BEUMER Group, Beckum, Germany, has in recent months supplied stretch-hood packaging systems to a major Spanish player in the European petrochemical business which produces more than six million tons of chemicals annually. Two of its manufacturing facilities are located in Spain and one in Portugal. After production, the petrochemical pellets are packaged into bulk bags, octabins or 25kg PE bags and then delivered to customers. These bags are palletised and wrapped in film to protect them against environmental impact and dust. For this purpose, the plants had previously been using shrink wrapping technology since the 1980s. Various problems arose that had nothing to do with the machines, but with the technology, because the heat required for the shrinking process was generated using gas or electric power. The open flame repeatedly caused small burns to the film, causing the pellets often to melt with the film. The continuous fire hazard gave rise to higher insurance rates and the ageing systems required expensive upkeep. In addition, the energy consumption of the systems was high, and it became increasingly difficult to source spare parts.

“Our customer was looking for a manufacturer with high quality standards, many years of experience, high reliability and world-wide references", said Plácido Valle Santafosta, sales engineer at BEUMER Group in Barcelona. In the tender process, BEUMER was awarded the contract to supply systems for one of the Spanish plants, and in August 2019 to supply further machines for the other plant - a total of 10 packaging systems.

Stretch-hooding has the ability to package the pallet for high-bay storage systems, with understretch or with different base reinforcements. Thanks to the high transparency of the stretch film, the packed goods are clearly visible. Also, the barcodes on the bags can be scanned quickly and consistently. A flat film placed on the pallet offers additional protection against external influences on all six sides of the stacked pellets. This ensures that the bags filled with pellets are protected reliably against environmental influences such as sunlight, dirt, and humidity during transport and outside storage.

The BEUMER stretch hood A machine is very energy efficient. A film transport system, which is particularly gentle on the material, introduces the previously cut and sealed film hood into the system. On its way to the crimping and stretching unit, the sealing seam on the film hood cools down so that it can be crimped without losing time. This allows for the elimination of energy-consuming cooling and efficiency-reducing cooling times.

In order to facilitate the work for the maintenance personnel and to ensure high system availability, the new packaging system was designed without a platform. Maintenance work, such as changing the blades or the sealing bars, is handled at floor level. Additional benefits include the compact design and the resulting low height and small footprint. "We have equipped this line with the BEUMER Human Machine Interface, which makes it easy and simple to operate", said Valle Santafosta.

"In winter, we supplied the first two BEUMER stretch hood packaging systems to the Spanish plant, a few weeks later two additional ones." Installation took place in autumn. BEUMER also delivered two packaging systems to the other Spanish plant in winter and two further ones in August. Some of the systems are equipped with roller conveyors for the pallet transport system. www.beumer.com
 

The new BEUMER stretch hood A offers easy and intuitive operation
 

Plácido Valle Santafosta is based at BEUMER’s Barcelona office

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