Thompsons Plant Hire Continues Allegiance to Blue Machinery

Thompsons Plant Hire, of Maryport, Cumbria, has purchased another Doppstadt machine from Blue Machinery Scotland, having already taken delivery three.

The new addition is a DH810 precision chipper, which augments Thompsons’ existing fleet capabilities and, because of its compact dimensions and swift set-up time (typically two minutes), is ideal for taking into forests on the company’s specialist rig for chipping timber directly into trailers.

Thompsons Plant Hire is a family owned business with Kevin Thompson running the day-to-day operations company. Established in 1994, mainly in haulage and traditional plant hire, Thompsons built up a national reputation for providing a quality contracting service which could turnkey a job with a range of excavation, processing, materials handling and transportation plant and equipment. Thompsons has diversified in recent years into shredding and chipping and is now considered one of the leading specialists in this field, with numerous nationwide contracts for the chipping of biofuel for prestige clients such as UPM Tillhill and Iggesund.

The decision to add a further Doppstadt machine to the fleet is indicative of the excellent partnership that has developed between Thompsons, Doppstadt and their distributor Blue Machinery Scotland. Kevin and Victor Thompson both visited the Doppstadt factory in Germany during the negotiation process and came away impressed with what they saw. “We found they have an excellent understanding and knowledge of our applications and we are delighted with the build quality, performance and exceptional throughput of the machines. We would also like to pay a compliment to Blue which provides an excellent after-sales product support service which we think is unparalleled in the industry”. Doppstadt sent one of their engineers over to site for a two-day training programme to instruct Thompsons’ operators how to maximise the new chipper’s full potential and to ensure a full understanding of all aspects of maintenance.

The Doppstadt DH 810 precision chipper is designed to produce biomass to specification from virgin timber, has an hourly output of up to 120 cubic metres, is robust, reliable and features cutting-edge technology. The machine is powered by a Mercedes Benz diesel engine which develops 360kW and complies with Euromot IIIB emission standards. The rotor, axle, pulley and impeller have a combined weight of 2,700kg for heavy-duty log chipping (up to 810mm diameter) and the closed rotor is equipped with four knives to produce regular and consistent chip sizings with minimal fines. The entire chipper can rotate on its chassis by 270°; the discharge spout is hydraulically foldable and the turntable ensures maximum space utilisation when feeding into a trailer or static bin.