WITH its versatility and impressive design features, it was no wonder the MACBro PowerMaster Woolpress took out the top prize in the Inventions Competition at Sheepvention this year, with the great minds behind the advanced machine blown away by the recognition.

The PowerMaster Woolpress was created by the MACBro, HydPower, and Henry’s Hydraulics/Woolpress Australia teams to provide the first and only purpose built programmable woolpress in the world, designed to address the common everyday problems experienced in shearing sheds.

The PowerMaster was awarded the top prize at the 2022 Sheepvention Inventions Competition – the Robert F Stewart Major Award – and also took home first place in the Livestock Equipment and Technology category.

Henry’s Hydraulics/Woolpress Australia owner, Tony Henry, said his team know woolpresses “inside and out” which helps them understand the market demands for the product and to work alongside HydPower and MACBro to create the PowerMaster’s overall innovative design. 

“We know what the customers would like in their shed to operate, and that’s the best woolpress in the world basically,” he said.

“It’s fantastic to offer another woolpress to offer and suit our customers and the market throughout Australia.

“We are excited to be involved in this new machine which is very versatile.”

HydPower engineering director and owner, Shane Burke, said the machine contained advanced technology suited to crossbred wool, which was becoming more prominent within the market.

“Crossbred wool has become much more prevalent in the last 10 years,” he said.

“Because the market moved, the requirement of the press moved, so we set out to design an overhead machine which has hydraulic side pinning, rather than the conventional corner pinning.”

The strong hydraulic side pinning system is constructed with replaceable 20-millimetre hardened steel pins which require less input power than traditional corner pinning systems, significantly reducing cycle times.

“None of the current or older woolpresses in the market today were designed for pressing crossbred wool – it is much more difficult to press, and achieving a full 204-kilogram bale weight is not really achievable with the traditional corner pinning woolpresses,” Mr Burke said.

“The problem with conventional corner pinning is that it compresses the wool (and it) has to go down past these corner pinning spikes by an extra 200 millimetres.

“The issue with that is most of the compression takes place in that last 200 millimetres, but with hydraulic pinning you actually don’t have to do that, it can just come in at any point you’d like it.”

The lower side pinning technology along with the 900mm stroke cylinder means the PowerMaster can achieve up to 50 per cent less loading cycles per bale and shorter bale sizes (such as 1100-1200mm compared with the regular 1250mm).

“It takes five or six cycles to make one 204 kilogram bale in crossbred wool … if you were to look at any other machine it would take you about 10 to make one full bale,” Mr Burke said.

“We never let the wool decompress, so that’s where we get the same power, because you never have to recompress the wool down to a certain pressure or a certain force, and then we bring the pinning in and that pinning holds it for the next one.

“It’s way more efficient.”

During the 2022 Sheepvention Inventions Competition, the judges identified the machine’s ability to manage power, have a cold start up, and its advanced safety measures as “winning features”.

Mr Burke said managing power was an issue experienced in many shearing sheds, with long cable lengths leading to voltage drop, a problem that was eliminated by the PowerMaster’s programable variable speed drive (VSD).

“Traditional woolpresses are run off single phase power, but the problem with this is that single phase motors – by their design and construction – don’t handle low voltage very well,” he said.

“(The PowerMaster) converts a single-phase input into a three-phase output which is much more robust and much stronger because of the VSD.

“Because it changes single-phase into three-phase, it doesn’t really care what the voltage is and we can go anywhere between 180-250 volts.”

With safety switches on the loading and bottom doors, its automatic safety door opening, front and rear loading capabilities, and reduced noise just making up some of the unique smart features, Mr Henry said it was a “very controlled” and “very versatile” machine.

MACBro owner, Carl Macgill, said the company had adopted HydPower technology for the machine as it removed power problems often experienced by customers.

“We wanted to offer our customers a better single cylinder overhead dual-sided operation Woolpress with hydraulic side pinning to assist customers with the recent changes in wool processing, particularly crossbred wool,” he said.

Mr Henry encouraged any locals who want more information on the MACBro PowerMaster Woolpress to contact WoolPress Australia or visit Henry’s Hydraulics.