To implement operational savings strategy and improve working conditions in winter period “AutoKrAZ” has purchased, installed and placed in service the LPTB-200 wood briquette machine as part of its energy conservation program. A new equipment for wood waste recycling has been installed in wood working area of cab assembly workshop where it will be used to make wood briquettes from wood chip and sawdust.

To increase amount of inward raw materials and finished products the company’s departments purchased auxiliary equipment to complement purchased machine: hammer mill for crushing wood chips into smaller pieces for further processing by wood briquette machine, cyclones, conveyors, special legs and other items.

The machine, the cost of which slightly exceeds UAH 200k will enable the automobile plant to profit in several ways at the same time: to exclude expenses for wood waste disposal and provide heating in production departments using briquettes with heat release higher by 1,5-2, times than that of dry wood. What is more, in case of higher amount of raw materials, surplus briquettes could be sold to the company’s employees as this kind of product is highly sought-after in the domestic market due to high cost of gas and electricity.

The new machine will paid off within six months. These calculations are easy to do because an average cost of 1 tonne of briquettes in the domestic market is UAH 2500, production capacity of purchased machine is 1tonne/day (20 t/month), amounting to UAH 50 000.

Payback period is highly correlated to the amount of raw materials made form wood waste coming from manufacture of platform trucks and packing of spare parts to be exported.

The company will take further methodical efforts to improve working conditions for employees. This strategy will enable “AutoKrAZ” will fuel confidence and help retain human resources in the production departments.