Print, fill, seal and off the bags go

Today, simple contract work accounts for less than five percent of total production time. The company has developed into an integrated system provider for customers in the lighting and sanitary technology sectors. One of Südwestfalen's particular strengths is the management of complete product groups. This includes supplier selection, procurement, scheduling and warehousing of purchased parts, assembly and the manufacture of products on its own machines, as well as their packaging and shipment to the end customer. Particular attention is paid to the mechanical support and automation of the production processes, which are organized as stand-alone operations. The company was also looking for more efficient and flexible solutions in the area of product packaging.

Semi-automatic packaging solution instead of working from home

The previous manual packaging was to be replaced by semi-automatic packaging solutions. Sönke Kühl, Managing Director of ESTB, explains: "In the past, a lot of tasks were outsourced and carried out at home. This was logistically very complex and time-consuming. We had hardly any transparency when it came to keeping track of stock." The packaging systems needed to be easy to use and safe to operate. Those responsible at ESTB opted for packaging systems from Automated Packaging Systems (APS). APS employees examined the existing packaging process and worked with the ESTB managers to develop proposed solutions for the use of semi-automatic packaging systems. "We were impressed by the performance and packaging speed of the Autobag machine," says Sönke Kühl. "The machines are flexible enough to cope with the frequent product changes we have to make, without causing long downtimes."

At ETSB, the "Maximizer" feeder is used to create accessory sets from up to twenty individual parts, check them for completeness and transport them to the packaging machine.

The pouch packaging machines were combined in a packaging island. This is where the items to be packaged, including the accessories procured by ESTB, are fed, semi-automatically packaged and the items packaged in bags are then forwarded intralogistically.

The machines used in Iserlohn include the AB 180 Autobag packaging system with thermal transfer printer in combination with a Maximizer feed system. The feeding system transports the product sets presented by the operator, consisting of up to twenty accessory items, to the AB 180 bag packaging machine. At the same time, the feeding belt controls the number of items to be packaged per bag. The packaging machine automatically prints the packaging bags with labels and item data according to the customer's order, fills the product sets into bags, seals them and removes them. The system packs up to 80 pouches per minute. An integrated touchscreen makes it easy to operate and coordinate all functions for diagnostics, data processing and machine monitoring. The operator can change the pouch format in less than two minutes. Finally, an integrated diagnostics tool and the Replace-n-Repair module ensure high system availability. An automatic checkweigher has also been integrated into one of the packaging systems so that bags can also be packed according to target dimensions.

"Print and pack" on a table

The PS 125 OneStep table-top packaging machine ordered for packaging smaller product volumes is also a print-pack combination. Weighing just 37 kilograms, the machine packs up to 25 pouches per minute in continuous mode and requires a footprint of just 56 × 48 centimetres. The pouches are filled by hand. They can then be sealed automatically using the push-to-seal mode or a foot switch. The tabletop device is equipped with an integrated PH 412 thermal transfer printer for direct printing on the pouches. This allows barcodes, logos, free text, serial or test numbers to be printed with a resolution of up to 200 dpi.

The Iserlohn-based company currently packs several million bags a year, and the trend is rising. Managing Director Sönke Kühl is very satisfied with the machines and the service provided by APS: "If the demand for our system services continues to develop in this way, we will ask Automated Packaging Systems again when we increase our packaging technology."

Heinz-Jürgen Zamzow

Contact:

ESTB GmbH 58640 Iserlohn Tel.: 0 23 71 / 1 59 82-0 E-Mail:

Automated Packaging Systems Ltd. 38304 Wolfenbüttel Tel.: 05331 / 90383-0 E-Mail:[email protected] www.autobag.de