Thanks to the dollar exchange rate these US made balers are a good buy. Made in Minnesota since 1995, Excel Manufacturing produce a range of fully and semi-automatic balers suitable for most recyclables, especially cans. The well-proven design incorporates twin rams for added strength and reliability combined with an extremely rugged design.

The founder Bryan Fisher says that the design includes a wider hopper than normal and an innovative cross-cylinder design that allows materials to be compressed more compactly in a shorter cycle time. This keeps the machine's length short and overall footprint small.

We expect the mid-range EX62/63 horizontal shown here to be most in demand of the range of six available. This model is a semi-automatic that produces a bale of 1524mm x 1143mm x 762mm of anything from copper wire to cans and newspaper.

The overall footprint is just 9.5m x 2.3m including the conveyor.

Other models include:

• EX63: hydraulic door opening and regenerative hydraulic circuit to reduce cycle time.
• 2R63: two ram, auto-tie, 29 second cycle time, US wire tie system, left or right hand eject. Bale size 1520mm x 1220 x 760. Length 4.93m, height 1.58m, width 5.16m.
• 2R10: fully automatic, US wire tie system, replaceable wear liners. Output up to 20t/hr of newsprint, or aluminium cans 9t/hr. Bale size 1520 x 1140 x 760. Length 8.75m, height 2.68m, width 4.05m.

Ashley Middleton explains that “this size baler fits neatly in between the large Presonas that we’ve sold for 25 years and our own ME70 design that is made here in Somerset. The design is particularly good for metal cans and should appeal to local authority MRFs."