Smooth running

California Recyclers Inc., Fontana, California, has provided recycling services to businesses throughout Southern California since 2006. The company serves customers in the automotive, packaging, distribution, food, construction, communications, chemical, retail, shipping, technology, transportation, machinery, health care, beverage and furniture industries.

Among the materials California Recyclers handles are stretch wrap and other types of plastic film, largely from distribution centers. Travis Parke, the company’s owner, says the operation handles and bales 2.5 million pounds of this material annually.

California Recyclers does this work using a REB-2 baler supplied by Sierra International Machinery, Bakersfield, California. This two-ram baler is designed to handle everything from nonferrous metals to old corrugated containers (OCC) and paper to plastic containers and film.

“We have probably grown 50 percent in volume—maybe 60 percent. But I have not had to add a lot of labor to do that.” – Travis Parke, owner, California Recyclers Inc.

OPERATIONAL ADVANTAGES

California Recyclers’ REB-2 replaced an open-end horizontal single-ram extrusion baler a little more than one year ago. While Parke says single-ram extrusion balers are geared toward large-volume material recovery facilities (MRFs) and are typically faster than a two-ram machine, he prefers the standard bale size produced by the two-ram baler. He adds that the bales produced by REB-2 “look and ship better,” nicely cubing out export containers and trailers.

The company’s two-ram baler is powered by two 125-horsepower motors, for a total horsepower of 250.

Parke says he likes the baler’s dual-motor configuration. “We can run it faster or slower.”

In case one of the motors goes down, he points out, California Recyclers also can avoid downtime by running the baler on a single motor.

By running only one of the two motors, the company can achieve energy savings when operating during times of peak electricity demand, Parke says, which is something he generally tries to avoid. Instead, he says, California Recyclers begins baling at 4 a.m. and is usually done by noon, thanks in part to the baler’s speed.

In an hour, the company’s REB-2 baler can produce 20 bales of OCC weighing 1,350 pounds apiece. It produces approximately half that number of plastic film bales in the same time, Parke says, with bales of this material weighing in at 1,500 to 1,600 pounds each.

In addition to the energy savings, the new baler offers personnel savings because it does not need a dedicated operator. Since the baler’s installation a little more than one year ago, Parke says, “We have probably grown 50 percent in volume—maybe 60 percent. But I have not had to add a lot of labor to do that.”

While Parke says California Recyclers can process approximately 20 percent more volume when the company uses the machine in manual mode with an operator, “I run it on automatic 95 percent of the time.”

He continues, “If I ran two shifts, it would make sense to have a dedicated operator.”

With its two-ram baler, California Recyclers is processing rigid plastics and polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate strapping in addition to pallet wrap and plastic film, Parke says. The company also has baled 55-gallon plastic drums, he says, noting that 25 to 30 drums produce a bale that weighs roughly 1,200 pounds.

THE TASK AT HAND

Plastic film is not one of the more challenging materials for recyclers to bale in terms of the toll it takes on the baler and countering the memory of the material. However, Parke says film can fluff up during sorting, getting hung up when it hits the hopper for the charge box. California Recyclers addresses this by mixing in heavier chunks of material, he says.

Because the company cannot load this material as quickly as it loads OCC, Parke says, the baler produces about half as many film bales as it does OCC bales in an hour’s time. “That’s just the dynamic of the material,” he says. “If you could get it in as fast as cardboard, the machine could bale it faster than cardboard.”

California Recyclers’ bales of film are destined for the export market, Parke says, making bale uniformity and sturdiness important traits that the company’s two-ram baler delivers. Among the countries the company ships material to are Malaysia, Taiwan, China and India. It also ships to customers in Latin America.

PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE

Film results in less wear on the baler than OCC does, Parke says, adding that California Recyclers has not yet had to change or rotate the machine’s shear blades, nor has it had to make many adjustments to the wear guides. However, he says the company plans to rotate the baler’s blades at the 18-month mark, according to the manufacturer’s recommendations.

California Recyclers takes preventive maintenance seriously, Parke says, and has a dedicated mechanic on-site for the task. “Maintenance is what is going to eat you alive if you are not careful,” he says.

For that reason, the company follows the baler manufacturer’s suggestions.

Parke adds that the baler’s cooling system helps to keep maintenance to a minimum by reducing oil degradation and keeping rubber seals in good shape so they don’t have to be replaced as frequently.

SHOPPING LIST

When Parke was shopping for California Recyclers’ newest baler, he says one of his primary concerns was finding a machine that offered “beefiness and robustness.”

While California Recyclers can process approximately 20 percent more volume when the company uses the machine in manual mode with an operator, “I run it on automatic 95 percent of the time,” company owner Travis Parke says.

The factor that trumped overall machine construction, however, was spare parts availability. Parke says some baler suppliers don’t have the spare parts inventory that Sierra maintains. “That absolutely excludes those companies from being in the running,” he says. “I cannot afford to buy a $600,000 machine and not run it because they don’t have the spare parts. I don’t want to be down for more than one day.”

As an example, he says when a special motor that runs the conveyor went down, Sierra replaced it the next day. And that’s really the only issue Parke says he has encountered since the baler was installed.

“It is a well-built machine, but the support is also there,” he says.

The author is managing editor of Recycling Today and can be contacted via email at dtoto@gie.net.