The Importance of Cardboard Baler Safety Training | QCR

Safety training is essential to ensure operators stay safe and avoid injuries whilst using recycling equipment within the workplace.

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Understanding Cardboard Baler Safety

There’s a lot to think about when installing a new cardboard baler at your business. Not only do you need to choose a location with the appropriate amount of safe working space around it, you also need to think about who will authorised to use it. Users will need to know the ins and outs of how to operate the machine as well as any important related general workplace safety policies and procedures.

Common Safety Hazards

Cardboard balers can pose many hazards which users need to be aware of so that accidents can be avoided. To make sure people know about them, they should be covered in detail during a thorough training session.

Some examples of problems that could arise if people ignore hazards include:

1. Back injuries can occur if people don’t lift bales in the correct way
2. Employees can fall over and hurt themselves if spillages and other obstructions aren’t dealt with before using the machine
3. Certain waste materials such as aerosol cans should not be placed into a baler as they can cause an explosion

The Key Cardboard Baler Safety Considerations

Most importantly, staff shouldn’t operate a baler without appropriate training. Everyone using it should know exactly how to operate it. Different machines have different operating procedures therefore it is important that users receive machine-specific training. For example, staff should know where to locate the key safety features of the machine such as the emergency stop button.

Some specific examples of company specific safety protocols include:

• Who they need to speak to if the machine develops a fault
• How they can request refresher training
• Where they can purchase baler consumables

The machine manual for the machine should be stored in an accessible prominent place to enable users to consult it.

Baler Training Introduction

Before the machine is put into service you will need to decide who will be responsible for pulling together a detailed staff training plan for your employees. This must include training plans for current staff and anyone that joins your company in the future. A step-by-step demonstration of how to use the machine should be included. It should also include other important points such as what to do before operating the machine and scenarios of what could go wrong. If anyone has any questions either during or after the training session, make sure there’s a named competent person who can answer them.

Don’t forget to document all training received by employees in detailed records. When a training session ends, make sure staff have access to any relevant training materials and the full instruction manual. You can do this through digital tools like filming demonstrations that can be watched back. QCR provide free online demonstration videos on our website that can be incorporated into your training program.

Balers supplied by QCR feature a number stickers pinpointing important safety features on the machine. Ensure these stickers are intact, un-obstructed and legible because they act as important safety reminders to users.

If you rent or purchase a baler from QCR, free high-quality training is always available and machine stickers can be ordered. If you rent a baler from us, training can be provided free of charge throughout the length of your contract.

The Benefits of Prioritising Safety

The Health and Safety at Work Act is a primary piece of workplace legislation in the UK. If you break this legislation, your business could end up in serious trouble.

Contact QCR for Your Baler Needs

Cardboard balers come in a variety of sizes and have fundamental differences that impact how quickly and how much material you can load before needing to cycle the machine; as well as the size of material that can fit in.

We have provided some general guidance below:

Filling Opening: Ease of Loading

Consider the size of the cardboard you are looking to recycle. For example, a cardboard sheet that is mm wide x 600m long would not fit in a small baler chamber of 700mm x 450mm without folding both sides.

A large model such as a mill size baler will also have significantly more depth in the chamber allowing you to fill more material before cycling the machine.

Both of these fundamental considerations can save you significant amounts of time, even with our models fast cycling time of only 32 seconds.

Bale Size: Storage and Floor Space

Consider how much space you have in your facility or yard. Two examples of bale sizes:

Typical small balers: 700 x 500 x 500 (L x W x H mm) versus mill size balers: x 800 x

A small bale will require ejecting from the machine regularly, a larger bale will not. A larger bale will also be more structurally sound and safer to stack using a forklift or bale stacker, whilst a smaller bale would be easy to move on a sack truck.

Bale Weight: Maximising Tonnage

If you are limited on space while looking to obtain the best rebates for your recycling bales, you may decide a large vertical baler is your best option.

This is typically the case as most of the larger models will provide a bale that weighs 450kg and up. This means that for every 1 square metre of floor space, with a double stacked bale, you could have around 1 tonne of material. Where safe and appropriate to do so, you could have at least 1.35 tonnes of material stacked 3 high (being 3.3 metres excluding pallets) for every square metre of floor space.

For bales typically stacked 2 high then, with 20 square metres of floor space, you would have an artic load of material.

Based on these tonnages, you would obtain the best market rates, with Compact & Bale offering the below rates:

Rates are per tonne as of April

• Selling cardboard up to £130
• Selling Plastic up to £300
• Selling paper (such as sorted office paper) up to £200
• Selling Tins & Cans up to £250
• Selling Polystyrene up to £550

When looking at a small or medium-mid-range baler you will find that due to the significantly reduced bale weight and size, recycling partners will have to break the bales open and reprocess them into a mill-size bale. This partner will have transported less tonnage on the collecting vehicle, which potentially results in greater costs handling the material. These factors result in a lower rebate paid to you unless the provider is flexibly collecting your material alongside other sites on a route.

Balers for cardboard vary greatly and whilst they are used for the same purpose, they produce vastly different results.

To help you identify which type of machine may be best for you, here are the five different types:

If you want to learn more, please visit our website Cardboard Baling Wire.

Vertical Balers

This type of baler is the most commonly found machine on the market and takes up the smallest footprint by standing upright. They are typically taller than they are wide.

Cardboard press machines of this type can be found in small and low headroom environments or could equally be as tall as 4 metres.

They are ideal for companies with limited space and provide options for small to mid volume producers of waste. You may find these machines are most suitable if you produce less than 20 tonnes of recycling per week.

The more material you need to recycle, the less this range is typically efficient however because you are restricted by the cycle time of the machine. During the machines cycle, the door is closed to the chamber to prevent further filling and potential for injury, you can not continue filling until the door re-opens.

Multi-Chamber Balers

This is a vertical baler but with multiple chambers (up to four). This means you could recycle your cardboard, plastic film, rigid plastics, tins and cans as example, in one machine. You could alternatively, cycle the machine and while it is crushing in one chamber,  continue filling in the other. You might only want to do this however if you do not have headroom for a larger machine.

Horizontal/Semi Automatic Balers

This type is particularly popular for mid to large size producers. This is because the models can come with a splayed hopper which sits atop the machine and can be continually filled while the machine cycles. You can also fit a photocell so that the machine cycles automatically, which ensures the operator only needs to focus on filling the machine with material until the bale is ready to be ejected. This machine typically has significantly less downtime than a vertical baler machine but still requires to be manually tied off once the baler is ready to eject.

Fully Automatic/Channel Balers

Like the above semi automatic balers, these models can be continually fed by a conveyer, chute, bin lift, extraction system by hand and from a dock or ground level.

They will also fully tie the bale and eject out onto a ramp. Dependent on the size of the ramp, you will save significant amounts of labour and prevent production stoppages.

With the right in-feed option you could have a fully autonomous baling operation.

They can also be fitting with modems and other specialist controls to notify remote operators of any issues (such as when the bale ramp is full requiring bales to be collected) as well as to provide controls and timing of material feeds.

Twin-Ram Balers

Two ram balers are the most effective balers for processing different types of material. This could be cardboard, hard plastics, RFD or plastic films; these models produce extreme bale weights and densities.

What’s the difference between a Fully Automatic or Twin?

The main consideration is heavier bale weights and on average a twin ram baler will process wider and greater volumes of waste materials whereas a fully auto or Channel baler is suited only for one material at a time such as for processing cardboard in a production plant, or in a distribution centre.

Our business has been trading since and with a long history comes experience and reach. Our team has grown significantly over this period from a small office to a large production workshop with a highly skilled team of engineers.

Servicing

Our engineers are based around the UK in the South, Midlands and North providing regular Baler Servicing to all our clients.

Servicing is typically carried out every six months and all our customers have an account to access all their maintenance records.

In some instances, servicing may be scheduled more regularly dependent on the size of the cardboard baler and how much use or material it receives.

Breakdowns

In the unlikely event that your cardboard press breaks down, we operate a standard 24 hour call out time to attend and carry out repairs.

Our baler engineers are experienced with repairing all manner of typical faults including those that are very much unexpected.

The good news is, as suppliers of high quality machines, these instances are very much a rare occurrence.

Maintenance Plans

If you are looking to hire a baler then you are fully covered for both periodical servicing and breakdowns.

All repairs include baler parts unless the damage is as a result of user error or negligence.

If you are looking to outright purchase a baler, then we have a number of plans providing excellent cover which are bespoke to each type of machine.

For more information, please visit hay baling wire.