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Smurfit Kappa Recycling installs heavy-duty Bollegraaf baler

New machine provides less chance of wire breakage, uses less electricity, but still produces heavier bales

The new HBC-120S Baler
The new HBC-120S Baler

Bollegraaf Recycling Solutions and Smurfit Kappa Recycling finalized the installation of an HBC-120S baler at the Smurfit Kappa recycling depot in Snodland, Kent. The new machine provides less chance of wire breakage and uses less electricity, but still produces heavier bales.

Brian Kavanagh, project manager at Smurfit Kappa indicates that “critical success factors for Smurfit Kappa are safety and power savings. We chose Bollegraaf because of the excellent reputation they have. Power consumption and safety requirements are the two most critical criteria for us, and the Bollegraaf baler is top of the bill when it comes to that.”

Bollegraaf balers are BSEN 16252:2012 compliant, and as a result, the need for working at height is minimized and interaction between people and the machine can be kept to an absolute minimum. Additionally, when these new balers are idle and waiting for new material, they automatically enter a power save mode after 180 seconds, while remaining ready to restart at any time, leading to substantial power savings. According to Bollegraaf, this frequency drive control can cut electricity costs up to 30%.

Brian Kavanagh states that the installation of the HBC-120S baler was handled very professionally. “The Bollegraaf team has proven to be very knowledgeable; providing us with useful recommendations and maintaining the flexibility to adapt to our needs. We appreciate the effectiveness of the project team; the project leader really owns the project and functions as the single point of contact. Also the installation and commissioning went very smoothly and was carried out by an expert field service engineer. The system was up and running in no time and the install did not disrupt the depot’s processes, as it was done over the weekend. They also did an excellent job in training our operators. The project was a success from start to finish”.

"We were also delighted to learn about the expansion strategy of Bollegraaf in the UK in terms of additional service engineers, increased spare-parts availability, as well as additional sales representation throughout the UK," adds Kavanah. “We would highly recommend Bollegraaf to our network, because of quality and their ability to support and unburden us”.

“At Bollegraaf Recycling Solutions we strongly believe in putting customer centricity at the heart of our business," says Peter Bos, Sales Director at Bollegraaf Recycling Solutions. "We therefore build long-term relationships with our customers, as we have done with Smurfit Kappa, to ensure we understand their needs, not just of the individual recycling plants, but of the Smurfit Kappa Group as a whole. Whether delivering a single baler or developing a complete sorting system, we consider all the critical factors, such as capital costs, manpower needs, commitments to the buyers of the end products, maintenance costs, electricity costs, future growth, and so on and work as a team to develop a turnkey solution that is flexible, reliable, and the most profitable for the customer.”

As well as being quieter and more efficient, these new balers and their installation have been designed to be as safe as possible and to meet the safety requirements BSEN 16252:2012.

Additional upgrades that have been incorporated in the HBC-120S at Smurfit Kappa are the self-learning channel pressure, which is a self-regulating control, which adapts to the material being baled in the channel, and can increase the bale weight by 10 to 20%. Plus, a single needle system (5X1) leaves less room for residue to accumulate during the knotting process, reducing the downtime and hence an important cost reduction. Since the needle system is vertical, the Bollegraaf baler produces stable bales and has a reduced risk of wire breakage. Whether using steel wire, PP twine or PET, the Bollegraaf baler is designed to be highly suitable to process even the most difficult waste streams.

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360 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive
Norwalk, CT
US, 06854

Website:
vdrs.com

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