wants to test the machine with 5, 6, and 8 millimetres sizes. The end goal is to develop a model that, ‘if it works, would have the biggest impact of the life of my company’, Hellweg said. Whilst he would not currently reveal further details, Hellweg hopes to have more to share during next year’s K show in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Record sales for third year in a row

Unlike many recycling machinery manufacturers, Hellweg Maschinenbau has seen record sales over the last three years.

During last year’s Fakuma, Hellweg revealed the company would increase its output by 30 to 50 percent by the end of 2023 after already boosting sales by 50 percent in 2022.

2024 is posed to be another record-breaking year, with Hellweg predicting more than 10 percent sales growth compared with 2023.

“It took us over 20 years to build our brand, gain recognition, and earn the trust of our customers. It wasn’t easy - it was a tough journey. About six years ago, things started to change significantly. We embraced digitalization, and we brought Konsens public relations on board. I believe those two factors have had the biggest impact on our business. Innovation is something I’ve always focused on, but now our innovations reach a much wider audience.”

Hellweg is ‘cautiously optimistic’ about further growth prospects in 2025.

“I’ve noticed that more and more major global players are coming to us. It’s like a magnet. Just today, some big companies visited us, wanting to switch to our products. Many of them have been using granulators from other brands for decades, but they’re now turning to us.”

The market is, however, difficult to predict, Hellweg added. He sees both threats and opportunities in potential market consolidation in plastics recycling.

“From one perspective, yes, some companies are struggling or going out of business, and that means losing potential customers. But on the other hand, while smaller or mid-sized companies may disappear, the larger ones tend to be sold to other brands, and sometimes those are brands I already work with. That could open doors for me to work with companies I haven’t been able to reach before.”

“I also see opportunities with larger German companies that are looking to expand to new countries. For example, if they are satisfied with my granulators and open a new plant in Mexico, I feel confident they will continue to buy from me because they trust the product. Even though I don’t have representatives in places like Brazil or Mexico, I’m hopeful that the relationships we’ve built here will lead to future sales abroad.”

Hellweg fully operates from Roetgen, southwest of Cologne, Germany. The company doesn’t have an in-house sales team and sends engineers from its home base to service machines across the world.

“We’re becoming more international,” Hellweg said. “We’re working on improving our partnerships with professional companies, especially for transport, installation, and assembly, because I don’t want the company to grow too large. I want us to remain a small company, capable of reacting in a very fast way. That has been key to our success over the last 25 years and I do not want to lose that.”

Hellweg’s growth has mostly been driven by sales of large-scale granulators. The COVID-19 crisis and subsequent high-inflation landscape proved smaller machines to be economically unsustainable. Larger machines, on the other hand, sell for a sizeable price tag and have thus been key to the company’s success.

“Even though the market is down, I don’t need to sell hundreds of units because we’re a small company. Even a smaller number of sales can be an opportunity for us. And when the market bounces back, we’ll be in a great position to take advantage of it. We’re prepared and ready to go,” Hellweg concluded.

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