Triumph Sheets is home to one of the biggest corrugators in the world: an ultra-wide 132″ corrugator from BHS Corrugated. This went into operation in October 2019 in Cleveland, TN. After starting with 38 employees working two shifts, there are now 95 people employed in Cleveland working in three shifts. With tried and trusted technology from BHS Corrugated, Triumph Sheets is a leading producer of triplewall board. The company is part of Schwarz Partners.
Schwarz Partners are home to North America’s first and second 132″ corrugators. John Lingle and the deceased Terry Poulson from Schwarz Partners took a long, hard look at the advantages of wider corrugators. Both spent a lot of time with Edmund Bradatsch, along with Paul Engel, the founder and pioneer of today’s BHS Corrugated and the father of the 132″ corrugator, before they bought the first 132″ for Alliance Sheets in Bristol. Alliance was a success and the second 132″ corrugator was soon purchased for Encorr in Los Angeles. The Cleveland 132″ corrugator is now the third of its kind at Schwarz Partners. Three Modul Facers® and the Triplex dry-end technology guarantee maximum flexibility. It began its successful operation on October 14, 2019.
The demand for corrugated board rocketed with the beginning of the pandemic. This was a big challenge for Triumph. The plant had only been operational for six months. The employees were still in the throes of learning the processes in the plant and had to deal with a large number of orders from customers in next to no time. At the same time, the support staff from Schwarz Partners and the technicians from the suppliers were unable to get to Cleveland because of travel restrictions. Online support was the only help from outside that could be offered. Under the leadership of Bobby Hunter, General Manager of Triumph, the team faced up to the challenge and was more than successful. In 2020, the team managed to produce 190 million square meters.
In 2021, they were able to further increase this output. The 72-person team worked three shifts, 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. The result: 234 million square meters or rather 170,000 tons of produced corrugated board. And they even achieved two production records:
- 8hr shift record: 533,803 linear feet, 5,854,729 sq ft.
- 24hr shift record: 1,275,200 linear feet, 13,702,623 sq ft.
If there were to be a walk of fame for corrugator operations, a big star would need to be embedded. Congratulations to the entire Schwarz and Triumph team! It can be proud of its extraordinary achievements during the pandemic. The team continues to push the production exceeding the records achieved in 2021.
Schwarz senior management is also pleased with the additional cost benefits of the extra wide 132″ corrugator. This is substantiated by placing the order of the fourth 132″ corrugator for the Schwarz group. Globally, Schwarz is the second biggest operator of the 132″ corrugator.
The WIDTH Line from BHS Corrugated features the largest working width in the world – 132″. Compared with corrugators of narrower working widths, they achieve lower trim loss and reduce logistics expenses within the factory. Even if trim is reduced by just a few percent, a Width Line will quickly pay for itself. This makes it potentially interesting for any manufacturer looking to use a paper machine to achieve a continuous material flow with maximum output. The Width Line systems easily fulfil high production volume and availability requirements – all their components are designed to run 24h/day in 3 or 4-shift operation. They offer a maximum production speed of 1,315 ft per min. and an annual volume of 100,000 to 200,000 tons.
