Europe based self-adhesive technology company Herma completed the construction of a new roll wrapping plant in Filderstadt, Germany, in November 2011.
Herma is witnessing a rapid growth in the self-adhesive materials business, which necessitated expansion of its production activities. The company invested in an ultra modern coating plant in 2008 as part of its expansion plan, which is aimed at meeting the rise in demand for the company’s products. The 2008 investment marked phase one of the expansion.
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The new plant is part of phase two of the expansion. It is adjacent to the phase one facility. The Filderstadt site now houses two coating plants.
The new plant required an investment of €10m ($13.4m). It has a capacity to wrap up to 60 stacks of roll an hour. It is expected to create up to 70 new jobs depending upon capacity utilisation. The wrapping unit is operated in shifts and is controlled by four or five employees a shift.
Construction of the roll wrapping facility
Excavation works for the second phase of expansion began in May 2010. The new production building is 61m long, 21m wide and 5m tall. It took about ten months for erection of the structure.
The existing production unit, built under the first phase, has a curved roof and houses slitting and wrapping machinery. It was refurbished completely prior to the construction of the new roll wrapping plant. The new plant is located just in front of the existing machinery building.
The two plants together make the company a reliable supplier of self-adhesive materials.
Equipment installed at Herma’s German complex
The first phase of the coating facility includes slitting and wrapping operations under one roof. The first slitter machine at the coating plant was installed in mid-2009. The second machine was installed in June 2010.
The new plant currently includes a roll wrapping facility. It will be equipped with two slitter machines.
Future plans at the ultra modern coating plant
Herma plans to add two more slitter machines to the new coating plant in the future, depending on the requirement. The investment provision of €10m for the plant includes the cost of these two slitters.
The adhesive materials are first slit in the slitter machine and then rolled. The rolls are placed on roller tables, from where they are picked automatically by a computerised mechanism.
The automatic picking mechanism sorts the rolls of adhesive materials in an orderly manner based on the material and its length. It assembles these rolls in stacks of up to two meters height. Each stack weighs about two tons.
The stacks are wrapped in a shrink film on pallets using the wrapping machinery. The film is shrunk by gas burners in order to protect the cargo during transportation. The stacks are then ready to be shipped to the customers.
Benefits of Herma’s roll wrapping plant
The market for coating materials is marked by high competition, which calls for in-time deliveries and reliability of supply to customers.
Presence of both slitting and wrapping operations under one roof improves reliability of supply and helps to gain customers’ confidence in the company, says Herma.
The roll wrapping facility is a fully automated and ultra modern plant, and is one of the most advanced of its kind in the world, according to Herma.
Herma is engaged in three businesses – adhesive materials, labelling and machinery. The company is focusing aggressively on growth through existing as well as new products, especially adhesive materials.
It has invested in the new German plant despite the economic upheaval globally. It plans to launch innovative adhesive materials with multilayer technology in order to create new growth opportunities.
The multilayer technology was introduced by the company in 2010.
