Have you ever wondered what the advantages of developing a whole project with one supplier of machinery would be like? We can answer that question thanks to the collaboration between the Fabio Perini companies and W+D-Langhammer companies, which all belong to the KPL Group.
Alfonso Pérez Orihuela - W+D-Langhammer GmbH & Maura Leonardi
Being a machinery supplier today entails making competitive offers not only from a technological point of view, but above all in terms of ideas. Offering innovative comprehensive solutions that optimize the production process through technical solutions which are capable of improving the working conditions of employees and result in increased productivity and profitability of the plants.
With this philosophy in mind, companies belonging to the KPL Group, Fabio Perini companies and W+D-Langhammer, have decided to intensify their existing cooperation by creating a delivery platform through a Complete System Solutions from a single source. This covers everything from the converting of tissue paper, including the embossing design, to the packaging as well as palletizing and transport of the final products. It is an innovative way to create added value for the whole tissue processing sector. This idea stems from the synergy of companies who have been working together for many years. Companies which have extensive know-how in the tissue field thanks to an experienced team of engineers from both companies who are responsible for the organization, development (lay-outs and interfaces) and coordination of the CSS projects.
This is possible thanks to the commitment of sharing knowledge with our worldwide members through two extensive technical trainings held in 2011, one in Chicago and one in Lucca. The advantages of being able to work with one supplier capable of handling the entire production process beginning with the initial concept and on through to the palletized product, are immediately clear in terms of engineering costs reduction, lower structural costs, unified contractual and payment conditions, simplified sales, project and after-sales communication. This also results in a higher level of technological standardization in terms of spare parts, machine components, safety devices and interfaces.
"I believe the cooperation between the Fabio Perini companies and W+D-Langhammer is of primary importance in order to offer a global and complete solution to our customers, from the jumbo rolls to the pallets, with a single point of contact, only one sale contract and a sure production performance.
We are the only group in the tissue market to offer such a solution to our customers." Matteo Radicioni. Chief Sales Officer - Fabio Perini Companies "Complete System Solutions is more than just selling different machines through a general contractor.We have developed an organization that guarantees professional project implementation - from the initial customer query right up to and including the After-Sales-Service. Customer advantages are obvious: highest availability and lowest running costs for long-term production. What more could you ask for?"Enrico Pes. Managing Director - W+D-Langhammer GmbH
What are the benefits of this synergy? They express themselves in being able to offer practical solutions suitable to the particular sector. For example, the new Robotic Bundler CMB202+LA02 which combines the packaging technology of Casmatic and the palletizing in-feed technology of W+D-Langhammer.
In order to reduce logistic costs, the ready-for-sale pallet, ordisplay pallet, was created in Europe several years ago. This new model fully embodies the innovative spirit and brings added value in packaging and palletizing by offering the possibility to avoid using large bundles. All packs can be optimally positioned on the pallet, occupying the maximum volume available and at the same time displaying the product brand on all 4 sides of the pallet. Applying this technology before the infeed of the bundle enables the optimization of the occupied volume of the pallet beginning with the bundle.
Generally, if there is a gap of 3-5 centimeters (1-2 inches) between the perimeter of the pallet and the footprint of the layer, the position of the packs inside the bundles could be optimized so that a higher percentage of occupied volume on the pallet could be achieved - or, in most cases, more packs per bundle and therefore per layer could be transported.
Moreover, since the palletizing technology of W+D-Langhammer allows the palletization of different formats without changing any form parts in the machine, different bundles and different products can be run minimizing the changeover time of the machine. This means that the changeover time from bundles containing flat packs to bundles containing up-ended packs can be dramatically reduced by up to 3-5 minutes. And finally, since the palletizing technology of W+D-Langhammer allows the creation of different pallet patterns with just a few steps through a Machine-Human-Interface, by using this technology new bundle configurations can be programmed by the operator and can be run as soon as they are proposed by the logistics or marketing department by using an incredibly intuitive and easy to use touch panel interface.
In summary, we can say that the main advantages of this innovation are optimization of pallet occupied volume, changeover times reduced by up to 3 minutes with no format parts; creation of new mixed bundles via Machine-Human-Interface.
"This is the first practical example and explanation of the deployment of strategic synergies within Körber PaperLink: indeed, a group of companies that could be run completely independently succeed in making the best use of each other's know-how and best expertise. Casmatic machines have the best technology for bundling packs, W+D-Langhammer masters the technology of palletizing robots. The combination of the two is something never seen before at this level of ownership by a single company." Lorna Vatta. Chief Strategy Technology Officer - Fabio Perini Companie Synergy and sharing create added value, as demonstrated by the case history of the SCA-Sahagún plant project, where the integration of Fabio Perini, Casmatic and W+D-Langhammer is a fact. Fabio Perini and Casmatic have delivered four complete MILE 7.1 lines with two A5T and two CMB 202 per line and two CMW 200, while W+D-Langhammer started the palletizing of the first line in February of 2012.
But what makes it so special? A new Layer Gripper and revolutionary Layer Picking by means of the Patented Wave Band. For SCA in Mexico we have developed a new palletizing solution for bundles and packs consisting of a servo-robotized in-feed, a linear robot LR03 with two arms for the layer gripper and for the pallets or slip-sheets. This solution handles in-house 1500x1500 mm pallets, as well as 1000x1200 CHEP pallets. Taking into account that we are handling complete 1500x1500 mm layers, the gripper had to be resistant and as light as possible; for this reason we decided to use carbon fiber. The performance of the palletizing unit is 22 bundles/min or 220 packs/min. The revolutionary development in this project is the Wave Band used in the picking process. With this Wave Band products are not only placed from the bottom but also picked from the bottom, thus avoiding any risk of loss of product during the palletizing. Now we can palletize using robots with no risk of loss of product due to the fact that the pick and place movements are made from the bottom and no product is elevated by suction, compression or clamps. The principle of the Wave Band is as simple as it is amazing. Once a complete layer of packs or bundles is on the conveyor, the layer gripper made of sliding carbon fiber bars is positioned over the products with the bars at both sides of the layer in the open position. While the bars move towards the center point to reach the close position, the Wave Band elevates the product just before the bars arrive at the product. One more thing: until now all existing grippers were either fork gripers or layers grippers positioned on one side of the picking position while the picking was carried out. Now we can pick the products from the bottom while the gripper is located over the products, thus drastically reducing space requirements. Space reduction is always welcomed, but it is essential when working with 1500x1500 mm pallets. Quick changeovers, highest reliability, reduced space, easy accessibility, cleaning and replacement of Wave Band parts are other benefits; but these are all W+D-Langhammer standards."We chose W+D-Langhammer to supply the palletizing equipment for our bath tissue converting line 1 at our new tissue mill in Sahagún Mexico because they offered the technology that best suited our needs and we felt that the integration between their equipment and our KPL Packaging System would be flawless." Jim Haeffele, Vice President of Tissue Technology for SCA's North American tissue business.
We can conclude: Complete System Solutions for the industry will be a new way of thinking about technology and business in which there will be One Project, One Team, One Source.