Faster, safer, and more efficient filling
Weilburger Graphics GmbH optimizes its coating production with FRICKE
Weilburger Graphics GmbH has relied on FRICKE filling systems for many years. With automatic and semi-automatic solutions, the company accelerates coating production, increases safety, and flexibly meets growing demand.
Stahl Packaging Coatings – touching lives, for a better world
Weilburger Graphics is part of the Stahl Group, the world's leading company for specialty coatings and treatments for flexible materials. Stahl's innovative solutions are found in everyday materials used in countless industries and markets, including the automotive, apparel, luxury goods, footwear, packaging, and home furnishings industries, touching the lives of people everywhere.
Stahl Packaging Coatings is a leading global provider of high-quality, sustainable solutions for the graphic arts and packaging industries, specializing in water-based and UV coatings, flexographic inks, and adhesives. The company's products touch people's lives by adding value across all printing and packaging disciplines, creating surfaces and functions that inspire people around the world. With their commitment to innovation, these solutions preserve and protect, enhance functionality and beautify, while offering a distinctive look and feel. Weilburger Graphics' versatile solutions are suitable for a wide range of materials, from paper and cardboard to plastic, film, metal, and alternative substrates.
Find out more: www.stahl.com/packaging-coatings
Challenges: Fast and safe paint filling with increasing production volumes
With rising sales volumes came the need to fill large quantities of coatings faster, safer, and in parallel with the production process. Previously, filling was partly carried out manually using mobile scales – a time-consuming and error-prone process. Since 2010, Weilburger Graphics has therefore been investing in modern filling systems that combine flexibility, efficiency, and safety. “With FRICKE, we found a capable, cooperative, and trustworthy partner that has advised us competently and on equal terms since the very start,” says Jochen Weghorn, Head of Production UV at Weilburger Graphics GmbH.
Solutions: Fast and ergonomic filling systems for drums, IBCs and canisters
To efficiently fill coatings into drums or IBCs, Weilburger Graphics relies on semi-automatic FRICKE filling systems. They enable ergonomic operation and automatically adjust to new container sizes during changeovers. This increases process safety and significantly reduces setup times. In addition, since 2013 the company has been using fully automatic filling systems of the AFS 22 type. With these, up to 15,000 kilograms of coatings can be filled and sealed in cans in less than four hours. The modular system also makes it possible to label and palletize the containers directly, so they are ready for transport to the finished goods warehouse.
Implementation: Smooth integration of FRICKE systems into existing production processes
The FRICKE filling systems were tailored to the specific requirements of Weilburger Graphics and seamlessly integrated into the existing production environment. “In the WB coating sector, these systems have not only enabled us to accelerate filling but also to improve safety in a process that was previously handled manually,” says Jochen Weghorn. Ease of use was another strong factor: filling can be managed by a single operator, valve cleaning is fast and simple, and changing products or container sizes can be done without complex conversions.
Looking ahead together: AFS 22 perfectly complements existing semi-automatic filling systems
The continuously increasing production volumes have prompted Weilburger Graphics to order another fully automatic AFS 22 with two filling valves. “This enables us to fill larger quantities faster, helping us cater to the continuous growth in demand,“ says Nino Sandner, Head of Production WB at Weilburger Graphics GmbH. He adds: “Besides Fricke’s semi-automated filling systems, which we have been using since 2010, the fully automated systems are the perfect addition to our production process. Our cooperation with Fricke has been smooth and very customer-focused, from the design through the completion of the equipment.” With the new system, Weilburger Graphics is further expanding its successful partnership with FRICKE at its Gerhardshofen site.
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