Sack line cements strength

Equipment recently supplied by Windmöller & Hölscher is believed to be the most advanced line for production of cement sacks yet installed in Egypt. This advanced equipment, comprising an AM 2185 tuber with Flexa in-line printer, a high output AD 2390 valve bottomer and an Arcomat robot palletizer, went on stream at the Egypt Sack facility in Gizeh, in May.

Egypt Sack is a member of the Cairo based Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) group, which employs more than 40,000 people in 20 countries. In recent years, the company has expanded rapidly and is doing business in Pakistan, Algeria and Northern Iraq. With an annual production capacity of about 21M t, OCI claims to be the most important cement producer in the Middle East and is aiming for an annual capacity of 30M t within the next few years.

The group also owns several paper sack plants producing approximately 500M cement sacks/year. In 1997, the National Bag Company was founded in Gizeh. With six production lines, three of them supplied by W&H for cement bags and three lines from W&H daughter company Garant Maschinen for foodstuffs bags, and an annual production output of 160M sacks, NBC claims to be the largest paper sack producer in Egypt.

The Egypt Sack paper sack factory, a former Egyptian/Turkish joint venture in Gizeh, was acquired in 2006. Also in 2006, Orascom took over the Algerian Groupe Mehsas, with which it had been co-operating for many years. The same year, the Pakistan Cement Company - to which a state of the art W&H AM 2185/AD 2390 paper sack line will soon be delivered - was founded. Further sack factories in the Middle East are planned to follow in the next few years.

“Our aim is to be one of the top ten sack producers in the global market,” the group’s spokesperson says.” We have set ourselves ambitious goals and W&H plays an important role in the company’s expansion plans. Our long co-operation with W&H has made us appreciate the high quality and reliability of their machines and equipment.”

The “state of the art, economically priced” AM 2185 high output tuber is designed for production of stepped-end and flush-cut tubes, for long runs and continuous operation at high outputs (up to 350 tubes/min). Its size range (tube width 26 - 50 cm, tube length 48 - 85 cm) matches that of the downstream valve bottomer.

A special feature of the AM 2185 is the diameter variable cross perforation tools that replace the sliding crank drives. Changing drive loads are avoided and extremely smooth operation of the machine is said to be guaranteed, giving high output across the entire size range. Other features are skip venthole perforation of the outer ply, sound encapsulation, setting, change-over and repair aids, AC drives, PC based control with Windows interface, and modem communication with the W&H Information and Diagnostics Centre.

To ensure maximum brand impact for the end product, the outer web is printed on the Flexa 820 in-line flexo printer.

According to W&H, the high output AD 2390 valve bottomer meets the requirements of cement sack production “perfectly”. Designed for a wide size range (filling volumes between 10 and 50 litre), it is said to offer high production output – up to 300 sacks/min - at minimum maintenance requirements. The machine is capable of handling a broad spectrum of paper and glue grades in both arctic and – as is the case with Egypt Sack – tropical climates.

Bullish about bags

At drupa 2008, Windmöller & Hölscher presented the Matador NG – a single machine claimed to produce the most diverse flat and satchel bag types. A product of W&H subsidiary Garant, the “exceptionally fast running” system will make bags with or without window, without a bottom but with side gussets to provide the adequate volume for the products to be packaged.

There is a vast demand for these bags in the market, and low cost manufacture as packaging for bakery and other take-away products is a ‘must’. As a result, short change-over times are imperative and these are said to be guaranteed by the Matador’s servodrive technology. Data of previously run bag types can be stored for recall from the recipe memory for repeat runs.

The machine is said to adjust to the new product dimensions “largely automatically and in practically no time”. The version shown at drupa also featured the new Linaflex end printer with sleeve change and servodrive technology.