When does a long-standing problem become critical for a neighbouring business?
A wood recycling plant in the lowlands south of Brescia processes wood waste every day with two Doppstadt shredders, set up to produce material of different particle sizes according to recovery needs.
The company is located in open countryside, where the spread of dust generated during shredding had never been a particular problem. With no homes or businesses nearby, the effects had remained limited, and the plant had lived with the issue for a long time.
The situation changed when a solar farm was built on the adjacent land. During processing, the dust produced by the shredders reached the panels, settling on their surfaces and reducing their ability to receive solar radiation.
A problem that was no longer just about managing fugitive emissions, but had a direct impact on the performance of a neighbouring business.
How do you contain dust without changing the shredding process?
When dust is generated while wood materials are handled and processed, acting directly at the source is not always easy. The shredders have to keep working and, especially with mobile machines, the site layout can change over time.
For this project we carried out a site inspection, analysing the layout of the two shredders, the area affected by the dust and the position of the solar farm.
The solution was to place a dust suppression cannon at a strategic point, with the aim of creating a misting barrier between the processing area and the area to be protected.
The principle is simple: the water micro-droplets capture the dust particles suspended in the air, helping them clump together and settle. The jet, aimed at the area where the dust spreads, helps limit the dust carried towards the solar panels.
Why choose a dust suppression cannon with adjustable range and rotation?
To meet the plant’s needs we proposed a Titan Power from Cannoni-Conrad, configured to work over a large area and to adapt the treatment to the layout of the machinery.
The cannon offers an adjustable range from 10 to 35 metres and a rotation that can be set from 0° to 230°. These features allow the jet to be aimed according to the position of the shredders and the direction in which the dust tends to spread.
Adjusting the range adapts the misting to the distance to be covered, while the rotation defines the treated area without having to keep repositioning the machine.
A further advantage is the wheeled set-up. Since the shredders can be moved and arranged differently depending on the work, the dust suppression system also needs to follow the organisation of the plant. The mobility of the Titan Power makes it easy to reposition when the operating layout changes.
How do you check that the solution works before buying?
Before going ahead with a final supply, we offered the company a rental trial period of five days.
This made it possible to test the Titan Power directly in real working conditions, assessing how well the system fitted in with the shredding work and how well it contained the dust spreading towards the solar farm.
A field trial is particularly useful when the result depends on variables such as wind direction, machinery layout, the type of material processed and shift organisation. It shows the most effective position and the settings best suited to the actual operating conditions.
What was the result?
At the end of the five-day trial, the customer confirmed the machine.
The case shows how even an established business can face new needs following changes in the surrounding area. At this plant, the presence of the solar farm made it necessary to tackle a long-standing problem, with a solution compatible with the nature of the work and the mobility of the shredders.
With Titan Power, Cannoni-Conrad provided a flexible solution for controlling the dust generated by wood recycling, supporting the company from the initial technical assessment to the field test through the rental trial.
