BMW is world renowned for their innovations when it comes to the design of their vehicles which carries over into the recycling of their own vehicles. As a result by the end of 2013 the BMW Recycling Center together with Antonelli developed a vehicle press that was specifically designed to crush the latest generations of BMW’s including the new 7-Series and making it as compact as possible.

The challenges encountered during this project began with the fact that there are large differences in density throughout a vehicle such as those found between the passenger compartment and the subframe for suspension mounting. This means that the press encounters dramatically different amounts of pressure along the press plate. To counter this the vehicle press was equipped with 6 hydraulic cylinders that each have a capacity of 133 metric tonnes which works out to a combined total of 800 metric tonnes of pressure. In other words, this press is strong enough to crush six diesel locomotives. Due to this design the pressure along welding points is better distributed leading to a longer life for the equipment.