Blue Mountain, Canada

Challenge

Before automation, Blue Mountain Plastics fed PET bales directly into the shredder with a clamp truck. The bales often contained multiple steel bale wires (North American style) which created unpredictable infeed, caused wear and tear on shredder blades, required manual intervention and increased maintenance downtime (8-12 hours per week). Additionally, labour availability was becoming increasingly constrained and manual wire cutting presented safety and efficiency risks.

Solution

Cross Wrap supplied two of their fully automatic Bale Dewiring machines (one in 2021 and another in 2022) along with feeding conveyors, adapted for the heavier, denser North American bale format (up to 9 wires per bale). These machines remove and coil bale wires before the material enters the shredder, stabilising the infeed, protecting equipment, and improving safety and throughput.

Key takeaway

• The automatic Dewiring machines significantly reduced maintenance time and cost: e.g., shredder‐blade maintenance hours dropped ~50 %.
• Labour demands and safety risks were reduced by automating the wire removal task in a stressed labour market.
• The improved material infeed stability enables more consistent processing of heavier‐duty bales and supports the closed-loop PET recycling business model.
• The coiled bale wires themselves became a recyclable metal stream, turning a waste‐factor into a recovery opportunity.