Technical Help
Problems with baling with four wires instead of five
Four Wire Balers
Some baler are designed to use only 4 horizontal wires of Black Annealed Baling wire. When ordering wire, it is important to remember that in this case only 4 wires are carrying the full pressure of the expanding bale as it is ejected from the baler's chamber.
We recommend that under this situation a one gauge thicker wire should be used. For example, if 12 gauge wire is used with a 5 wire system, then for the same product being baled with a 4 wire system an 11 gauge wire is recommended.
In this situation, a FULLY annealed wire with over 25% elongation (compared to a partially or strand annealed wire with lower elongation) is an absolute requirement or excessive wire breakage will occur.
Five Wire Balers
The following information relates to balers designed for 5 horizontal wires where the operator has decided to use only 4 wires.
With five wires in use, the middle wire takes the most pressure and the bottom wire (next the ground) takes the next highest pressure. The top wire takes the least pressure. Therefore, if a wire is to be left out, we suggest the second one from the top.
However, it is most important to remember that if a baler is designed for using 5 wires, yet only 4 wires are used, then considerable over-stressing of the wires can occur and this significantly increases the risk of wire breakage. We consider this practice to be dangerous and do not recommend it.
