A faster baler means more profit.

Mario Jurcik, owner of Dupage Paper Stock, Streamwood, Ill., has 30 years of experience in the paper recycling industry. During his career, which has included stints with Waste Management and Container Corp., he's worked with numerous balers. But it was a recommendation from a friend and fellow paper packer that led Jurcik to purchase a Macpresse 110 baler from Sierra International Machinery for his newly constructed paper packing plant.

Tim Haugh of Evergreen Paper in Fort Worth suggested that he look at the baler. Jurcik was already familiar with the Macpresse line from his dealings with Weyerhaeuser. "I saw their baler," he says of Weyerhaeuser's Macpresse, "and I liked what I saw."

A 12,000-square-foot building with 14 docks houses the newly constructed Dupage plant. With the building's limited space, he says, "You have to have something that will bale it up quick." He got just that with the Macpresse 110.

The plant easily processes 4,500 tons of paper per month with one shift per day. "At the end of the day, everything is on trailers, ready to ship. It's a combination of the machinery and the building design that really works well."

The horizontal Macpresse 110 allows Jurcik the flexibility to bale numerous grades daily, as bales can be tied off midstream. "If it meets mill specs, then we'll ship it as is. If it's below mill specs, we'll just take it back to the appropriate bunker or staging area, cut the wires and re-bale it the next time around."

Regardless of the grade, Dupage creates a 54-inch bale. Using the Macpresse 110, Dupage averages 1,500- to 1,540-pound bales of OCC; 1,800- to 1,900-pound bales of ledger; 2,000-pound bales of book stock; and 2,200- to 2,400-pound bales of sections, which Jurcik says compact the best.

"We've made some bales of sections that were roughly 60 inches in length that have gone over 3,000 pounds," Jurcik says. He adds, "As many times as we might handle the bale, it's still a solid, brick-like bale."

In addition to the density and strength of the bales produced by the Macpresse, the machine's overall engineering and safety features please Jurcik.

Sierra's Safetech System employs safety belts with sensors that are worn by the personnel who are feeding material onto the conveyor. A detector loop containing a receiver is mounted above the conveyor. If a worker should fall onto the conveyor, the detector loop receives a signal from the belt, stopping the conveyor and baler.

Jurcik says equipping a new plant inevitably leads to some disappointment, but that has not been the case with his Macpresse and the conveyor system Sierra engineered to maximize material flow into the chamber.

"I'm happy that it's doing what it's supposed to for us," Jurcik says of the baler. "It's well built, easily maintained, and it makes a beautiful bale."