Haver & Boecker successful with interpack “liveEvents”
The internationally leading trade fair of the packaging sector and related process industries “interpack” takes place every three years in Düsseldorf/Germany. This year’s fair was held from 04.05.–10.05.2017 and attracted more than 170 000 visitors. Haver & Boecker took this as an occasion to enlarge their exhibition program at the fair: Besides displaying the newly developed packing systems Roto-Packer, Integra and Elementra at the interpack Haver & Boecker invited their customers to attend one of two events, which took place at the headquarters in Oelde on 08./09.05. and 10./11.05.2017.
Haver & Boecker provided the visitors’ transportation from Düsseldorf to Oelde and back. The twoday event started in Oelde at 17.00 h and ended there the next day at about noon. ZKG International took part in the event, which was attended by more than 200 customers and a lot of partners from 25 countries.
The first day’s program was conducted at Haver & Boecker plant 6. The event was opened by the Haver & Boecker Managing Partner Florian Festge and his brother Dr. Fabian Festge against the background of the company’s 130th birthday in 2017. The Festge brothers welcomed theirs guests and visitors perfectly in both languages German and English: “Our liveEvent is more than just an in-house exhibition. It introduced our new motto: “Perfect Flow“. With this event we not only wanted to tell you but also to show that we are much more than just a machinery supplier. For our customers we are a partner to optimize the flow of his product, work and goods.“
After the welcome address the new product concept for the three packaging systems:
Roto-Packer
Integra
Elementra
was presented: All systems are united by the overall guiding principles concerning construction and performance: clean – intelligent – profitable.
After the introduction, five groups were created in order to start the live machine demonstrations which took the groups to seven different stations throughout the plant. The tour started with the demonstration of the Integra IOF 1, a new member of the Integra line, for prefabricated open mouth bags, regardless of which material. In addition, the machine scores with flexibility regarding the change of materials, the components which can be adapted to the customer’s premises and an adaptable capacity. Easily accessible parts ensure comfortable maintenance for the service employees.
The second stop was the new SpeedLoad, a fully automatic, pallet-free direct loading system for bagged goods into ISO freight containers and onto trucks. The SpeedLoad can be integrated with the existing infrastructure and consequently replace existing bag loading systems. At this point in time, a capacity of 800 bags/hour is possible, 2400 bags/hour are planned for the future.
The new Roto-Packer RST mini Adams Edition for the filling of powdery products into small 1-10 kg PE-pouches especially for the building materials industry was shown, complemented by a Terram bag palletizer made by Newtec. A stretch hood machine from MSK VerpackungsSysteme GmbH as well as the Elementa EVL 1 Food Edition from Behn+Bates Münster rounded off the Haver & Boecker portfolio.
The new Integra ISF1 FFS Edition, which stands for integrated packaging system for the filling of tubular film using freefall technology, tags with the intuitive operation of the complete system with a capacity expandable up to 2600 bags/h. This new ISF is configurable in any way customers need and want, easy to understand, quick to learn and most importantly, it communicates. Using LED mood lighting the blue light indicates it is running fine, red light tells that there is a problem and a white light helps in the maintenance mode.
The last station of the first day was the demonstration of the truck loading system, SpeedFlex, a fully automated direct loading system for stacked goods, IBC´s, big bags or other containers on top of trucks.
Training and optimization
The next day’s tour took place in plant 1 in the Haver & Boecker Oelde headquarters. In the production hall a new Roto-Packer RVT for cement for example was shown, which also included the new Roto-Lock dosing unit for clean filling without spillage. The assembly of a machine is very well organized, concerning all modules of the machine up to the final assembly. As all production employees can assemble all parts, this ensures more flexibility within the assembling process and a broader knowledge of the staff. An Elementra EGF as an example of big bag filling machines could also be seen in the production area.
The customer training center was another part of the tour. Training units for operators take three days, complete trainings about one week. Service technicians and troubleshooters have the opportunity to learn from full size machines, functional machine components and from simulations.
The training center is part of the Haver Academy. 10 % of the Haver & Boecker employees are apprentices or trainees, who are trained in different professions as plant mechanics or electronics technicians for industrial systems.
Highlights in the R&D center were the bag drop tester for testing the bags’ strength and the easy cut machine for efficient bag opening. In addition, the performance differences between two different bags were demonstrated, including for example parameters while filling such as time, overpressure or machine performance. The aim of these test phases is to optimize the filling, changing the parameters to be adopted; the engineering is designed on behalf of the customer.
The last part of the tour took the groups to the commissioning area, also the last step for the machines before going to the customer.
Trends in today’s packaging
After the live demonstrations tour, the groups gathered again for a podium discussion concentrating on the question “Which type of packaging today is the right one?”. Four experts from the packaging industry discussed this question after introducing themselves with the following statements: For Sven Korsten, Repasack GmbH, “Kraft paper sacks are the right packaging for bulk goods. They are strong, efficient, renewable and 100 % natural.” Thomas Hilling, Haver & Boecker, stated that “The packaging that fulfills all demands regarding fast and economic filling, highest functionality for automatic handling and an optimal product protection is the right one”. “Packaging which uses renewable materials to do its jobs of protecting, storing and communication efficiently, and, after use, quickly returns to a natural state without doing any harm to the planet or people”, was the opinion of Mark van der Merwe, BillerudKorsnäs AB. Jim Bouldin, Laticrete International, Inc., was an impromptu participant as he unexpectedly replaced another participant.
The main points of the discussion concerned the trends in the packaging industry. In the EU and the U.S. the bags’ shelf life is becoming more important, the focus is on valve bags and the trend moves to plastic, as plastic doubles the bags shelf life. More arguments for plastic bags are costs, outside storage and marketing aspects.
At the same time new ideas are emerging from the paper industry. The focus is on an increasing paper strength, while reducing the weight at the same time and also regarding ecological aspects. Papers combined with plastic in between lead to more problems when it comes to recycling. 80 % of the paper bags (about 20 million t) are recycled. From plastic bags 90 % are recycled in total (about 6 million t), 45 % of them return to the life cycle, while 55 % are burned.
After the discussion Florian Festge summed up the event with his closing words and a farewell address to the audience before leaving again for the interpack or other destinations.
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