VK 5012 60.4 HP Channel Baling Press

This is the fastest build of the HSM VK 5012: the same 500 kN fully automatic channel baler, driven by a 45 kW (60.3 hp) motor instead of the 30 kW unit. Buy it for throughput. The press force, the bale size and the strapping are identical across the range - what the larger drive buys you is a shorter cycle time, which is what keeps a baler off the critical path when a line is unloading pallets faster than a smaller motor can compress them.

The case for a channel baler over a vertical press is labour. Material is fed continuously through the loading aperture, a light barrier triggers each pressing stroke, and finished bales are tied with wire and pushed out of the channel automatically. There is no door, no manual tie-off and no bale to tip out. One person can feed it while doing something else, or a conveyor can feed it while nobody watches at all.

Key Features

• 45 kW drive. The reason this variant exists. Springy, low-density material such as plastic film needs more strokes per bale than cardboard does, and the larger motor is what stops that showing up as a queue at the infeed.
• Automatic, light-barrier-triggered cycling. The press works to the material arriving rather than to an operator pressing a button, which is what makes conveyor, chute or air feeding practical.
• Four-wire automatic strapping, five-wire optional. HSM recommends the five-fold option where the baled material expands after ejection - film and shredded paper being the usual culprits.
• 1,020 x 1,250 mm loading aperture. Wide enough for uncollapsed cartons and filled big bags, which removes the pre-breaking step that quietly consumes labour on smaller presses.
• Wear-resistant steel lining through the chamber and channel. Channel balers fail at the wear surfaces; HSM lines both the press chamber and the channel with highly wear-resistant steel for that reason.
• Adjustable bale length, 600 to 1,200 mm. Tune bale weight to your handling equipment and to what your buyer wants to receive.
• Optional frequency-regulated drive. HSM states the regulated variant uses 40 % less energy than a standard drive - a meaningful figure on a 45 kW motor running multiple shifts.

Specifications

HSM does not publish an installed machine weight or a sound-pressure figure for this press in its public article data, and the two third-party figures we found disagree by roughly two and a half tonnes. Rather than print a number we cannot stand behind, we will confirm the exact shipping weight, rigging requirements and noise data for your configuration in writing before you order.

Who Should Buy This - and Who Should Not

Choose the 45 kW VK 5012 when your feed is bursty or your material is bulky and elastic: film-heavy retail waste, high-volume e-commerce cardboard, a shredding operation baling its own output, or a materials recovery site where the baler must never be the reason a line stops. It is also the right pick if you intend to run a feed conveyor at full rate rather than trickle-feed by hand.

Do not pay for it if your volume is steady and moderate - the HSM VK 5012 with the 30 kW drive makes the identical bale on a smaller connected load and a smaller electrical installation, and will be cheaper to run for the life of the machine. If you are baling well under a tonne a day, neither VK build is the right answer; look at the HSM V-Press vertical range instead. And if your material has a bulk weight much over 60 kg/m³, you are outside the application range HSM publishes for this press - talk to us first.

Treat this as a capital installation. It needs a 480 V three-phase supply appropriate to a 45 kW drive, a prepared floor, roughly a 9 m by 4 m bay, and forklift access at the discharge end. Delivery, rigging and commissioning are quoted separately after a site survey.