VK 5012 20.12 HP Channel Baling Press

The HSM VK 5012 is where HSM's channel presses stop making small bales and start making mill bales: 500 kN of force, a 1,020 x 1,250 mm feed aperture, four wires and a 1,100 x 750 mm bale weighing up to 550 kg. This SKU is the range's entry drive at 20.12 HP, which is the right choice when you want the 5012's bale but your feed rate does not justify the bigger motors HSM offers in the same frame.

Everything about this machine is sized for a recycling operation rather than a back dock. The aperture takes big bags and rigid HDPE containers whole. The bale is the 1,100 mm wide format that paper mills and plastics reprocessors quote their best rates against. Bale length is adjustable from 600 to 1,200 mm, and four wires hold it together against the springback of bottles and film.

It is a large installation: 8,990 mm long, 3,990 mm wide, 3,000 mm high and 17,500 kg before you add a conveyor. HSM offers the same frame with 15, 22, 30 and 45 kW drives, so the decision here is purely about how fast the chamber needs to fill.

Key Features

• 500 kN pressing force into an 1,100 x 750 mm chamber.
• Four-wire tying, applied automatically, using 3.4 mm baling wire supplied on 40 kg rolls.
• 1,020 x 1,250 mm aperture that takes big bags and rigid containers without pre-treatment.
• Adjustable bale length from 600 to 1,200 mm.
• Light-barrier control for continuous loading from a belt or an air conveying system.
• Frequency-regulated drive available as an option on this frame, which HSM says cuts energy consumption substantially against a fixed-speed motor.
• Fully automatic operation. Material goes in the aperture, the ram cycles on a light barrier, the bale is tied and ejected without an operator at the machine.
• Wire tying as standard, so bales hold their shape under the springback of film and OCC.
• Continuous feeding from a conveyor belt, an air feed or a shredder discharge — this is a machine designed to sit at the end of a line, not to be hand-loaded.

Specifications

What's in the Box

A VK 5012 is delivered as a project, not a product. HSM publishes no scope-of-delivery list, and what arrives on site is a press to be positioned, levelled, connected to a three-phase supply and commissioned by an engineer. Feed conveyors, hoppers, access platforms, guarding and bale handling are separate items specified against your layout and your material.

Wire is not included. The press ties with 3.4 mm baling wire supplied on 40 kg rolls. At four wires per bale this is a meaningful running cost and should be in the operating budget from the start.

Who Should Buy This — and Who Should Not

Buy the 20.12 HP VK 5012 if you need mill-standard 1,100 mm bales and your feed is steady rather than heavy — a single-stream sorting line, a plastics reprocessor, a distribution hub consolidating film and OCC. You get the full bale format and the full 500 kN for the lowest connected load in the range.

Buy the 29.5 HP VK 5012 instead if the line surges or runs at high volume. HSM publishes a theoretical idle throughput of 223 m³/h and 11.16 t/h at 50 kg/m³ for the 22 kW machine; it does not publish equivalent figures for this 15 kW variant, which tells you which one HSM expects to be worked hard.

Drop back to a VK 2310 if a 700 x 500 mm bale is acceptable to your recycler. The 2310 is less than half the length and a fifth of the weight of a VK 5012, and it costs correspondingly less to install. Ask what your buyer pays per tonne for each bale format before assuming the bigger machine pays for itself.

Step up to a VK 12018 if you are running a materials recovery facility rather than a waste stream. The 12018 presses at 1,200 kN into an 1,100 x 1,100 mm bale up to 1,100 kg with five wires, and it is built for continuous shift work.