With increasingly fierce competition in the carton packaging industry, carton producers are paying greater attention to high-speed, automatic equipment while reducing the cost of production and management. However, simply utilizing high-speed, automatic equipment does not necessarily guarantee high efficiency. Many enterprises, despite investing a lot of capital in purchasing the most advanced equipment, still find achieving maximum productivity elusive.  Why?

This is a systems problem. The systems in place comprise various interrelated elements and are holistic. If one element is not working properly, it affects the overall process.

When buying equipment, many enterprises focus solely on structural performance, technical parameters and price.  Due to the lack of a general overview, some functions of the system are overlooked, meaning some high-performance equipment cannot reach optimal efficiency. Fully automatic folder gluers or automatic printers and slotters and die-cutters and folder-gluer in-line machines are the ideal equipment for the mass production of single-type paper cartons and boxes (such as those used for Wahaha beverages, Mengniu milk, Bright Dairy and Qingdao Beer). Many companies neglect to add the corrugated board and transportation equipment to their order. This kind of equipment is fast (160~250m/min) and has high production efficiency, but the follow-up transportation conveyor and automatic balers are not equipped with a strapping machine, as a result, normally four to six workers are needed to package the product and the equipment functionality and efficiency is significantly reduced.

Many companies are waking up to this problem now. Recently, Anhui Chaohu Shengda Package Products Co., Ltd. ordered two TP-701CCQ fully automatic strapping machine s from Transpack Euro-Asia Packing Machinery Co. Ltd. The TP-701CCQ, a high-quality fully automatic strapping machine  specially designed for the corrugated box industry, fits the 5~6mm PP band structure, is low cost, high efficiency, easy to operate, stable and perfectly suited to banding corrugated boxes, cardboard and other paper products.

Chaohu Shengda originally had an automatic printer, slotter, die-cutter and folder-gluer in-line machine from Hubei Jingshan, operated by six workers and two PE strapping machine s.  But production efficiency with this machine was low as it could only achieve normal operation by reducing speed. The TP-701CCQ been placed behind the printing slotting die-cutting machine and in the short period sine, the machine can now be operated skillfully.  Three workers have since been transferred and the two PE strapping machine s removed as production efficiency has improved. Therefore, Chaohu Shengda has ordered four more sets of the TP-701CCQ for its new mill at Nanfeng Runbeng, applied with the new printers and fully automatic folding-gluing machines from Shanghai Jiayi, Shanghai Chao Chang, Qingdao Meiguang, Keshenglong and other

During implementation of a new strategy, the company’s market positioning, funds and plant facilities are key. For example, when ordering a 250m/min corrugated board production line, the main equipment should be ordered first, reserving connections for the automatic paper receiver, multi-brakes for hydraulic support, auto-correction of the line, automatic glue amount control and the automatic paste-making machine, the automatic stacking machine, and other auxiliary equipment or parts. When planning to order high-speed automatic printer and slotter and die-cutter and folder-gluer in-line machine, die cutter, folder gluer, platen die cutter, automatic folder gluer could be ordered first, reserving the connections for dynamic or static conveyors, automatic baler and other ancillary equipment. The flow raceway system of the whole mill should be taken into account for smooth logistics as well.

In short, a holistic approach to purchasing should be adopted.

Transpack Euro-Asia Packing Machinery Co. Ltd. is looking forward to discussing how to maximize productivity with industry delegates at SinoCorrugated 2010.