Since last year, Burgmetaal has installed 20 new lifting systems in total for Lutosa, part of the McCain group. They have done this for both the location in Leuze-en-Hainaut and in Saint-Eloois-Vijve, both in Belgium. “The first systems were installed just over a year ago. The employees needed a bit of a transitional period to get used to it. Our people were under the impression that it would take them a bit longer to use the machines, compared to doing it manually, as they did before,” says Lorenzo Debels from Lutosa. “Everything is running smoothly now, and they have got used to it.”
Lifting aids
The lifting systems are lifting aids for vertical packing machines. “Vertical packing machines are machines that pack products in bags. The product is transported across the top, through a funnel and ends up at the bottom in a bag. Around the funnel/shaping shoulder, the film is shaped to form a bag. Every size of bag has its own shaping shoulder, and these therefore have to be changed occasionally. These funnels often weigh between 25 and 50 kilograms, and according to the Dutch Occupational Health and Safety Act that much weight cannot be lifted by people. The size sets often hang high up in the machines as well, above a transportation belt, and are therefore difficult to lift out of the machines as well. The funnels are also very costly, and it often happens that they get damaged because someone falls while carrying them,” Jan Molenaar from Burgmetaal explains. “With this system, size parts of the vertical shaping, filling and closing machines can be easily exchanged. These size sets are often heavy and difficult to handle. Burgmetaal has developed a lifting system to easily change the sizing parts without manual labour. So we lift the size out of the machine and place it on a moveable trolley. The new size can then be taken from that same trolley, and hung in the machine.”
Lorenzo continues: “People used to manually lift the shaping shoulder, and place it on the machine. We made this investment for two important reasons. Firstly, for ergonomic considerations. Now, employees no longer have to carry those heavy shaping shoulders that can weigh up to 35 kilograms all the time anymore. Secondly, the shaping shoulders cost a few thousand euro per piece. They usually break when they fall, so we also want to protect the material. With these new systems, both employees and shaping shoulders are safe.”
Shaping shoulders
At the packaging department, the Lutosa chips have to end up in the bag at a certain time. “In order to shape that bag and start a roll of film, you need a packing machine with a shaping shoulder. Because we make many different products, those shaping shoulders have to changed regularly,” he explains. “In addition to the shaping shoulder, carts or trolleys are also used, to transport them. Two can be placed on these trolleys, the old one can be placed on it and the new one can be placed in the machine. Besides, we invested in a number of warehouses to store those shaping shoulders.”
Safety first
The complete investment cost about 100,000 euro. “Safety is important for McCain, and the company wishes to continue investing in that as well. If you let people do this, the risk is too large for people to hurt themselves, or trip. We have now made a major step in preventing these kinds of situations.”
According to Lorenzo, the decision to go with Burgmetaal was easily made. “We know they also have other potato and vegetable processing companies as customers, and that they supply good machines to them. They are specialists in their field, after all. A system to lift bags can be bought from various organisations, but the challenge lies in supplying it in such a manner that it has the correct safety degrees (manoeuvrability opportunities), and a special fork to remove the shaping shoulder from the machine. Yet it does not matter which brand of packing machine it is: they can all be operated by the manipulator from Burgmetaal. The beautiful thing is that these are constructed in such a way that they can handle small and large shaping shoulders. The people of Burgmetaal have measured everything on the spot, we validated the drawings together, and installed the lifting systems. Practically nothing has been changed afterwards either, so we are very satisfied.”
For more information:
Jan Molenaar
Burgmetaal
Klein Brabant 40
4508 NG Waterlandkerkje (NL)
Telefoon: +31 (0) 117 745011
Mobiel: +31 (0) 6 12 66 11 02
E-mail: jan@burgmetaal.nl
Website: www.burgmetaal.nl
Lorenzo Debels
Lutosa SA
Schoendalestraat 221
B-8793 Sint-Eloois-Vijve (BE)
Tel. +32 (0)56622719
Fax. +32 (0)56622727
Lorenzo.Debels@lutosa.com
www.lutosa.com