Introduction:
Impel Services P Ltd, the manufacturers of Stelda® case packaging machines, have worked with brands in understanding and resolving transit damages of their goods. Stelda® stands for sustainable solutions that offers product security, by providing tamper evidence and protection against damages due to the tough logistics situation. As a young entrant into this vertical, they have used their vast experience in other industries to advise industries in reducing their costs in end of the line packaging. What is more important is that these solutions help reduce the usage of single use plastics. Their customers for case packaging solutions include Indian Oil, Haldiram’s, Jain Agro Food products, Adani Wilmar, S K Industries (Jelly Belly) who moved away from taping their shipper cartons to hot melt sealing them.
Case Study: Havells India’s Sustainability Drive, helped by Stelda® in reduction of single use plastics, at the same time lowering operational costs of shipper-carton packaging, at the same time securing the primary packages inside.
Case study Prepared by: Pallippuram Sajith, Director Impel Services P Ltd
Havells India Ltd is India’s leading manufacturer of cables and wires. They are also into small kitchen appliances, fans, water heaters (geysers), water purifiers and residential pumps, sold under the eponymous Havells brand and through Standard and Reo sub-brands. Large consumer durables (white goods) are a separate vertical that are now sold under the Lloyd brand. Havells has a turnover of around Rs 9500 crore.
One of their plants is in Alwar, Rajasthan. They have 30 manufacturing lines of making a wire spool of different thickness, Length, Weight & Colour. 5 dedicated Packaging lines ensure that these cables are packed and put into boxes for shipping. The spool boxes or primary cartons are formed and sealed using hot melts using Nordson Applicators.
The process flow that was in place before the introduction of Stelda Case sealers is below:
- Primary carton is manually formed and the wire spool is manually filled into this. The NiCart carton sealing machine from Nordson applies hot melt glue Henkel Supra 100 which seals the flap, thereby creating a tamper evident primary packaging. The Hologram is applied on the carton. Barcode and other manufacturing details are printed.
- Such Mono cartons are filled into the master carton according to the orientation and quantity defined. Tape is applied at both the side Top & Bottom in one go.
- Then the carton moves onto the weighing machine and Shrink wrapping tunnel. Each box is shrink wrapped for protection
- From there master carton moves onto the Strapping unit where 9mm straps are applied 2 Strap along the width and Height & 2 straps Along the Length & Height.
- Filled master cartons are Stacked on pallet by manually lifting
- 9 Persons are involved at the packing line.
Master carton details: 5 Ply, Stapled boxes, Square boxes. No overlap of Major or minor flaps, Virgin craft paper used. Gross weight about 35 Kgs
Objectives of the engagement by Stelda®:
- Eliminate or reduce single-use plastics by addressing the usage of BOPP tapes, shrink film and straps – that are mainly used to secure the master cartons against pilferage and damages.
- Reduction of manual labour.
- Increase productivity
What Stelda case sealer does:
Stelda PS500 HM case sealer opens the flaps of a master carton, already filled with products and applies hot melt adhesives, before the flaps are folded back and pressed. It creates a clean sealing of the box, providing better protection against uneven/ unit loads and other transit challenges. The case sealing also provides tamper evidence as an attempt made to open the box will lead to tearing of flaps or layers of paper.
The Stelda PS 500 is a preset model of case sealer, where the machine needs to be set based on the box dimensions. The control system provides a facility to pick various patterns of gluing, based on box size and weight. The machine is built with stringent electrical and mechanical safety features. The machine has a speed of up to 20 master cartons per minute. It can be operated offline or can be easily connected to the existing packaging line. The machine comes with Nordson Problue 4 melter and multi orifice right angle guns.
The installations and trials on the first Stelda Hot glue case sealing machine lead to:
- Removal of shrink wrapping, as the hot glue sealing provides tamper evidence
- Reduced the number of straps from 4 to 2, with plan for further reduction
- Overall power consumption has come down as the shrink tunnel is removed
- Overall saving in space
- Operational hours have come down by 2 hours per shift
- Positive feedback from the market
Additional savings, as a result of process improvement: We insisted on very minimal head room for case sealing with adhesive. The box was designed to accommodate variations in the height (creating a bulge) due to the uneven primary packaging. They improved the process thereby resulting in a reduction of heights of the boxes from 1 – 3 cm, leading to further savings.
Pallippuram Sajith is a Mechanical Engineering graduate from NIT Warangal who established Impel group in 1993. The group has collectively the biggest experience in hot melt adhesives technology in India - be the machines, systems, consumables or application. Impel is one of the largest suppliers of bookbinding machines and adhesives globally.
They ventured into end of the line packaging in 2015, with a promise to protect the brands against transit damages, securing their products in the most sustainable way. Head quartered in Mumbai, factory based in Bengaluru, Impel has a team of 150 specialists working from 16 different centres in India, Middle East Asia and Africa.
Impel works with its global partners like Nordson Inc., Henkel Adhesives P ltd, GUK FalzMaschinen, VIJUK pharmaceutical folding machines, and Wohlenberg among others
