Keeping an eye on safety.

Sonoco's paper recycling facility in Columbia, S.C., purchased a single-ram Macpresse 111AS.1 baler in June of 2003 to replace one of the facility's two-ram balers as an experiment. Grady Weaver of Sonoco says the Macpresse baler's reputation for higher-volume production as well as its ability to be run without a dedicated baler operator intrigued the company.

Sonoco has been pleased with its "experiment," particularly with Sierra's willingness to offer customized solutions for the Columbia plant and with the Macpresse baler's safety features. The baler has numerous doors for easy and safe maintenance access and special safety locks to prevent unauthorized access to the doors and hopper. The Safetech Conveyor System also helps Sonoco to put safety at the forefront of its operations.

"Sierra has done a very good job of follow-up," Weaver says. "Just like with any piece of machinery that you start up, you are going to have some up ticks, downturns and glitches. Sierra has always responded whenever we have made calls."

Sonoco and Sierra also worked together to customize the Macpresse baler for the needs of the Columbia facility. "It was somewhat simple, but it allowed us to increase our productivity even more," Weaver says.

Sonoco uses its MAC to bale OCC, newsprint and various high grades. While Weaver hesitates to reveal the Columbia facility's production figures, according to Sierra, the Macpresse baler is capable of baling 25 to 30 tons of OCC, 40 to 55 tons of ONP and 40 to 55 tons of high grade paper hourly, depending on infeed density, moisture content and feed rate.

Weaver says Sonoco achieves better bale density with the Macpresse. "The density of the bale is what has become very important, especially when looking at shipping payloads."

But it's Sierra's safety features that Weaver finds "extremely important." The Macpresse baler is equipped with the Safetech Conveyor System. Two sensors are affixed to the Safetech Tag Belt, which is worn by the workers feeding material onto the conveyor. A Detector Loop containing the receiver is mounted above the conveyor. If a worker should fall onto the conveyor, the Detector Loop receives a signal from the Tag Belt, automatically shutting down the conveyor and baler.

In fact, Weaver was so impressed with the Safetech Conveyor System that he added the feature to an existing baler at the Columbia facility. "It is another way of ratcheting up our safety efforts," he says. "The Safetech technology allows us to be comfortable with our employees who are working around the conveyors."