Left to right: Simon Holmes (JKSP), Herlin Melo (Production Manager, Schwarz Miami) and Brad Tilley (General Manager, Schwarz Miami).
With a nation-wide network of paper mills, sheet feeder operations and packaging plants, Schwarz Group is a well-known name in the U.S. market.
At their facility in Miami, the company wanted to look at ways of enhancing board quality and corrugator output. The existing corrugator had an original weight roll double backer, with 13 hotplates. It was experiencing issues with warp, delamination, customer complaints and reduced running speeds. As a result, the plant was running with high hotplate temperatures in an attempt to obtain the required heat transfer in the double backer. The weight rolls were providing poor overall surface area contact to the hotplates and minimal down pressure which was preventing efficient utilization of the heat available. Regular, time consuming and costly maintenance was required to keep the multiple rollers and bearings in a serviceable condition.
Schwarz invited JKSP Services to suggest a solution to the problems being encountered. JKSP carried out a full survey and recommended the installation of their RollerBond and AirBond solution to completely replace all of the existing weight rolls.
The RollerBond module was installed above the first hotplate to ensure accurate and controlled contact of all papers as the pass into the entrance of the double backer. This provided a high down pressure to ensure controlled contact and excellent glue penetration without any ‘double kiss’ which can sometimes be experienced if the papers are not controlled sufficiently at their point of first contact.
AirBond modules were then installed above the remaining hotplates with a four zone control to enable variable pressure to be applied to suit the various medium and liners being run. The system automatically adjusts the pressure as the corrugator speed increases, to ensure efficient and even pressure is applied and enabling even heat transfer to provide increased running speeds and consistent board quality.
To enhance the control further, the AirBond system was interfaced to the steam system to enable the hot plate temperatures to be controlled in line with the AirBond. This enabled the plant to gradually reduce steam pressures due to the efficiency of heat transfer that was now made possible thanks to the AirBond system.
A digital pressure monitoring system was installed to continually monitor the system to ensure the correct pressures were being applied at all times and alert operators if any feedback received is outside of the set parameters. The results were immediate, with a noticeable increase in quality on day one.
Good Feedback
Brad Tilley, General Manager, explains, “The installation has been a real success from day one and we have realised a fast ROI. We are pleased with the system and the improvements in running speeds, quality and reductions in waste, steam and starch consumption. Operators are happy, engineers are happy and most importantly our customers are happy. The challenges provided by the pandemic were overcome via a fantastic team effort with Schwarz and JKSP working closely together to ensure the installation proceeded successfully.”
Herlin Melo, Production Manager, adds, “We worked together with JKSP to ensure the system was fully integrated into our existing machine, as we needed a seamless integration and a system that ran in automatic mode with little or no operator intervention.”
Simon Holmes, Sales Director, JKSP Services, concludes, “This project evolved in to a joint development to adapt and enhance our system to provide seamless integration and enhanced functionality to the operation at Miami. This was enabled by working closely with the Schwarz Engineering and Production teams to provide exactly what was required. Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, a combined remote installation and commissioning plan was then produced that provided fantastic results. The collaborative and ‘can do attitude’ applied by everyone certainly made this project a success and a pleasure to be involved in.”
