Solutions For Waste Handling And Recycling
Harmony Enterprises has more than a half-century of experience making the earth a more sustainable place for future generations. But, how do we do it? As the third largest manufacturer of balers and compactors in the United States, we provide waste handling and recycling solutions to businesses around the world.
When telling our story, or giving tours to groups in our manufacturing facility, we often take for granted that people understand our product line, and the important role each product or service plays in sustainability or waste management. After all, what is a baler anyway?
This post provides a quick answer to this oft asked question.
What Is A Baler?
Balers are machines used in the recycling process. These compactors for recycling all work in basically the same way. A recyclable commodity like cardboard, aluminum, plastic, paper products, shrink wrap, tires, or non-ferrous metal is loaded into the baler chamber. A platen at the end of a hydraulic cylinder compresses the material until a desired bale size is reached. The bale is then tied off with wire or strapping, and is ejected onto a cart, pallet, or forklift. It is then shipped to be recycled and earn additional revenue. Just as importantly as generating income, recycling with a baler keeps these valuable materials from being added to the already burdened waste stream, keeps your operating area clean, and free from fire or other safety hazards.
There are several types of recycling equipment, including Vertical Balers, Horizontal Balers, Liquid Extraction Balers. Each kind serves a unique function and can come in a variety of sizes.
What Are The Different Kinds Of Balers?
Vertical Balers
Our M60CB Vertical Cardboard baler in use at a large retail store in Amarillo, TX.
Harmony’s vertical balers range in size from 30″ to 72″. Some, like our M42BC come on casters and can fit through a normal sized doorway. Our M60MD is a low profile baler that makes a 60″ bale in areas with limited ceiling space. Others, like our M72HD have an extra large door opening to allow large boxes to be loaded without taking the time break them down first. For high volume situations, Harmony’s T60XDRC Automatic Vertical Baler operates with a rear conveyor, allowing for high density bales to be continuously made without pre-conditioning. We have made a very easy to understand and helpful guide about all of our vertical balers call Vertical Balers By Harmony. Be sure to read it to learn what you need to know before making your next purchase.
Horizontal Balers
Horizontal are typically larger models that are ideal for recycling centers, distribution facilities, or scrap yards. These businesses typically have high volumes of products that need to be baled quickly and in dense bales.
Horizontal balers can be manually fed or conveyor fed from ground level, a pit, or from more sophisticated configurations. Harmony offers three types of horizontal balers, a closed door full eject baler, an open end auto tie baler, and a two ram horizontal baler.
Harmony’s HM-2R185 Horizontal Baler in a northern MN recycling center.
Our HM-60 Closed Door Manual Tie Baler is the industry standard for a mill-sized horizontal baler. Harmony’s HM-A160 is an A-frame style auto-tie baler ideal for recycling paper and fiberous materials continuously. Our HM-2R185 is our two ram baler that uses a built-in shear and eliminates bale contamination.
Liquid Extraction Balers
A liquid extraction baler is a special type of product destruction baler that perforates a liquid container, allows the liquid to drain out into a pan, hose, or pipe, and then bales the residual aluminum, PET, or TetraPak for recycling. This is important for businesses that have out of date product that needs to be destroyed and who need to update SKU’s.
Liquid Extraction Balers can be vertical or horizontal in orientation. Some use the same principle as other balers, but have “teeth” in the chamber that puncture the cans or bottles. Others have drum crushers that spin at high rates of revolution and perforate the materials that way.
The ExtractPack is the vertical liquid extraction baler for aluminum, PET, and TetraPak
Depending on the size of bottling, brewing, or contract packaging operation, Harmony has a full line of ExtractPack liquid extraction balers for every need. All of them are constructed with stainless steel baling chamber, platens, charge openings, and drip pans. Their electrical components and switched are all water-proofed and NEMA rated for protection.
The ExtractPack, the smallest in our line, is a vertical baler that requires minimum operating space. It is usually hand fed through a loading door in the front of the baler.
The ExtractPack Plus is the smaller version of our horizontal liquid extraction machine. It holds an amazing 207 gallons of liquid in its reservoir.
The ExtractPack Max is the largest of our horizontal liquid extraction equipment, using up to 25,000 aluminum cans to make a 60″ bale.
Stay tuned in the coming months for more exciting news about the newest liquid extraction machine from Harmony, the ExtractPack Pro!
Your Waste Handling And Recycling Resource!
We hope you found this post helpful. Be sure to follow our weekly blogs as we are soon to answer the question of “What Is A Compactor”? If you have any questions about our quality balers and services, or would like to know where in your area you can recycle your bales, Contact Us or give us a call at 507-886-6666 today!
