Our New Corrugator Starts Operation
In our new 17,000 m² plant building, the starting signal for our new corrugated board plant was given on December 6, 2016; sooner than expected.
Since the construction went smoothly, the start-up, which was not planned until spring 2017, could be brought forward. With investment costs of just under 33 million euros, we opted to manufacture in-house in order to be independent of corrugated board suppliers. In addition, we save freight costs incurred by delivering the raw material to Damme.
The line comes from BHS Corrugated Maschinen- und Anlagenbau in Weiherhammer, has a length of 140 meters and produces 400 meters of corrugated board per minute. In December, it was already achieving an output of around 250,000 square meters of corrugated board per day, and best of all, the first product could already be sold.
The line is characterized by three stackers. This means that we can cut many different sheets from the base paper, which is up to 2.80 meters wide. This is not an insignificant cost factor, as we have much less waste. The offcuts are then recycled back into paper in mills.
Currently, the corrugator is running with a good 30 employees in a two-shift operation and in the coming weeks, the workload will then be slowly ramped up.
In the future, 750,000 square meters of corrugated board per day will be produced with around 50 employees working in three shifts. This means an annual output of 200 million square meters or 100,000 tons of corrugated base paper.
The new plant building is connected to the converting hall by a 240-meter-long conveyor bridge. This link is scheduled to be commissioned at the end of January, and the new automatic size storage system will then also be commissioned in February.
We are looking forward to the official inauguration on June 23, with suppliers, customers, and political and business representatives. Two days later, we will then celebrate the commissioning together with our employees and their families.
