November/December 1994
This equipment maker’s focus is on building balers to handle paper, textiles, and light-gauge metals, but it also manufactures presses for all kinds of unusual applications.
By Jeff Borsecnik
Jeff Borsecnik is an associate editor of Scrap Processing and Recycling.
How do you bale scrap sandpaper? How about cigarette filters?
These sorts of questions are hardly unusual for International Baler Corp. (Jacksonville, Fla.), a manufacturer that not only builds balers to handle traditional recyclables such as old newspapers and metal cans, but also applies its baler-making expertise in some more esoteric applications.
Baling Roots
The company grew out of a firm founded in 1946 as American Baler Machine Co. (no relation to today's American Baler) in Brooklyn by can-do entrepreneur Fred Reuben. Under his leadership, the company rebuilt various kinds of equipment and served as a dealer for Economy Balers, then put this experience to work building its own.
In 1968, the business went public as National Compactor Technology System Corp., American Baler Machine Division, and moved to warm weather and a large lot located in Jacksonville. Along with these new digs and new name came new products: Having begun exclusively with vertical hydraulic balers, the company expanded to horizontal closed-door versions, then open-end auto-tie balers during the 1970s.
In 1986, following financial troubles related to fears over potential product liability exposure—eventually leading to Chapter 11 bankruptcy—the baler maker was purchased by Waste Technology Corp., a public holding company looking to invest in recycling and waste processing equipment. Its name was changed to International Baler Corp.
The following year, Waste Tech purchased Consolidated Baler Corp., another manufacturer from Brooklyn, figuring the acquisition would make a good partner for International. Consolidated, which has been around since 1909, specializes in vertical machines that pack textiles into bales that can be wrapped or boxed in addition to being tied with wire. The company also produces drum crushers, small refuse compactors, and balers specially equipped to handle low-level radioactive waste and raw rubber.
Re-energized by new management, improved financial footing, and the purchase of Consolidated, International expanded rapidly in the textile baler market and other segments, enjoying steady growth and profits.
Finding Their Niches
Today, International and Consolidated, which technically remain separate companies but are operated as a team, offer more than 100 models of balers and compactors. In addition to various types of vertical, horizontal closed-door, and auto-tie balers designed for general use or specially configured to process particular scrap grades, these offerings include rufflers and perforators for preparing paper and plastic for baling, pit and above-ground conveyors, as well as conveyors with magnetic heads to separate cans.
While most of International's equipment would be familiar to recyclers, Consolidated offers some unusual machines, including double-chambered textile balers in which whole used clothing or textile scrap is loaded and initially compressed in the first chamber while a previously loaded batch is baled in the second, adjacent chamber. Then the two chambers pivot to change places and the second load gets packaged.
Consolidated also makes balers for synthetic rubber. These special corrosion-resistant machines compact newly formulated rubber particles, which have the texture of popcorn when they emerge from the reactors that produce them, into 75 pound bales that will be shipped to downstream makers of new rubber products. (These specialized presses, which have been spread as far afield as Brazil and Bulgaria, Germany and Japan, along with textile balers that are shipped around the world, give International/Consolidated a substantial export market.)
Here's another unusual Consolidated product by today's standards: the only upstroke pit baler still on the market. Though many recyclers no longer use this type of machine because of hazards related to the open pit, others stick with them because scrap can simply be swept into the pit and stored out of the way until enough is collected to make a bale.
Baler Markets Broad and Narrow
Scrap paper packing traditionally provided the bulk of International's customers. While this segment remains an important market for the company-and this year's pickup in scrap paper prices has been an additional boost-other markets have grown much faster.
Customers that see recycling as a sideline to their regular business are the new kids on the block. These companies, from all sorts of industry--automobile making, building, and catalog-retail distribution, for example--are buying recycling equipment because they see two major benefits: "cost avoidance and lots of good PR," says Kenneth J. Korney, International's vice president of sales and marketing. Thanks to these concerns, says Russell A. McElroy, assistant to the chairman of International, "Our list of customers today reads like the 'Fortune 500'—Anheuser-Busch, Reynolds, Coca-Cola, Kimberley-Clark... "
This growing general industry market presents tremendous opportunities for International Baler. For example, the company recently inked a deal with K mart to provide balers for a whole new fleet of the chain's "superstores," which include a variety store, a discount grocery store, and other services. The arrangement has already resulted in the sale of 60 balers, and much greater potential remains.
Another market growing rapidly in International's favor is municipal recycling, particularly in plastic containers, as new markets develop for recycled plastic.
Beyond traditional scrap recyclers and the growing "new recycling" sectors, International owns a big chunk of a few very specialized markets. And the company is under contract to provide balers to the U.S. armed forces through a special arrangement that allows military facilities to order the manufacturer's balers from a catalog rather than going through a bidding process in cases where the purchase involves "nonappropriated" funds—special money from sources other than the federal budget.
Custom Compression
And then there are those requests that make niche markets look like broad markets—custom work for individual customers. In one such case, Norton, a large sandpaper maker, came looking for a machine to bale its abrasive scrap. Another custom order was for 3M, which was seeking to pack scrap from its nearly omnipresent Post-it notepads.
For these sorts of jobs, International has the prospective customer send small samples of the material for its baler design engineers to examine. "Then," says Korney, "if we think we might have a problem baling the material, we may even have them send us a few thousand pounds—we'd rather do a test and tell the customer 'no, we can't do it' than build something that won't do the job."
The sandpaper could be managed, with use of special steels. So could the sticky Post-its.
But sometimes there's no easy answer. One customer wanted to pack scrap cigarette filters, but this material refused to stick together in bales. Korney, weaving his fingers together to illustrate, explains that the key is that the material must interlock when compressed to form a bale. Another tough one the company faced was building a machine to press polyester fibers from scrap tires—the bale "just grew and grew" when released from the press, according to Korney. International's solution in such cases where an altered conventional baler cannot do the job frequently lies in use of a complementary shredder or shear.
Although at least 60 percent of the company's balers are sold as standard models, says Korney, "maybe 10 percent are radically modified to meet a specific customer demand or product." And these one-time jobs can open new doors for the firm. For example, a textile customer recently asked International for a baler capable of creating 100-pound bales in only three or four strokes. A massive 50-ton press was designed to do the job. The scrap textile business is—sorry—"tight-knit," says Korney, and "everybody is waiting to see this machine up and running." Once they have, he says, "we'll probably see half a dozen orders for this machine."
Retaining Market Focus
Though International may seem ready to try its hand at any baler application, the company doesn't try to do everything, preferring to stay focused on its specialties—and retain its edge on the competition in these areas. "There are lots of good people in the baler business, and your competitors dictate that you stay up to speed," says McElroy. "It doesn't do you any good to go off into another niche and neglect what you have."
In addition to its traditional focus on balers for packing paper, light-gauge metal, and textiles-not to mention cotton mote, a fine irritant released when raw cotton is cleaned and ginned and a natural offshoot from its textile expertise—International has chosen to concentrate on machines to bale polyethylene terephthalate and high-density polyethylene, relatively new and promising markets that have rewarded the company with greater shares than any of its competitors, according to Korney. The company is also a leader in balers for processing used beverage cans.
Where it has not gone: Neither International nor its sister company have focused on baling municipal refuse, preferring to stick with various aspects of recycling. And neither builds two-ram balers-both because there are so many companies in that market already, and, says Korney, because most jobs can usually be handled with single-ram presses. "Our premise is modular. We tell our customers: 'Put two of our single rams in, one for a primary product and the other for multiple materials. The total price will be cheaper than with a two-ram press and your downtime will be less. Plus if one ever goes down, you'll still have one always working."'
Another market the company has not pursued is low-end vertical balers. Although it does make small vertical presses like those commonly used by small retailers to pack corrugated boxes, its products are higher-end "industrial" machines aimed at the serious buyer looking for a baler that will last.
Backing Up Balers
From International Baler's perspective, the first key to success in the equipment business is quality. After all, today's savvy customer will quickly pick up the phone and let you know if his new baler's paint job is not up to snuff or he finds the welds wanting, says Korney.
"Then, and even more important, you've got to have after-the-sale service and supply of parts," McElroy adds. For International, this means being able to field three repair crews at once (these technicians also provide quarterly scheduled service under a maintenance option the company offers) and retaining hydraulic repair facilities around the country for economical installation or service at a distance.
On the parts side, International maintains a million-plus-dollar inventory of spares, allowing overnight delivery in most cases. The company is also "still making and selling parts for Consolidated balers made 20 years ago"—long before that company had joined the Waste Tech team—says McElroy. (But Korney notes that most major components, such as hydraulic cylinders, electric motors, and valves, can be purchased off-the-shelf from local suppliers, easing repair and cutting costs for capable owners.)
These efforts keep baler buyers coming back, explains McElroy. "When a baler is in place, part of production, it has to be running. It's like when you buy a car. If it's a good car but you get lousy service, you might buy the car again, but from a different dealer."
Beyond technical ability and attentive service, International prides itself on being able to answer just about any customer question—like What do I do with these bales? ("We can help them get in touch with the market," says Korney) or How do you bale scrap sandpaper?•
This equipment maker’s focus is on building balers to handle paper, textiles, and light-gauge metals, but it also manufactures presses for all kinds of unusual applications.