Highly flexible packaging system for home appliances

In the beginning of the year, NEFF GmbH, a producer of home appliance in Bretten/ Germany which is a 100% subsidiary of the globally active company BSH Bosch and Siemens home appliances GmbH, has put into operation an innovative packaging device for stoves. The system was delivered by MSK, an internationally leading producer of film packaging machines, and it packages a wide range of products economically and flexibly for transport.

The plant in Bretten had many requests, such as cost saving regarding the packaging material and a rising production capacity, with which the technical project management confronted MSK. Here upon, an extensive packaging analysis was done at one of BSH’s affiliated companies in Spain and at the customers’ pilot plant of MSK in Kleve/Germany. Due to the positive experience in the whole BSH-concern, which operates more than 15 MSK packaging lines, the NEFF management decided to go with the new MSK shrink packaging technology, aswell. “Concerning the acquisition of the packaging machine, MSK stuck out because of their great support in project planning”, says Daniel Hettenbach, project manager of NEFF, about the decision for MSK. 

The new shrink packaging system MSK FLOWTECH, which was installed in Bretten in the beginning of 2008, is still one-of-a-kind in household appliances up until today. It works according to the principle of “film passage” and is equipped with three film sizes. An automatic film size changer makes sure the films fit the height of the particular product. Thereby, the machine is able to flexibly adapt to the largest possible number of different product dimensions. During the packaging process, the film is used optimally so that its usage can be reduced to a minimum. The horizontal arrangement of the film rolls prolongs the exchange intervalls of the rolls by far and it makes the operation during the exchange a lot easier.

Integrated into the packaging system is the MSK RECOTECH, a high-capacity pallet shrink frame technique which uses a special MSK hot-air system. It is suitable for a variety of different product measurements in mixed production and there is no need to mechanically regulate the heating elements. The pallet shrink frame adjusts to the different formats optimally and fully automatically. This leads to energy savings, yet with a high safety standard and film-conserving shrinkage.

The new system is designed for a capacity of 360 products per hour and it works to the full contentment of NEFF.

In 1995, the manufacturer of built-in stoves had already optimized his transport packaging and had exchanged the previously used packaging with cardboard boxes with MSK foil packaging. The so-called MSK ClearView® packaging system provides a better protection against water, dust and dirt. Additionally, it lowers the storage cost for packaging material and it evidently reduces damage in transit, because the products are visible at all times.

The MSK Covertech Group belongs to the first choices in the industry of packaging machines all over the world. Apart from half and fully automatic shrink machines and hood stretch-packaging systems, the manufacturer also offers conveyor techniques and in-plant handling systems, aswell as the necessary control software – all this from only one source. MSK sets an especially high value on a high availability and saftey of their machines, and it is renowned for their customer-specific innovations:

“In our pilot plant stations for customers, we check out the best handling and packaging procedure with the client’s individual, original products. By analyzing the results together with the customer, his experience complements ours and consequently, the unique systems and operations give him an enourmous head start in matters of competition”, marketing and sales manager Uwe Jonkmanns explains.