Founded in 1934 as a cardboard packaging company for the Irish market, Smurfit Kappa has since established itself as an international manufacturer of corrugated board, solid board and cardboard packaging. The company now has 350 production sites in 36 countries. The special feature: the production sites, of which almost 50 are located in Germany alone, obtain their raw materials from their own forestry and paper mills. These include Smurfit Kappa Wrexen Paper & Board in Diemelstadt in northern Hesse, which specializes in the production of solid board with various papers for graphic applications, such as book covers or games.

Focus on sustainability

The sustainability factor is particularly important in the production of all packaging: not only is the waste paper reused in paper production with the help of recycling systems, but great importance is also attached to minimizing waste when cutting the solid board produced at the Diemelstadt site. Only last year, Smurfit Kappa Wrexen Paper & Board therefore installed a new circular shear for precise cutting of the solid board produced, which had to be integrated into the internal material flow just as efficiently and sustainably. With this in mind, the company turned to the Sauerland-based conveyor technology manufacturer HaRo Anlagen- und Fördertechnik in neighboring Rüthen in 2022 and specified its requirements as follows: The wooden pallets loaded with solid board are to be automatically conveyed into the new cutting line at floor level in a pit provided for this purpose. A second system is then to transport the cut sheets out of the machine to the pick-up point. In addition, the conveyor system is to offer an option for buffering and intermediate storage of the pallets and can be expanded with new conveyor components in the future if required.

A flexible solution for a wide variety of pallets

The HaRo Group was ultimately able to convince its customer with a concept that reconciles the requirements thanks to the implementation of a link conveyor and has been in operation for almost a year (at the time of going to press). Head of Design at the HaRo Group, Markus Löseke, explains the details of the project: "As Smurfit Kappa uses a wide variety of pallets with lengths between 600 and 1,400 mm and weights of up to 1,500 kg, we advised our customer to use a link belt conveyor. Managing Director Christoph Hackländer adds: "Thanks to its sturdy construction and exceptional wear resistance, it can easily withstand the heavy weight of the conveyed goods, and installation at floor level within the pit - as is necessary at Smurfit Kappa - is also possible without any problems." As the pallets are loaded and unloaded using a fork-lift ant, the loading and unloading points of the conveyor are each equipped with robust link belts. Safety is also a top priority wherever employees are working. For this reason, safety technology in the form of an interlock function has been provided at all loading and unloading points where people are working with a fork lift ant. This prevents people from entering the conveyor system during operation. The system can only be started up once the task has been acknowledged by the persons working on it by pressing a button.

20 pallets per hour in three-shift operation

The sheets are then transported onwards via the approximately 9 m long link conveyor to the circular shears. "The sheets are removed from the pallet by the machine and cut to the required size," explains Markus Löseke. Once the pallet has been processed, it is automatically transported as an empty pallet to the pick-up point using the link conveyor. The second conveyor system is used to transport the cut solid cardboard out of the circular shears and prepare it for further processing: "The fork-lift ant places the empty pallet on the link conveyor, from where it is transported to the circular shears. At the machine, the pallet is then filled again with the processed solid cardboard and then transported to the pick-up point," says the HaRo design manager. Before the pallets are removed from the fork lift ant, a scale installed on the conveyor enables each pallet to be weighed.