Achieving baler redundancy

Balers often are looked at as the heart of a recycling system, yet many in the industry agree they frequently can be overlooked when planning and designing material recovery facilities (MRFs). During a webinar at last year’s MRF Operations Forum, one expert even referred to the equipment as an “afterthought.”

Unfortunately, the minimal attention paid to balers has created a lack of what has become known as “baler redundancy.” Mark Neitzey, director of sales at Van Dyk Recycling Solutions, Norwalk, Connecticut, says having a backup baler is a good first step to achieving true baler redundancy, but several other factors should be considered if a MRF is to avoid operational bottlenecks.

Neitzey says many MRF operators overlook the bigger picture of what having true baler redundancy means for their facilities. Often, he says, operators view their second baler as a secondary piece of equipment, particularly if they’re only baling a few tons per hour.

“Any plant needs two equal-performing balers, so if one of them goes down the other one can pick up the slack,” Neitzey says. “It gets overlooked by people buying equipment for their facility. … For a little bit more money, if you bought two of the exact same baler—and they don’t have to be the exact brand or the exact model, but they have to have the [same] capabilities and capacity—you [avoid slowdowns].”

He uses the example of a delivery business, saying that if you had to load a certain amount of material into one of two different trucks and move it from Cleveland to Chicago, and one of your trucks broke down, you’d still want to be able to make the delivery happen with the other truck. “If one of your trucks breaks down, and you have a 1973 Ford Pinto as your other truck, that’s a problem.”

For a MRF to establish true baler redundancy, operators should consider several factors:

• All balers must be capable of baling every commodity the facility produces.
• All balers must have the speed to handle the full capacity of the system.
• The system design must include conveyors that efficiently carry each commodity to either baler.

Neitzey says most MRFs typically have two balers—one for fiber and one for making dense container bales—and that customers often ask for both a single-ram and two-ram baler for their facilities. He says he doesn’t disagree with facilities having a single- and two-ram baler, but to achieve true baler redundancy, the equipment must have the same speed for all commodities and a conveyor system capable of handling all the material. “That’s not as easy as you think, and it’s not as common as you think,” he says.

Neitzey adds that if one machine moves quickly and the other moves slowly, the plant will slow way down if one of the balers stops working altogether. “We’re trying not to miss a beat if one of the balers goes down. That’s the common theme,” hesays.

Typically, the advantage with a single-ram baler is the ability to achieve higher throughput on certain grades of fiber, and the advantage with a two-ram is that a MRF is able to achieve a higher-density bale at a slower speed than a single-ram, according to experts who spoke with Recycling Today in 2020. But Neitzey says those stereotypes need to be broken. “The balers are now tied to these systems, meaning the system can only work as fast as the baler can work,” he says. “So those balers need to be able to handle every commodity. Both balers need to handle every commodity and not miss a beat and maintain the same speed.”

But, Neitzey says, none of this can be achieved if a facility does not plan for a backup baler. Of the facilities he’s seen, he says approximately 90 percent have a second baler, but not necessarily baler redundancy. He adds that while any level of redundancy is a good thing for a MRF, “if you don’t already preplan to have a second baler put in, you’re going to really [have your] hands tied behind your back.”

Neitzey advises visiting other facilities and asking operators what happens if one of their balers go down. Some questions include: Do you have to slow the line down if a baler goes down? If so, how much do you have to slow the line down? Why do you have to slow the line down? What would you have done differently?

“Show me how every grade needs to be baled because usually there’s 10 different things that need to be baled,” Neitzey says. “Show me how they all get to both balers. Even if it’s an emergency and you only do it five times a year, how does [it function] those five times a year? Are you running at 25 percent? At 50 percent? Are you able to run it at 100 percent? It gets overlooked in almost every design, or it’s a budget cut and it shouldn’t be.

He adds, “This is a $20-million decision. Take a couple extra weeks and go see other facilities. … People get focused on what they’re doing and they don’t go and see just even close by what others are doing. … Just ask basic questions.”