The employees throw the cardboard into the collection cart. When it’s full, the collection cart is simply pushed into the press. The AutoLoadBaler empties the collection cart, and the baling chamber is filled automatically. After that the material is compressed with a pressing force of around 53 tons into a bale that can be sold directly. After two to three days at Rewe Wutke store a bale with 400 kg accrue. The bale is tied off with four wires. Even inexperienced people can strap the bale without any effort thanks to the equipment supplied. Thanks to the convenient and safe bale ejection, the tied bale can simply be placed on a pallet for transport and transported away with a lift truck. What sounds easy in theory also passes the practical test. At least that’s what Alexander Wutke, owner of the Rewe market Wutke in Bad Heilbrunn in Upper Bavaria, can only confirm. “The press is so important for us,” he says, “and it makes work a lot easier.”
There are 22 employees in his store who ensure that the customer feels comfortable in the store and that they receive expert support if they have any questions or requests. They can now devote more time to this – their actual – task, since filling of the baler and time-consuming shredding and stacking of cardboard is no longer necessary. The cardboard no longer has to be re-sorted in the head office but can be handed over directly for recycling and thus fed back into the material cycle. “We used to have to tear the boxes apart by hand, load them onto the roll containers and then throw everything into the press ourselves,” recalls store manager Michaela Markreiter. That took a lot of time and was quite exhausting. It was not uncommon for the hands to be cut by the razor-sharp edges.
In order to keep small cardboard boxes from falling out when they were collected, the “trolleys” were wrapped in film. Often the collected cardboard also caused space problems. And everyone in food retail knows how valuable warehouse space is. In the Bad Heilbrunn Rewe store, these efforts have been important that’s why Alexander Wutke wanted to use the AutoLoadBaler right from the start. “I knew it would change our whole situation,” he recalls. The 36-year-old completed his training and various departments at Rewe and has found that conventional baler always requires a lot of extra work, which takes time and, of course, causes costs. “We could hardly cope with the number of boxes that accumulate with the fruit and vegetable deliveries in the morning alone,” says Wutke. With the AutoLoadBaler, we do not only increase the profitability of the operation, but also the satisfaction for our employees because a lot of stress is eliminated. Even a loss of staff can now be better dealt with, since some time-consuming work steps are no longer necessary.
The AutoLoadBaler’s collection cart are easy-to-move. Much better than the collection trolleys. While one collection cart is being emptied in the baler, two more are in use in the store, so there is no waiting. “The faster work is also reflected in the shop and that ultimately benefits the customer,” says Michaela Markreiter. All in all, she and her boss think things just look tidier in their 970 square meter supermarket and in the warehouse. Smart detail: the side walls of the collection cart can be used as advertising space, either for the market itself or for local companies.
The press itself is 3.05 meters high and requires only 4.5 square meters of floor space. Pushing the filled collection cart into the side of the baler is uncomplicated and effortless. The closed system ensures a high level of operator safety. There is a detailed briefing for the employees and once a year a service employee comes for maintenance. “Up until now, everything has always been flawless,” says Alexander Wutke. He’s a fan of the AutoLoadBaler, his “baby”, as he says jokingly: “This baler is the best thing Rewe could have done for me. I can only recommend it.”
What makes the AutoLoadBaler an r(e)volution?
The AutoLoadBaler revolutionizes the cardboard disposal process in all retail, logistics and manufacturing applications. Time-consuming filling work that previously had to be done manually is now automatically. It is no longer the operator, but the intelligent system that monitors and controls both the filling of the baler and the compaction. Practical experience and studies show a saving in working time of up to 3 hours and 43.5 minutes per bale – this corresponds to an increase in productivity of over 800%. The automation results in even, stackable bales weighing more than 400 kilograms, which can be marketed directly to the paper mills.
