The Bavarian family business Ruf Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG was founded in 1969 and is now being continued in the second generation. More than 5,000 briquetting presses sold in over 100 countries make RUF the world market leader in hydraulic briquetting systems. With RUF briquetting presses, chips such as metals, aluminum, wood, biomass and other residues can be pressed into high quality briquettes. These receive as secondary raw material a second chance in the raw materials cycle.
More than 150 employees develop and produce the briquetting systems and solutions worldwide.
Together with C. F. Nielsen, they are the Briquetting Experts. That means that the world’s biggest range of solutions from a single provider has been opened up to users of briquetting machines: Hydraulic, Mechanical and Extruder Briquetting Systems.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
RUF MASCHINENBAU: RUF Briquetting Systems allow metal, aluminium and wood chips, as well as grinding swarf, biomass and many other residual materials to be compacted into high-quality briquettes – the ideal alternative to the expensive disposal of production residues. We can also offer tailor-made briquetting systems that exactly meet our customers’ needs.
The long service life and low wear of our systems contribute to the conservation of resources and also guarantee our high quality standard: 100% Power made in Germany.
E.E: What’s the news for 2020 about new products?
RUF MASCHINENBAU: RUF, as befits its status as a full-service provider is continuously developing add-on peripherals which provide a appropriate addition to the briquetting systems. For example, a new version of the process unit for cooling lubricants which is more powerful than the old system. It is suitable both for oils and emulsions and can be set up on various filter units.
The magnetic separator serves to separate magnetic steel parts from a steam of non-ferrous metals. Particularly with aluminium, steel chips or parts reduce the sales income from the briquettes. A magnetic separator helps avoid this situation.
We also offer our customers various material feeding options, like our new ground chip hopper, which offers the benefit of a low height and thereby prevents the material from bridging.
E.E: What are the ranges of traded products?
RUF MASCHINENBAU: Briquetting Systems for a wide range of materials, such as metal, aluminium, wood, biomass and more. We also offer tailor-made briquetting systems.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
RUF MASCHINENBAU: Because of our wide product range, we are operating in many different markets and regions worldwide. All of these markets have various conditions with different stages – from „booming” to „moderately developing”. Unfortunately, there are also markets which are stagnating at the moment.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
RUF MASCHINENBAU: In the biomass market we expect lots of opportunities worldwide, that are also caused by the climate change. The same goes for the wood market. The development in the automotive sector is partly poorer than expected.
In the market for Aluminium remelting we are working to convince more customer groups briquetting is the best choice in aluminium chip remelting.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2020?
RUF MASCHINENBAU: Like most mechanical engineering companies, we are currently feeling the effects of Covid-19. Our expectations for 2020 are correspondingly low. Nevertheless, we are confident about the future – knowing that things will look up again.
