Huge savings of more than £750,000 per annum can be made on a single production line, and Aetna says that customers are achieving full payback on the system within a matter of months of installation.
Historically when stacking plasterboard, to ensure the boards were protected from dirt or moisture, manufacturers had to choose between stacking the boards directly onto large expensive one way pallets and then wrapping with a horizontal wrapper, or using skids or bearers, manually placed onto the tops of the packs, as a more cost effective medium. Subsequent wrapping with shrink or stretch film holds the skids in place, but involves inverting the packs before transport. Both methods are expensive and hugely labour intensive.
Aetna’s new handling and spiral wrapping system eliminates these issues. Skids are automatically delivered directly from the bulk pallet into the skid magazine by robot, and the system then automatically inserts the wooden skids under the stacked plasterboard packs at predetermined positions. This means that the packs can be lifted with forklift trucks from the line, without the need to stop or invert the pack. These skids can be glued to the bottom board or stretch wrapped to the pack to secure them.
The system incorporates a pre-stretching device for film economy, Can incorporate head and tail wrapping for fully enclosed packs and is designed to automatically measure packs for either 900 or 1200 width and 1200 to 3600 length. It then calculates the number of skids required and places them in the correct position.
The whole operation is continuous, operator-less and capable of wrapping large packs at the rate of 1 to 2 per minute.
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Editor’s notes:
For general information about Aetna UK visit www.aetna.co.uk
For technical information contact Mark Tucker, Aetna UK’s managing director
Tel: +44 (0)1234 825050
For media information contact Val Jefferys, Ultimedia Public Relations
Tel: +44 (0)1767 601621
