Recycling cardboard. Bale compressor. Real world experience wanted.

[stuckmotor]

He was trying to sell water to the recycler.

Steve

I think he said they wanted the cardboard wet. It's always been difficult for me to accept that some people tell lies.

 

[DT86]

It's always been difficult for me to accept that some people tell lies.

That makes your life much more difficult than it needs to be.

 

[mikehaugen]

I work in a corrugated box plant where we make a LOT of scrap. There are blowers with ductwork (on the roof) from all of the machines that go to a central baler. The paper is misted with water as it fall down a chute into the baler to cut down on dust and to make the bales compact better. This is a continuous baler... the scrap drops in front of a ram that pushes it through a tunnel. The last 2 bales are still in the tunnel and with the weight and friction create enough pressure for the ram to push against. After a programmed number of ram cycles it will tie off the bale (depending on how long you want the bale). The bales are maybe 30" wide, 4' tall and about 7' long. They weigh around 1500# each. My best guess is that we make about 60 of these per day.

They get hauled off to a recycling center, but it is part of the same corporation so as far as cost it is hard to figure, since they can crunch the numbers however they want depending on which division of the corporation they want to make money. For example, we also get our rolls of raw paper from mills in the same corporation. We "buy" them from the mills. They want the mills to make money so we pay a lot for them. Our plant usually breaks even or makes a a couple hundred hundred grand a month, but we are expected to be a couple hundred grand in the red... but it still comes out as a net gain for the corporation- we are just here to eat up paper to make the mills money. I am not a business person, so I can't explain when/why they want to do things the way they do. My guess is they want to the roll price to be high for when they sell them to other companies. I guess my point is that they probably want to keep the scrap prices low so they don't have to pay out a lot when they buy it from other companies. My company is large enough to have a lot of influence on the market values of paper.

 

[stuckmotor]

That makes your life much more difficult than it needs to be.

This is true.

 

[SPIKER]

I work in a corrugated box plant where we make a LOT of scrap. There are blowers with ductwork (on the roof) from all of the machines that go to a central baler. The paper is misted with water as it fall down a chute into the baler to cut down on dust and to make the bales compact better. This is a continuous baler... the scrap drops in front of a ram that pushes it through a tunnel. The last 2 bales are still in the tunnel and with the weight and friction create enough pressure for the ram to push against. After a programmed number of ram cycles it will tie off the bale (depending on how long you want the bale). The bales are maybe 30" wide, 4' tall and about 7' long. They weigh around 1500# each. My best guess is that we make about 60 of these per day.

They get hauled off to a recycling center, but it is part of the same corporation so as far as cost it is hard to figure, since they can crunch the numbers however they want depending on which division of the corporation they want to make money. For example, we also get our rolls of raw paper from mills in the same corporation. We "buy" them from the mills. They want the mills to make money so we pay a lot for them. Our plant usually breaks even or makes a a couple hundred hundred grand a month, but we are expected to be a couple hundred grand in the red... but it still comes out as a net gain for the corporation- we are just here to eat up paper to make the mills money. I am not a business person, so I can't explain when/why they want to do things the way they do. My guess is they want to the roll price to be high for when they sell them to other companies. I guess my point is that they probably want to keep the scrap prices low so they don't have to pay out a lot when they buy it from other companies. My company is large enough to have a lot of influence on the market values of paper.

Sounds like IP I did 3 or 4 months in the maintenance department at their plant in Wooster Ohio. They were about word for word , this was back in 2001-ish... The weeks of Thanksgiving the Maintenance manager called a big meeting laid out all these plans for the long weekend & that we were all going to be 10 or 12 hr shifts. He looked at me and said I was going to go home and come back in a few hours and work 2nd shift, and be on 2nds from then on. He said how does that sound I said nope don;t sound right to me. He said I didn't have a choice I laughed and said ya I do, I quit! all the guys in the maintenance department were pretty good but this guy treated everyone like crap! Ya he got fired a few weeks later after I told them why I quit The other guys backed up what had happened it was a union shop but I had not joined yet so he felt he could do what ever and I would be a pushover. NOT !

Mark

 

[mikehaugen]

Sounds like IP I did 3 or 4 months in the maintenance department at their plant in Wooster Ohio. They were about word for word , this was back in 2001-ish... The weeks of Thanksgiving the Maintenance manager called a big meeting laid out all these plans for the long weekend & that we were all going to be 10 or 12 hr shifts. He looked at me and said I was going to go home and come back in a few hours and work 2nd shift, and be on 2nds from then on. He said how does that sound I said nope don;t sound right to me. He said I didn't have a choice I laughed and said ya I do, I quit! all the guys in the maintenance department were pretty good but this guy treated everyone like crap! Ya he got fired a few weeks later after I told them why I quit The other guys backed up what had happened it was a union shop but I had not joined yet so he felt he could do what ever and I would be a pushover. NOT !

Mark

Good guess Mark! It is IP... I've been here for 7 years in maintenance but I started as a Weyerhaeuser employee before IP decided they wanted to buy everyone. It's been downhill ever since. We had a boss just like yours but he only lasted a year and half or so.

I just met a guy from the Wooster plant at a training, his name was Duane something.

 

[SPIKER]

Good guess Mark! ...

I just met a guy from the Wooster plant at a training, his name was Duane something.

I remember a Duane working there and the other guy I remember real well we called MOONER can't remember his real name lol. Been 12 years or so now, but that place was a bit different way the guy was running it. As Maintenance he wanted everyone to stay in the maint department at their bench, play cards (as long as out of sight) but could not be out on shop floor looking at anything unless called out. We were to push out full box of tools quickly as possible, get on and fix the issues and get back.
Back then had to fill out paperwork and file time on computer with parts needed oil grease used then back to play cards or chat at your bench... The break room was another one he didn't want us in there, I was working there on 9/11 and he started to yell about why the *&%% were we were all in break room! TV WAS IN THERE! I watched the towers come down at work on the break room TV with about 2/3's of the place... One of the only times the guy was speechless other than day I quit!


That place had a good bit of issues with the scrap recycling ducks and blowers getting clogged up back the. Not sure anymore what all is done there but was interesting knowing how they kept parts of the company separate and almost competing with it's self to an extent.
Mark