STADLER has reached an impressive milestone with the production of its 1,000th ballistic separator.
The machine was purchased by Vaersa, a company providing waste management and remediation activities in the Valencia region, in Spain. The STT5000_6_1 ballistic separator was delivered to the Vaersa light packaging sorting plant in Castellón on September 28th, where it just started operation.
Böhme Sorting Plant
“The demand for ballistic separators in the Spanish market has risen very fast, driven by the automatization of recycling plants, which have also significantly increased their capacity,” explains Luis Sánchez, Director of Operations at the Spanish STADLER Selecciona SLU.
“Without ballistic separators it would be very difficult to achieve these twin objectives. As a result, today more than 75% of recycling plants in Spain rely on these machines. At STADLER, we pioneered this technology and have constantly improved and upgraded its performance over the years. That is why companies like Vaersa choose our ballistic separators. The STT5000_6_1 is a perfect match for the sorting plant in Castellón and it delivers the benefits of remarkably low maintenance costs.”
“Today our ballistic separators are very effective and extremely durable, but the initial development wasn’t easy,” explains Willi Stadler at STADLER. “It was very difficult at the time to build a machine robust enough to endure the challenges of waste. We didn’t have a specially developed shaft, so we purchased one from the agricultural sector. However, this shaft was not designed for use with waste and wasn’t as durable as we would have liked.”
In 1996 STADLER introduced its first ballistic separator featuring a shaft developed in-house and 100% original components. The machine was purchased by Böhme, in Germany.
Stefan Böhme, CEO of Böhme, states: “In our first light packaging sorting plant, the two STADLER ballistic separators operating in parallel always fulfilled the core task of material classification after the screening drum, which was still very simple at the time. The ballistic separator was, and remains to this day, the only mechanical device capable of separating so efficiently three different fractions at the same time when sorting light packaging.”
STADLER is constantly searching for ways to improve its machines’ performance and efficiency. In 2000, it introduced two important innovations: the patented pivoting frame, which eliminated the need to tilt the entire machine and adjust the conveyors, and the paddles with screened perforation.
In 2002, STADLER extended its offering of STT2000 ballistic separators with a new model developed specifically for separating paper and cardboard, featuring its patented Z-shaped paddles. The same year, having identified a new market requirement, it launched the STT5000 for heavy materials, such as MSW and industrial waste. This machine featured a shaft designed to withstand moist waste and extra robust paddles for processing flows of heavy materials.
Most recently, STADLER identified a new demand for processing extra heavy material, a fast growing recycling sector due to environmental concerns and pressure to reuse materials. To address this requirement, it developed the STT6000 specifically for sorting construction and demolition waste, landfill mining, and even MSW with large impurities.
Assistant Head of Research and Development at STADLER, Mr. Christian Nordmann, highlights the key advantages of the machine: “There is no need for pre-sorting or pre-shredding the input. Also, differently from screening drums, which separate the material only in two fractions, the three-fraction output of the STT6000 means that impurities can be easily removed, as they are still in their original size.”
STADLER ballistic separators are internationally recognized and are operating in markets across the world, with more than 770 units sold in Europe, some 70 machines in North America, more than 80 in Asia, 60 in Australia and over 20 in Latin America.
