Windmöller & Hölscher KG

Our customer dy-pack is one of the world‘s leading manufacturers of paper sacks for bulk materials. For them, it‘s about more than just sacks: The logistics concept and the conditions for individual sack concepts make dy-pack an ideal partner for customers who want to process even the smallest orders in a short time. The challenge here: high internal load due to long set-up times with low quantities.


Lean Management as a solution

The solution to this challenge: the Lean Management approach. The focus is on optimizing the entirevalue chain and all related activities and reducing unnecessary costs.W&H has adapted this concept to the individual situation and needs of dy-pack and implemented it together with them.

Together to new methods

In an individual Process Consulting was learned, analyzed, documented and tested. After the basics of process optimization and methods for reducing set-up times had been worked out in the first part of the workshop, it was straight into practice - on the living object in production itself.


Applied know-how

The collected knowledge was used for a documentation of the current set-up processes and to analyse potentials for improvement. Dy-pack implemented the results from the analyses directly on the machine and gained important insights: Up to 50% of the setup times can be saved and completely new standards for the production processes can be set.

Saving resources right from the start

In 2021, we want to continue to set new standards for environmentally friendly production together with our customers. Already understanding set-up times and saving time and material usage as a result is essential. The cooperative workshop and the successfully introduced principle of Lean Management at dy-pack have shown that process optimization can be the key to greater efficiency and careful use of resources. Our experts convince not only with their industry experience, but also with their sensitivity to the individual requirements of each customer. For dy-pack, we have met all expectations and are looking forward to many more workshops with our customers. Further reading

Windmöller & Hölscher is once again breaking new ground in the gravure market with its updated HELIOSTAR II press. Production speeds of up to 600 m/min. are therefore no problem even for demanding print jobs. The overall performance of the HELIOSTAR II has been significantly increased by improved production stability and control even at top speeds. And HELIOSTAR II is best equipped to print sustainable films made of MDO-PE.

The stability and overall production control even at top speeds mainly derive from the installation of a new Sensor tracking system and the use of SUPERGRIP idler rollers. The former ensures extremely fast register control, which is no longer pneumatically controlled but motorized, thus ensuring a faster response to material movements in the press. With the SUPERGRIP idler roller W&H developed a completely new technology, which guides the material through the machine in a much more stable manner. The revised gravure printing press also breaks new ground in automation: Simple, intuitive machine operation and handling are guaranteed by the central PROCONTROL panel with direct access to all machine functions and quality parameters. Especially the deeply integrated VISION control system enables the operator a detailled and precise job control for best machine performance and job quality. Thereby all production parameters are recorded and can be used for further downstream processes via W&H's own IoT System RUBY.


BEST EQUIPPED TO PRINT SUSTAINABLE FILMS MADE OF MDO-PE
With the new HELIOSTAR II W&H gives a response to the ongoing trends regarding increasing sustainability requirements and shorter print jobs combined with frequent job changes. Especially when it comes to printing sustainable films like MDO-PE, which is always quite a challenge due to the extremely stretched material that does not run homogeneously over the entire working width, the gravure press is perfectly equipped through its register control and the SUPERGRIP technology.

The HELIOSTAR II series includes the two machine types HELIOSTAR II S and HELIOSTAR II A. The HELIOSTAR II S is extremely flexible and can be configured for all packaging films, laminates and papers and special customer requirements. Whereas the HELIOSTAR II A is positioned in the market with up to 10 printing units for the core area of flexible packaging. Further reading

PT Plasindo Lestari, a W&H customer based in Jakarta, Indonesia, is a producer of high-end films for food, beverage, home care and personal care packaging. The company recently had the new XP cooling ring retrofit installed on one of their newer 5-layer VAREX blown film lines and immediately yielded a significant increase in output.


Timothy Cahyadi, COO PT Plasindo Lestari, said, “We have already used the expertise of the W&H Module Sales team and upgraded one of our non-W&H blown-film lines with a W&H P2K profile-controlled air ring. This turned out very well for our production. We have a number of fairly new VAREX lines, and W&H approached us with the idea to improve our production numbers even further on one of them. People at W&H were pretty sure they could make this work, but before we bought the upgrade, we challenged them to come into the plant and prove it first.”

A W&H technician visited the plant and started to fine-tune the line “as is” to establish an output benchmark. After restarting the machine with the new air ring - an Arctis XP - running the same structure, an improvement in bubble stability was obvious right away, making it clear that output could be increased further with the bubble still holding rock steady.

Three different products were tested on the retrofit. According to Gerd Kasselmann from W&H’s Line Audit and Retrofit Solutions unit, each product reacted differently with output increasing between 12% and 23% depending on the product. Kasselmann pointed out, that this increase was even possible on technology that was state-of-the-art just three years ago. “Retrofitting such technology to older lines is expected to provide even higher increases,” he adds.

Cahyadi added, “We were surprised and excited when the line was restarted. But the output increase tells only half of the story. When running at a higher rate, the new air ring delivers even better width and gauge uniformity, and the whole production is running more consistently. It feels like the bubble is kept in a kind of circular vise. Even the night-shift operators manage to do quick changeovers without losing the bubble.”
Further reading