Re: Bale buster update...Who makes the best square baler???

Posted by ss55 on March 27, 2013 at 06:08:43 from (173.31.19.80):

In Reply to: Bale buster update...Who makes the best square baler??? posted by NCWayne on March 26, 2013 at 21:14:40:

I'll add one more person's opinion.

Bales per hour is very subjective rating. In theory an average mid-sized baler running at 90 strokes per minute averaging 3 inch slices every stroke would produce 7 and 1/2 36 inch long bales per minute, or 450 bales per hour at 100% utilization (12 slices per 36 inch bale). At 50 pounds per bale average, that's just over 11 tons per hour (potentially) through a mid-sized baler. Most factories strive for 85% minimum utilization and often achive over 90%. Is the baler powered by a large electric motor instead of an engine?

Perhaps your customer should be shopping for balers rated in tons per hour, for a service life in tons between rebuilds, and for knotters rated in ties between rebuilds.

Farm balers are designed to be moving in open fields with plenty of air circulating around the machine, and space for dirt to fall away from the machine as it shakes and bounces around the field. When the machine is working hard the main slip clutch/over-running clutch can slip a little during every plunger stroke. The repeated slipping will generate heat, but moving through a field there is sufficient air movement to cool the clutch. Yes the knotters get covered, in leaves, newer machines cover the knotters to keep them cleaner, but the operator still has to manually clear off the knotters on at regular intervals.

If you run that same machine in a stationary position, with limited air movement and limited space for dirt to fall away, the machine can quickly have several feet of flamable dust and dry leaves piled up around it. That main slip clutch will run a lot hotter without sufficient air flow and it could become a fire hazard, even when everything is in good working condition. The factory representatives are right to distance themselves from that kind of reduced reliability and potential fire hazard liability. Is your customer providing ducted cooling air to the slip clutches and either manual or automatic dirt removal from around the machine?

In short, your customer may need a more expensive Freeman baler to meet his production needs. He may want to have two or even three new Freeman balers setup for quick change-out if the rest of the bale buster proves to be sufficiently reliable.

It sounds like an interesting setup, quasi-industrial. Please keep us posted on their progess and their teething pains (every indusrial project has start-up problems, that just part of the process).

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