What is the difference between a shear baler and a prepress baler?

A prepress baler uses vertical and horizontal presses to compact material into a bale. A shear baler uses a combination of cutting equipment and presses to compact material into a bale.

What is a prepress baler?

A prepress baler relies on compaction alone to create a bale of material. Material goes up a conveyor into the ‘hopper’ at the top of the machine. This then falls into the compaction compartment where it is compressed to the optimum density. The material is not cut in the process.

Is a prepress baler more efficient than a shear baler?

A prepress baler is more energy efficient than a shear baler because all of the energy is used to compact the material. A shear baler uses additional energy to cut material before it is compacted.

When it comes to maintaining and servicing, a prepress baler is quicker and easier to manage as there are less working parts.

What is your product?

Presona manufacture a large range of fully automatic balers, conveyors, air systems and compactors. The LP140 XHK2S is the biggest member of the Presona baler family. It’s pure size and power is capable of crushing product with up to 140 tonnes worth of pressure. To put it into perspective, the pressure used to mint a coin is around 60 tonne, and this baler is over double that to make a coin.

How does it work?

Presona balers are all fully automatic and equipped with Presona’s ‘Prepress Technology’. Loose material is fed into the baler, the prepress is then activated, compacting the material downward into the baler chamber. Once the prepress is fully inward the main press cycles, making the bale. The required bale length is then made and the bale is automatically tied with wire or polypropylene string for RDF & SRF. The resulting bale is very dense and homogenous.

Where would it ideally be used?

Presona balers are used in a wide variety of companies, major distribution centres, paper merchants, skip companies, recycling companies, printers, manufacturing and many others.

How is it different?

Presona balers are equipped with the Presona ‘Prepress technology’ which reduces energy consumption compared to typical ‘shear’ balers (up to 60% in some cases) as the product is folded instead of being cut.

What benefits does it offer?

Presona balers are renowned throughout the industry as being exceptionally reliable. We also believe that the newer balers are the most energy efficient on the market today. With power costs always increasing, this is something our customers are very pleased with.

Where has it been used?

We have balers installed in major supermarket distribution centres around the county. These centres take back the packaging from food and household items from the stores; this is then processed through our balers to help keep transport costs of sending the material to the mills to a minimum. We also have our balers in some of the major logistics sectors that help to cut the costs of transport around the country.

Cost?

Every machine quotation is different as each customer has different demands for their baling equipment, with a vast range of extras from remote displays, platforms and bale tracks to waste linings, inverter drives and different baler colours. The machine can all be adapted to suit every customers requirements.

Any savings?

Presona balers are typically 60% more energy efficient than typical ‘shear’ balers and with an outstanding build quality will give many years of uninterrupted service. Also with minimal wear to components and higher specification on parts and spares, running cost are kept to a minimum.

What about maintenance?

As with all equipment, regular maintenance is essential to keep the equipment in top condition. During the installation stage, the customer is shown essential daily/weekly maintenance that can be carried out in house. Presona offers maintenance packages based on the working hours of the machine and the actual requirements of each customer.

What is its life span?

We have machines that are over 40 years old, still in operation and still working reliably every day.

How is it future-proofed?

Constantly updating and developing the product to improve reliability, reduce energy consumption whilst making a baler to create the highest possible bale density for every product.

How many have you sold and where?

There are approximately 150 Presona balers within the UK. There are also Presona balers all around the world covering over 60 different countries, each adapted to suit every individual need for the customers site.