HSM balers keep Polish recycler’s material moving

Extrusion (channel) balers supplied by Frickingen, Germany-based HSM GmbH + Co. KG have received an endorsement from Polish recycling company P.U.H. Kondzłomex, where they have been on the job for more than two decades.

The family company P.U.H. Kondzłomex, owned by Szymon Woźny, has been collecting and recycling scrap paper and other materials for more than 20 years and has been using HSM balers “right from the start,” according to the equipment maker.

An HSM extrusion baler installed in Szydłowo, Poland, in 2013 was no longer able to cope with the increasing throughput at P.U.H. Kondzłomex, so after conducting research the firm purchased an HSM VK 6015 model.

The Polish recycling company first came into contact with HSM when it began operating in 1995 when it purchased a second-hand HSM vertical baler. As the company grew, it needed to supplement the vertical baler with a machine with higher throughput.

P.U.H. Kondzłomex turned to HSM Polska, the Polish subsidiary of HSM, and purchased a pre-owned automated extrusion baler, which it put into operation in 2009. That machine was replaced by a new HSM VK 4212 model in 2013. 

That machine ran smoothly, as did the previous HSM models, but its throughput capacity was no longer enough to cope with the increasing amount of material flowing into the P.U.H. Kondzłomex plant, according to HSM.

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The Polish paper recycling firm opted to seek a new baler with accompanying conveyors that could be “directly fitted with a front loader,” says HSM. This configuration reduces time spent feeding material and freed up employees to pre-sort some material manually. “If the bales are not properly sorted, no one will buy them from you,” remarks Woźny.

As well as buying back the existing baler, HSM said it would dismantle the old machine and install the new one. HSM also supplied a horizontal bale strapping system, “which is much more suitable for shredded paper than the vertical strapping used by most manufacturers,” says the firm.

The HSM VK 6015 model delivered has a compression force of 720 kilonewtons and throughput capacity of up to 9 tons per hour, says HSM. The new baler was able to fit into P.U.H. Kondzłomex’s existing space, with only the bale chute ending up in front of the plant. The baler’s high degree of compression was critical for the Polish firm because its highest volume material– shredded paper–requires significant force to be converted into bales of up to 470 kilograms (1,035 pounds).

Production scrap from a nearby printing plant, as well as small quantities of old corrugated containers (OCC) and foil, are now processed in the HSM baler in a single-shift operation, five days a week.

“The collaboration and commitment of the sales staff at HSM and its individual approach to problems is truly outstanding,” says Woźny. “HSM tries to work with customers to find an individual solution, and this has given us renewed and sustained confidence in its overall approach.”

In addition to the new HSM VK 6015 extrusion baler, P.U.H. Kondzłomex also uses two vertical balers from HSM, so smaller quantities of other materials can be processed at the same time if the extrusion baler is being used for a different material.