07.07.2011 - Klingele has once again invested massively in its plants. In the Grunbach box plant — as in the Werne plant in April — major components of the corrugators and roll conveyor systems have been modernized for fully automatic material transport. For this, the family-owned company has spent a total of approximately 7.5 million euros.
A successful increase in capacity and production
In Grunbach, two-thirds of the systems were renovated all at once — the laminating unit, the towing and heat units, the rotary shear, the groove cutting assembly, the cross cutter, as well as the stacker, the control station and the rollfeed. This has significantly improved the quality of the corrugated cardboard, reduced waste and saved considerable quantities of energy and power. Additionally, a new waste paper press has been installed, and material removal transport from the corrugator to the processing machines has been improved.
The corrugator in Werne has both a fully automatic roll conveyor system and a new facer module. Thus, besides the previous flute types B, C and E, an F flute and its combinations can now be produced. Using the smaller F flute for packaging will make it thinner and lighter. This reduces space requirements for logistics, warehouse, and shelving areas. A more consistent surface will make print quality far better than for packaging with larger flutes. Additionally, in Werne all corrugated cardboard types can now be produced in 2.80 m working widths.
Converting while production runs
Both conversions were made while processing machines were in production. “We were able to meet this challenge mainly due to the outstanding planning and collaboration of our employees and the solidarity between our plants. But very good contacts with our machine suppliers — BHS, Minda and Dücker — contributed to successful completion of the project,” agree Peter Kienle and Ekkehard Dürr, the plant managers in Grunbach and Werne, respectively. “All those involved have made an important contribution to modernizing and ensuring the future of our plants,” adds Dr. Jan Klingele, managing partner of the Klingele Group. “In addition to that, we have reached a further milestone in our expansion strategy, in which we have invested 230 million euros since the year 2000. This is not only to make our plants more competitive, but also to meet our customers’ highly diverse demands in the future.”