Strautmann equipment automates baling at warehouse

An AutoLoadBaler and BalePress made by Germany-based Strautmann Umwelttechnik is helping to prepare scrap cardboard and plastic film for recycling at a warehouse operated by BayWa AG in Röthlein, Germany. Strautmann says the new equipment is helping BayWa save €33,000 ($35,000) per year.

Strautmann describes Munich-based BayWa AG as “one of the largest full-range centers and suppliers [of] products for the agricultural” sector in Germany. The company installed the Strautmann AutoLoadBaler in 2016. “It not only guarantees an easy and comfortable disposal, it also saves time of up to 4,000 hours annually,” says Strautmann.

Thanks to its small footprint, the AutoLoadBaler was positioned centrally in BayWa’s logistics centre, says Strautmann. 100 tonnes of cardboard and 5 tonnes of plastic film are collected annually in 10 collection trolleys at the Röthlein facility. The cardboard is stored directly at source in a collecting trolley and then pushed into the side of the bale, where an employee starts the emptying process by pushing a button.

The moveable ground of the collecting trolley is conveyed upward by a scissor lift. The cardboard then reaches a rotor that conveys the cardboard boxes into the press chamber. After that the cardboard is compacted into a bale. No manual emptying takes place, as the collection trolley empties itself automatically.

The AutoLoadBaler compacts cardboard with 530 kilonewtons of pressing force into 400-kilogram, “directly marketable” bales, says Strautmann.

“With the AutoLoadBaler, we have now a space-saving and automatic disposal solution that is amortized within nine months,” says Michael Hunstock, head of logistics at the Baywa AG facility in Röthlein. “Our walking routes and disposal times have been greatly reduced [by the unit]."

“The uniqueness of the machine was the main reason for the purchase,” he continues. “Other competitors offer disposal solutions [but] no one else could offer us such [an automated] solution,” adds Hunstock.

The plastic film at BayWa also needed to be compacted easily, so now a film bag is attached to each collection trolley of the AutoLoadBaler. As soon as the film bag is full, it is brought to the BalePress positioned next to the AutoLoadBaler. The film bag is removed from the holding of the collecting trolley and placed into the BalePress. With a pressing force of 6 tonnes, the press plate compacts the film into a 60-to-80-kilogram film bale.

Previously, cardboard had been collected in pallet cages and film was collected in film bags. The materials were transported to the press container outside. Once outside, the pallet cages had to be emptied manually and “precrushed” manually by employees. The employees also were exposed to long walks, sometimes in unpleasant weather. Strautmann and BayWa say the previous procedure “was time consuming and took the staff lots of strength.”