DS Smith Expands (CONT’D FROM PAGE 26)
Another feature, common in Europe, is a sound enclo- sure. Fosber designed and installed the Lebanon plant’s enclosure. When the machine is running full speed, the sound level outside the enclosure is 85 decibels, which is quite low for a corrugator and more corresponding to the sounds of a power lawnmower or a window air conditioner. The plant uses Kiwiplan’s Corrugator Scheduling sys- tem as well as the full suite of Kiwiplan manufacturing soft-
The corrugator has a Link M3 roll loading system.
ware, including the QMS (Quality Management System) module. McCracken says there were several features of the Fosber corrugator that were especially important for the new plant, including infusion plates on both webs and the automatic roll stands, which, according to Fosber, are the most automated splicer/roll stands in the industry. “Mostly the things that were important to us with Fosber was the reliable high speed corrugator. It is flexible and has inte- grated well into different process and control systems,” he says. “We’re very happy with the performance of the machine.” Lebanon is DS Smith’s first plant in the U.S. to install a Fosber corrugator. It products B-, C-, E- and R-flute and doublewall combinations. R-flute is similar to B-flute, but slightly lower in caliper and stronger. It is widely used in Europe for retail-ready packaging, consumer packaging and e-commerce. Lebanon is the only North American plant that is producing it. “The other plants have a car- tridge system so as we grow the demand, we’ll get the corrugating rolls to be able to run it at the other sites,” Mc- Cracken says. He says installation and start-up of the corrugator went quite well. With the Fosber maintenance program a techni- cian is onsite for two years. “With any new machine there are going to be issues that you battle. With the tech onsite those issues will be resolved very quickly. There were very few to begin with, but the tech takes care of all that and it makes for a very smooth running machine.”
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December 14, 2020
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