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Horizontal & Vertical Baler Specification

Scope

Vertical Baler – a baling machine permanently situated at a customer’s premises to compact and bale quantities of recyclable waste material, generally clean uncontaminated cardboard and plastics. Vertical balers are available in either single or multi-chamber format, normally loaded by hand and used where lesser volumes of waste material are generated.

Horizontal Baler – a larger baling machine permanently situated at a customer’s premises to compact and bale larger quantities of recyclable waste material as previously mentioned, but can be adapted to handle more aggressive materials such as, metal containers, industrial plastic, tyres etc. Horizontal balers are often designed to be loaded mechanically by forklift truck, bin lifter attachments or conveyors.

This specification is not exhaustive and does not replace any legal and or other standards, such as BS EN ISO standards.

Site Suitability

The compactor shall be sited on firm level ground free from obvious slip, trip and fall hazards. The ground should also be capable of withstanding the weight of the machine and the larger quantities of waste contained within.

There shall be reasonable and safe access for persons and vehicles, forklift trucks etc., to enable safe loading of the baler.

All baling machines shall be adequately secured to the ground to ensure efficiency of use.

Electrical Installation

The electrical supply shall be routed to minimise the likelihood of damage including from vehicle impact and running-over from vehicles used for loading.

The baler shall be fitted with an electrical isolator that is physically capable of being locked in the "off" position. If the baler is to be located in an area where the public may gain easy access (even by trespass) the isolator should be located in a secure location such as inside a building rather than being easily accessible from outside.

All electrical connections and equipment shall be to IEC standards.

Power cable runs to vertical and horizontal balers shall be minimised and not intrude into walkways or vehicle routes.

Control circuits shall operate at low voltage (24v).

Dual channel safety relay systems will be used on all units.

Controls & Markings

All controls and indicators, such as lights etc, shall be clearly and durably labelled with their function and/or meaning.

All labels and signs shall comply with the requirements of The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations and use pictograms wherever practical. As a minimum the following warning signs, including pictograms and words, shall be fitted:

• No climbing signs on all hoppers with open tops and bin-lift cages with open tops such as those designed to be loaded by forklifts
• No entry and danger signs on all bolted plate guards, such as over ram chambers
• No entry except under lock-off and danger signs on all interlocked doors, lids etc
• No entry except under lock-off and danger signs on all bin-lift enclosure doors

In addition to the above warning signs the below information signs shall be fitted:

• Basic operating instructions in an obvious position, such as on the inside or outside of control box doors and a warning that only trained persons are to operate the baling machine.
• Instructions to report all defects promptly plus contact details for defect reporting.
• Warning not to use the baler should a safety defect be discovered.
• Warning not to place unsuitable waste materials into units including examples of what is unsuitable.

"Hold to run" controls shall be clearly identified as such.

The controls shall be located in a position that enables the operator to have a clear view of the balers loading area.

Controls for bin lifts shall be of the "hold to run" type

There shall be a minimum of one emergency stop button or bar in the immediate vicinity of each loading position. Where required by risk assessment further emergency stop button/s should be located elsewhere on the machine. Or in areas that the risk assessment indicates a greater level of control, trapped key systems (such as Castell Captive Key System) can be utilised.

Conveyors feeding baling machines shall be fitted with trip wires that when activated will immediately stop all machinery movement.

The pressure to the hydraulic cylinders shall be released on activation of the emergency stop/s.

Guarding

All balers supplied will comply with the requirements of the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations and relevant standards and essential health and safety requirements. Access doors, hatches and fixed guards shall be:

• Either, bolted or otherwise secured in the closed position
• Or, interlocked with the power supply

For balers loaded by hand only twin or multi-chamber balers will have open top hoppers, the activation of the compaction head will not however be activated until the chamber is covered and interlocked. For all other applications:

• Either the hopper shall be covered completely by a fixed guard fitted with an interlocked door through which waste can be loaded
• Or, an interlocked guard/lid which totally encloses the hopper shall be installed to protect the loading hopper

Whichever method is used it must not be possible to load the hopper by hand while the compactor is operating.

The interlock shall disable the main power unit immediately the cover is opened. Where weight of guard is an issue (under the Manual Handling Operations Regulations) the guard shall be lift assisted (hydraulic, sprung or counterbalanced) for ease of operation.

The hoppers of balers that are loaded only by forklift trucks can be designed to comply with BS EN 294. However, load lip; height shall be a minimum of 1.8 metres and hoppers will be fitted with clear signs prohibiting climbing and warning that the unit must not be hand loaded.

Interlocks

Interlocks may be either mechanical, hydraulic or electrical. All electrical interlocks shall be to relevant standards (e.g. BS EN 954-1, BS EN 1088) and for redundant operation. A monitored, low voltage safety circuit shall protect interlock circuits.

For all interlocks the risk assessment principles in BS EN 1088 will be adhered to in the choice of interlock type and design. However:

• All interlocks shall be robust and suitable for the environment in which they are to be used
• All interlocks shall be designed and positioned to minimise the likelihood of tampering and inadvertent damage
• For installations of a particular hazardous nature, trapped key system will be adopted.

Interlocks shall where practical be capable of adjustment to remove slack in their operation With doors and lids Interlocks must activate before being open to the distances laid out in BS EN 294 for upper limbs for gaps in guards relative to the distance to the danger zone

Where whole body insertion is a potential risk, such as doors in bin-lift enclosures, interlocks must activate before the door opens to 150 mm

Bin-Lifts

Where a bin lift loading mechanism is fitted, the bin lift shall be totally enclosed by a suitable guard to a height of at least 2.5m.

The access gate to the lifting enclosure shall be protected by interlocked guards which when opened will arrest the motion of the bin lift mechanism. This interlock/s will activate before the access gate/s has opened to 150 mm.

The cage will be interlocked to the baler to prevent operation with the cage removed. Such interlocking will be designed so that cages cannot be moved into alternative positions and reconnected allowing operation without the cage being fully in place.

The safe working load of the bin lift should be clearly marked on the equipment.

Lift rams shall be fitted with valves to prevent descent of the lift in the event of failure.

CE Marking and Standards adhered to:

The safeguarding of the compactor shall meet the requirements of the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992 and relevant standards e.g. BS EN 1050, 249 etc. Risk assessments for the design of compactors, interlock selection and guard design.

A CE mark shall be clearly displayed on the compactor and an EU declaration of conformity will be supplied before the compactor is put into use.

BS, BS EN and other standards adhered to include, where relevant:

• Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations – general principles and requirements
• Safety Signs and Signals Regulations – requirements for visual signs
• BS. EN. ISO. 12100-1:2003 Safety of Machinery – Basic concepts, general principles for design. Part 1. Basic terminology, methodology.
• BS. EN. ISO 12100-2:2003 Safety of Machinery – Basic concepts, general principles for design. Part 2. Technical principles.
• BS. EN. 60204-1:2006 Safety of Machinery. Electrical equipment of Machines.
• BS. EN. 294 – safety of machinery – safety distances to prevent danger zones being reached by the upper limbs.
• BS. EN. 349 – safety of machinery - minimum gaps to avoid crushing of parts of human body.
• BS. EN. 418 – safety of machinery – emergency stop equipment, functional aspects – principles for design
• BS. EN. 457 – safety of machinery – auditory danger signals – general requirements.
• BS. EN. 547 Part 1 – safety of machinery – human body measurements Part 1 principles for determining the dimensions required for openings for the whole body access into machinery.
• BS. EN. 547 Part 2 – safety of machinery – human body measurements Part 2 principles for determining the dimensions required for access openings.
• BS. EN. 574 – safety of machinery – two-hand control devices – functional aspects.
• BS. EN. 811 – safety of machinery – safety distances to prevent danger zones being reached by the lower limbs
• BS. EN. 842 – safety of machinery – visual danger signals – general requirements
• BS. EN. 953 – safety of machinery – guards – general requirements for the design and construction of fixed and moveable guards
• BS. EN. 1037 – safety of machinery – prevention of unexpected start-up
• BS. EN. 1050 – safety of machinery – principles for risk assessment
• BS. EN. 1088 – safety of machinery – interlocking devices associated with guards – principles for design and selection
• PD 5304 (BSI published document) – safe use of machinery (NOTE – to be used when the above specific standards do not cover a particular aspect of machine safety)

  Download the Horizontal and Vertical Balers Secification Sheet