1. Project Background

With the fast growth of urbanization in Nigeria, large supermarkets, e-commerce warehouses and food & beverage companies are generating increasing volumes of waste cartons (OCC) and packaging paper. The customer originally relied on manual flattening and loose stacking:

• Bulky cartons occupied a large yard area and were easily affected by moisture in the rainy season;

• When loading containers, the volume often became full before reaching the weight limit, pushing up logistics cost per ton;

• Loading and reshaping depended heavily on manual work, resulting in high labor intensity and unstable efficiency.

As shipment volumes and export frequency increased, and buyers began to calculate logistics cost on a per-ton basis, the customer decided to introduce a horizontal baling line to compact loose OCC into high-density, uniform bales and improve container loading efficiency.

2. Customer Profile and Challenges

The customer is a recycling yard supplying local paper mills and export traders, mainly handling:

• Corrugated cartons and packaging boxes from supermarkets and retail chains;

• Transport cartons and stacking boards from e-commerce and warehousing businesses.

Their key challenges and expectations were:

• A large feeding opening for combined conveyor + manual feeding, without cutting every carton into small pieces;

• Uniform bale size and high density for safe forklift stacking and 40HQ container loading;

• Installed power compatible with local grid conditions, while providing sufficient compression force;

• A conveyor to centralize feeding and reduce manual handling.

3. Our Solution (Configuration and Key Specifications)

Based on the yard layout and local working conditions, we supplied a 125-ton horizontal OCC baler with steel plate conveyor. The main configuration is:

1. Compression system

   • Main cylinder: YG250/180-4200, quantity 1;

   • Nominal thrust: 125 tons (1250 kN), providing strong compression to achieve high-density carton bales;

   • Door cylinders: YG125/80-1200, quantity 2;

   • Approx. 30 tons thrust per cylinder, total about 60 tons (300 kN), ensuring reliable door closing and opening under full-load conditions.

2. Hydraulic system

   • System working pressure: 25 MPa;

   • Hydraulic pump 1: A7V-160, rated pressure 31.5 MPa, displacement 160 ml/r;

   • Hydraulic pump 2: YCY25, rated pressure 31.5 MPa, displacement 25 ml/r.
     The combination of a large and a small pump balances compression force, cycle speed and energy consumption.

3. Feeding opening and bale size

   • Feeding port: 2200 × 1100 × 1100 mm, suitable for bulk and flattened cartons;

   • Bale size: 1100 × 1200 mm (L × W), with height adjustable via stroke setting, optimized for forklift handling and 40HQ container layout.

4. Motor and control

   • Main motor: YE250M-4, power 37 kW, rated speed 1470 rpm;

   • Power supply: 380 V, 3 phase, 50 Hz (customizable according to local grid);

   • Control: PLC-based system, with automatic compression and ejection cycles and a simple operator panel;

   • Strapping: 5-line manual steel wire strapping, for wire diameters 2.8 / 3.2 mm, ensuring bale integrity during long-distance transportation and multiple loading/unloading.

5. Conveyor and layout

   • Conveyor: 1.6 m × 10 m steel plate conveyor, collecting scattered cartons and feeding them into the baler continuously;

   • Shipping: the complete line fits into 2 × 40HQ containers, simplifying sea transport from China to Nigeria;

   • Cooling: an air-cooled oil cooler helps keep hydraulic oil temperature under control during continuous operation in Nigeria’s high ambient temperatures.

4. Installation and Performance

After the equipment arrived, we provided layout optimization and commissioning guidance based on the customer’s foundation and yard conditions:

• The feeding zone and baler outlet were arranged in an “L-shape” to facilitate forklift movement and bale stacking;

• The conveyor infeed was placed near the temporary storage area for OCC, so workers only needed to handle unpacking, simple flattening and feeding;

• Through PLC tuning of stroke and pressure parameters, bale density and cycle time were brought in line with customer targets.

After a period of operation, the customer reported:

• Higher container loading efficiency: loose cartons were converted into uniform, high-density bales, increasing tons per 40HQ and making loading time more predictable;

• Reduced manual labor and better yard organization: workers shifted from heavy lifting to sorting, feeding and strapping, and the yard became more orderly and safer;

• Stable system performance: with the local grid, the 37 kW motor and 25 MPa hydraulic system ran smoothly, and the air-cooled oil cooler effectively controlled oil temperature during continuous OCC baling.

5. Case Summary

Through this Nigerian project, we helped the customer upgrade from loose stacking + manual loading to mechanical compression + standardized bale logistics:

• Increasing OCC bale density and container/truck loading efficiency;

• Improving yard utilization and cleanliness;

• Reducing labor intensity while enhancing operational stability and safety.

For recycling yards with similar conditions and material profiles, this 125-ton horizontal baler + conveyor + 5-line strapping configuration can serve as a solid reference, and can be further customized according to future throughput plans and automation requirements.