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Smurfit Kappa in Neuburg an der Donau / Germany is very pleased with a channel baling press from HSM. At the corrugated cardboard plant, the “HSM VK 7215” has been pressing cutting waste into bales weighing more than half a tonne since September 2014, thereby ensuring smooth operation of the plant. For their process, Smurfit Kappa has quite special requirements for the baling press.
In the past, one bale of cutting waste at Smurfit Kappa in Neuburg weighed 380 kg. Today it is 520 kg - for the same size of bale. This is made possible by the high compression capacity of the HSM VK 7215 baling press. This has significant advantages for the transportation of bales to the paper factory for recycling. On the whole, there are fewer bales, the forklift truck can make fewer trips and lorry utilisation to the paper factory has increased by 30 per cent. “The under-utilisation of the lorries is now finally a thing of the past for us”, said Rüdiger Graf, operations manager at Smurfit Kappa in Neuburg an der Donau. And the results exceed the predictions. Although the VK 7215 is actually supposed to produce bales weighing 480 kg, the cardboard bales in Neuburg are now registering 520 kg on the scales. Graf said, “These are all economic advantages which bring the machine’s ROI down to less than three years.”

48 tonnes of cutting waste - per day

These are large volumes, but they are unavoidable. Smurfit Kappa in Neuburg produces up to 48 tonnes of cutting waste every day. The Bavarian plant of the international Smurfit-Kappa Group (42,000 employees, 8.1 billion euros annual revenue) has specialised in the food sector, particularly dairy plants. With 180 employees, the plant typically dispatches yoghurt trays and boxes for transporting milk packaging. Cutting waste is not put into temporary storage but is moved directly from production to a baling press to be transported to one of the Group’s paper factories for recycling. Rüdiger Graf describes the requirements on the paper press at the end of the production line, saying, “If the baling press malfunctions, the entire production comes to a standstill.” In a plant which produces round the clock from 6am on Monday to noon on Saturday, there are, understandably, maximum requirements regarding the operational reliability of a baling press. He continued, “The disposal process must run absolutely smoothly.” After 20 years of operation, the existing baling press in the corrugated cardboard factory had reached the end of its life. Downtime was increasing, so that the search was on in Neuburg for a successor. Rüdiger Graf explained that several suppliers were in the race and that all machines were evaluated according to a points system and observed in use at reference customers. He said that two small HSM presses had already been running at Smurfit Kappa in Neuburg for some time and that they had had “good experience” with them. This assessment was verified in the new selection procedure. As explained by the operations manager, HSM was not only well ahead in the points process, but also as the result of a visit and the assessment of the company’s own maintenance and service technicians. Price was not the only factor; the entire service package which was offered by the manufacturer from Frickingen, Lake Constance also played an important role. Particularly on the subject of reliability, Graf said, “We simply had a high level of confidence in the operational reliability of the HSM press.”

Commitment even after commissioning

The standard use of high-strength steels in the baling press also met the requirement for high wear resistance, since corrugated cardboard is a very abrasive material. Graf praised the work, saying “the adaptation to our interfaces also ran without any problems.” And the supplier also showed commitment even after commissioning. When it transpired that the wire feed had to be modified, HSM promptly arranged this.