Mayo-based company McHale, now recognised as a leading bale wrapping technology manufacturer, is offering two new baler and wrapper options – the Fusion Vario and the Fusion 3 Plus film-on-film machine.

The Vario is a fully integrated baler wrapper comprising a variable chamber baler with an integrated wrapping ring. The machine is a development from the Fusion 2 and is designed to be used in a range of crop harvesting conditions.

It has the ability to make bales of hay and straw from 0.6m up to 1.68m or from 2ft up to 5ft 6in. In haylage or silage, the machine can also produce bales from 1.1m up to 1.45m or 3ft 3in up to 4ft 8in.

The Vario is a unique machine which benefits from two McHale patents – for a high speed transfer system and a tip roller.

With the high speed transfer system, as the transfer cradle moves the bale towards the wrapping ring, the wrapping roller closest to the bale chamber pivots out of the way. This reduces the height the bale has to travel to get to the wrapper. This system saves time, as the patented system moves the bale quickly to allow the Vario to deliver a high level of output.

The machine is designed to wrap bales from 1.1m up to 1.45m. The patented tip roller adjusts its height in line with bale size to ensure the plastic always goes onto the centre of the bale, regardless of the bale diameter. McHale claims this ensures the correct overlap is always achieved.

The Fusion high-speed vertical wrapping ring is designed to apply four layers of film to a 1.25m bale in about 20 seconds or six layers of film in 30 seconds. McHale claims that in normal working conditions the wrapping process is always complete ahead of the baling process. This means the wrapping platform is ready and waiting to capture the next ejected bale.

The wrapping ring has two 750mm film dispensers. It has sensors that automatically know when to break the film after the bale is wrapped. The cut and hold system is designed to gather the plastic to one point and has proved to be reliable. The unit has been designed for easy film loading.

The iTouch in-cab control console provides indicators of machine performance on its large touchscreen display. The control console, when combined with the load-sensing valve, is capable of making baling and wrapping fully automatic. This new generation iTouch control console is fitted with a rear camera as standard. In automatic mode the camera image will appear at different predetermined times on the screen such as when the bale is being transferred or being tipped.

McHale Fusion 3 Film-on-Film

McHale Engineering has been working on a system which applies plastic onto the bale in the bale chamber in place of net wrap or twine to hold the bale together. The concept of putting plastic onto the bale in the bale chamber and the subsequent wrapping of the bales, is now being referred to as film-on-film or net replacement plastic.

Over the last decade, Fusion machines were supplied with 23 knives as standard. The chopper unit on the McHale Fusion 3 Plus is now fitted with 25 knifes to give better chopping.

When ordering a Fusion 3 Plus, the customer has the option to upgrade the chopper unit on the machine to a selectable knife system. This provides three options, engage and chop with a bank of 12 knifes, with a bank of 13 knifes, or, should fine chopping be required, the operator can choose to engage both knife banks, which will give a 25-knife chopper system. This is capable of delivering a chop length of about 46mm, according to McHale.

Patented technology

Over the last four years, the McHale development team have been working with the Fusion Plus concept in various countries and in different climates. In the development of the system, the company realised that changes in temperature and sunlight could affect the chamber wrapping film. As the day got hotter or cooler the film was either being over-stretched or under-stretched. This in turn would cause reliability problems and result in inefficient film use.

To deal with these issues, McHale developed a patented application system. This adjusts the breaking force on the roll of plastic in line with working conditions. It allows for a continuously variable stretch which can adjust to changes in the day automatically without the operator having to adjust any settings.

The patented McHale film application system has been designed to give consistent film stretch, reliable film application and deliver optimum bale shape and bale density. The system also claims to reduce or eliminate the chances of film breaking due to overstretch on a hot day.

The Fusion 3 Plus is a fully automatic machine and like the McHale Fusion Vario, is controlled by the new iTouch control unit. Operators will be happy to know that McHale has also included a number of physical buttons on the side of the screen which can control the machine functions when hands are dirty.

The iTouch monitor also features a camera to monitor wrapper operation. The camera can work in two ways.

At any point in the cycle the operator can switch to camera mode to monitor the wrapper and rear of the machine. In automatic mode, the camera will automatically come on the screen at a number of pre-determined points such as when the bale tip is pressed, when the bale transfer takes place and when the first layer of plastic are being applied to the bale by the vertical wrapping ring.

The McHale Fusion 3 Plus can revert back to the traditional method of using net wrap. The switch over process is claimed to be very simple. If the operator is doing hay or straw, the switch back to net wrap is user-friendly.

Four years in development

“Our product design engineers have been working on our film-on-film system for four years,” says James Heanue, Irish sales manager at McHale. “We have operated a number of machines around the factory in Ballinrobe, Co Mayo, for the last number of years. We are seeing that once farmers have experienced the increased silage quality which a film-on-film system delivers, they do not want to move back to more traditional methods.”

“Silage quality is improved. Using a film on film system eliminates the need to separate the plastic from the net wrap for recycling,” says James.

James believes that the McHale Fusion 3 Plus gives contractors a way to offer a new concept and differentiate themselves from their competition by providing a product which can deliver better silage quality. “The Fusion 3 Plus also offers farmers the benefit of higher quality silage,” says James.