Hood Packaging Bottomer and Palletizing Equipment, Multiple Sites, USA

As part of Hood Packaging Corporation's modernization plans, it invested in packaging machinery from Windmoeller & Hoelscher Corporation (W&H) in August 2005. Hood Packaging, based in Madison, Mississippi, designs and manufactures packaging materials with a range of products including plastic film and bags, paper bags, and coated and laminated papers. The company is a key supplier of multiwall products in the North American market.

The investment in W&H range of equipment will enable Hood Packaging to modernize its equipment and offer its customers a diversified product range. Hood Packaging aims to corner a bigger North American market share and increase production efficiencies while lowering operational costs. The machinery from W&H's Multiwall Division include a PB®2555 pinch-bottomer, two AD®8310 bottomers, two Transystems® and two Arcomat®2 robot palletizers to be installed by early 2006 in the packaging company's various plants in the US.

PINCH-BOTTOMER

The new pinch-bottom equipment will be installed in Hood's facility in Hamlet, North Carolina. The plant will have two completely automated pinch lines and the capability to tube, bottom and palletize pinch sacks in a single operation.

The AD 8310 bottomers will be installed in Hood's Pine Bluff, Arkansas, plant. The bottomers with automated systems, multiple valve units and bottom patch capabilities will enhance the company's productivity. AD 8310 bottomer, which comes with Transystems, is a high performance, mid-range pasted-valve bottomer with an output of up to 300 sacks/minute. The Arcomat 2 automated stacking machines will increase the plant capability to 25 cycles per minute.

PLASTIC SACK AND BAG-MAKING MACHINES

The PB 2555 pinch bottomer is capable of processing flat and side gusseted tubing into open-mouth pinch bottom sacks that have ultrasonically-sealed mitered corners.

The AD 8310 is a high performance, mid-range pasted-valve bottomer and comes with Transystems. The Transystems feature provides a logistic link to the various aspects of the multiwall production process. It performs heavy and repetitive tasks, is compactly made, and protects intermediate and finished products from damage caused during handling and transport.

Hood Packaging will be using Transystems as an add-on to the PB 2555 bottomers to feed sack packets to the Arcomat 2 robot palletizer. The palletizer readily achieves its return on investment because of the improved stacking quality, which affects logistics and the sack-filling process. This automated production line increases packet frequency to 25 cycles per minute.

Hood's decision to choose W&H's equipment was based on the advantages of this machinery. The PB 2555 pinch-bottomer can processes up to 250 bags per minute when operating in-line with a tuber. There is also an option of fitting a feed section to the machine when operating off-line or with a turning/deviating station (when operating in-line with a tuber). The tube length ranges between 17.72in (450mm) and 51.18in (1,300mm) and the tube width between 7.87in (200mm) and 23.03in (585mm).

The PB 2555 machine incorporates an optional high-output, ultrasound mitered-corner sealing unit and has been designed for hot-melt and cold-glue applications. Sacks can be sift-proofed with the heat-seal section.

A reject gate that sorts defective sacks has been integrated into the PB 2555. It also has a special operating concept - an industrial PC with decentralized input/output and fibre-optic light bus communication - for trouble-free operation and comprehensive remote diagnostic service.

The AD 8310 can produce a variety of multiwall products. Its focus is primarily filling sacks (volumes of 4L to100L) including marketable paper sacks, which accounts for nearly 80% of multiwall production in the market. The automation has investment cost advantages and does not compromise on flexibility or the quality of sack configurations.

The AD 8310 valve bottomer is competitively priced and covers the entire range of standard multiwall applications. It features job changeover systems with adjustment differentials, positioning motors and automatic set-up tables. It has a capacity and flexibility to handle different sack dimensions and constructions.

The machine has a high output - a maximum of 300 sacks per minute at volumes of 4L to 95L. The AD 8310 features optional kinematic tube-end opening when producing sacks with large bottoms and sophisticated sack constructions.

HOOD'S NEW LINES REDUCE COSTS AND PROTECT PRODUCTS FROM HANDLING DAMAGE

Hood Packaging's production lines, incorporating the automated material flow systems and the robot palletizer and the bottomer, represents a highly efficient production system for the fully automatic paper sack production.

Transystems, the logistics machine, optimises the use of the bottomer and saves costs on personnel, reduces the capital tied up in intermediate products and protects intermediate and finished products from handling damages. Hood Packaging is leveraging the Transystems feature to make full use of existing production reserves and to optimise the cost structure of production.

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