Case Study: Large-diameter PE Pipe Recycling Plant Upgrades TL40150 Pipe-specific Single-shaft Shredder, 65% Capacity Increase Without Pre-cutting for Full 1.2m Pipes

Name: Plastic Granulator
Address: 地址：Tenglong Plastic Machinery Factory, China, Linyi City, Shandong Province, 276000, CN
Telephone: +86 15092868822
Price range: $$$

Published: 8 7 月, 2026

The recycling and granulation of large-diameter PE steel belt wound pipes and municipal solid-wall pipes faces prominent industry pain points. Traditional universal shredders feature short crushing cavities, poor adaptability of feeding structures, low blade wear resistance and inefficient screen replacement. Large-diameter pipes require mandatory flame sectional cutting, resulting in persistently high labor and gas costs. Frequent material jams lead to motor burnout, making continuous mass production of granulation lines impossible.

A licensed large-scale PE pipe recycling and granulation plant in Jiangsu eliminated two outdated universal shredding equipment units and adopted a production line layout of “flagship large-diameter main unit + medium auxiliary unit diversion”. By upgrading the TL40150 flagship pipe-specific single-shaft shredder, the plant one-stop solved universal industry problems including pipe pre-cutting requirement, feeding slipping, high consumable costs and frequent shutdowns, achieving all-round upgrades in production capacity, cost control and finished product quality.

Complete Project Background

This EIA-compliant large-scale PE pipe recycling and granulation plant in Jiangsu holds full-qualified services for municipal waste pipe recycling, crushing, granulation and sales. It mainly processes waste large-diameter PE water supply pipes, steel belt reinforced wound pipes and chemical thick-wall PP pipes for pellet regeneration, with a daily waste pipe processing volume of 14 tons. The downstream is equipped with an integrated closed-loop production line covering shredding, fine crushing, rinsing and granulation.

Before the renovation, two 75kW ordinary universal single-shaft shredders were used as front-end coarse crushing hosts. These non-pipe-dedicated equipment had extremely poor structural adaptability, causing prominent problems in production, operation and maintenance, safety and profitability:

Cumbersome feeding process: The insufficient cavity length of old equipment made it impossible to feed integral thick-wall pipes above Φ1000mm. Flame sectional cutting was mandatory, with 2 full-time cutting workers arranged per shift, leading to extremely high monthly gas and labor costs.
Severe blade consumption loss: Equipped with ordinary single-sided carbon steel blades with poor impact resistance, the blades would wear and dull within 3 days when shredding sediment-containing underground waste pipes. Frequent shutdowns for disassembly, overlay welding and polishing continuously interrupted the continuous granulation production rhythm.
Feeding slipping and jamming: Ordinary flat feeding plates failed to fit the profile of circular pipes, causing pipes to roll, suspend and slip intermittently. The effective equipment operation rate was only 62%, failing to meet production capacity standards.
Low efficiency of particle size adjustment: Old models adopted full manual bolt screen disassembly, taking 1 hour for a single screen replacement and particle size adjustment, resulting in extremely low efficiency for multi-type pipe switching production.
Inadequate electrical protection: Without intelligent automatic reverse anti-blocking programs, thick and hard pipes would cause shaft jams and motor overload operation. Three motor burnout accidents occurred in one year before renovation, leading to production shutdowns, working delays and order penalty compensation.
Potential operation and safety hazards: The lack of full-process safety interlocks brought accidental startup risks during maintenance and material cleaning. The plant received multiple safety supervision rectification notices and faced heavy annual audit pressure.

In September 2026, the plant completed targeted upgrading of the coarse crushing section. It phased out two old universal shredders and purchased one 90kW TL40150 flagship pipe-specific single-shaft shredder as the core main unit, matched with one TL40100 medium pipe-specific single-shaft shredder to divert small and medium-diameter thin-wall pipes, optimizing the entire pipe shredding and granulation production line through differentiated workload allocation.

Customized One-stop Production Line Implementation Solution
Core main shredding equipment: Adopt TL40150 pipe-specific single-shaft shredder, equipped with 90kW high-power drive, 1500mm ultra-wide extended crushing cavity, original arc oscillating hydraulic feeding system, standard hydraulic automatic screen replacement and original DC53 reversible four-edge cutter set, adapting to giant pipes up to Φ1300mm.
Front-end fully automatic feeding renovation: Customized heightened inclined belt conveying platform supports direct feeding of 6-meter integral large-diameter pipes, completely eliminating flame pre-cutting and sectional procedures and realizing unmanned automatic feeding.
Back-end granulation docking layout: Dual discharge belts connect two QE high-power fine crushers, transporting qualified coarse shredded materials directly to the fine granulation section. The two-stage equipment realizes linked start-stop operation to reduce material transit handling.
Impurity protection and particle size selection: A high-precision pipe metal detector is installed at the feeding end to remove embedded steel wires and metal accessories in advance and prevent blade chipping caused by hard impurities. Two sets of 40/60mm hydraulic quick-replaceable screens are reserved to switch coarse and fine crushing particle sizes according to production needs, adapting to the production of recycled particles of different specifications.
Auxiliary machine diversion support: The TL40100 auxiliary pipe-specific single-shaft shredderis dedicated to shredding thin-wall pipes within Φ800mm to divert and reduce workload, ensuring the main unit focuses on processing giant thick-wall pipes and balancing the overall load of the production line.
Comprehensive Efficiency Improvement and Cost Reduction Benefits After Operation (Increased Payback Period, EIA and Maintenance Sections)
65% increase in comprehensive shredding capacity with full capacity compliance: A single TL40150 pipe-specific single-shaft shreddercan stably process 14 tons of waste pipes per day, equivalent to the total capacity of the two original old shredders. With the auxiliary machine for material diversion, the overall shredding capacity of the plant increases by 65%. The exclusive oscillating hydraulic feeding perfectly fits circular pipes, completely eliminating pipe slipping, suspension and blocking problems. The equipment supports 24-hour full-load continuous operation, with the effective operation rate rising to over 97% and zero raw material accumulation.
Elimination of pre-cutting process and substantial cost reduction of labor and consumables: The ultra-wide cavity allows direct feeding of integral giant pipes within Φ1300mm, completely eliminating 2 cutting workers and all gas cutting consumable costs. The DC53 reversible alloy steel cutter supports four-sided cyclic reuse, with a full-load service life of nearly 3 months per set. Compared with frequent polishing and replacement of traditional carbon steel blades, the comprehensive costs of blade procurement, overlay welding and maintenance are reduced by 77%, greatly cutting annual operation and maintenance expenses.
Hydraulic quick screen replacement doubles production switching efficiency: The one-click hydraulic screen opening and replacement allows a single operator to complete screen disassembly, assembly and particle size adjustment within 10 minutes, 6 times more efficient than the 1-hour manual bolt operation of old equipment. The PLC intelligent overload automatic reverse anti-blocking system realizes independent blockage removal without manual disassembly, enabling flexible switching between thick and thin pipe production and ensuring a continuous and stable production rhythm.
Near-zero equipment failures and full compliance with safety and environmental standards: The pipe-specific single-shaft shredderis equipped with dual motor overload power-off protection and main shaft torque protection, fundamentally eliminating motor burnout caused by pipe jams. The integral quenched and tempered solid main shaft maintains no deformation during long-term thick-wall pipe shredding, with zero major faults in transmission and electrical systems. Triple safety interlock protection of screen door, hopper and electric control enables one-time passing of safety standardization audit for the recycled plastic industry issued by the emergency management bureau. The closed shredding operation realizes controllable dust emission, with no safety or environmental rectification fines throughout the year and smooth annual qualification audit.
pipe-specific single-shaft shredder
Improved pellet quality and increased finished product premium: The shredded materials feature uniform and regular particle size, stabilizing the feeding load of downstream fine crushers. The recycled PE pellets have uniform size without high-temperature black spots, meeting the quality standards of high-end modified materials, with a premium of 210 yuan per ton. Combined with saved labor, consumable and gas costs, the plant’s annual recycled product revenue increases significantly.
Short investment payback period and expandable production capacity: The new pipe-specific single-shaft shredderrequires no factory foundation renovation and is compatible with the original production line interfaces. Relying on monthly cost savings in labor, consumables and gas, the total renovation investment can be recovered within 10 months. The unified electric control system of the full product line supports subsequent linkage with dust removal equipment, adapting to the plant’s future expansion plan of 20-ton daily pipe processing capacity.
Authentic Feedback from Production Director

Production Director Comment: In municipal large-diameter pipe recycling, pipe slipping, mandatory pre-cutting, high blade consumption and frequent motor burnout are four stubborn industry problems that universal shredders can never solve. The upgraded TL pipe-specific single-shaft shredder completely eliminates these pain points. Its three exclusive designs – oscillating hydraulic feeding, ultra-long customized crushing cavity and DC53 four-edge wear-resistant cutter set – perfectly adapt to circular pipe shredding working conditions. The complete product range covers small-diameter scrap processing (37kW) to 1300mm giant pipe processing (90kW), enabling targeted model selection for pipe factories and recycled pipe manufacturers. Its full-load stable operation performance far exceeds universal shredders.