The recent success of their Xtend system reflects the market's desire for powerful, easy to use and, above all, versatile adhesive application and quality assurance systems, say hhs Gluing Systems.

"I think what carton makers see in Xtend," says Mr Nadeem Jadon, UK General Manager for hhs Gluing Systems, "is a system that will handle all the work they have at the moment, but will also develop with them, whether it's into new markets or as they respond to stricter requirements in existing ones."

The Xtend system utilises a plug'n'play style of architecture which means that users can choose from a large number of gluing and in-line verification devices and be confident that they will work without difficulty and with great stability. "Many systems in the market are assembled together into one big set-up," explains Mr Jadon. "Xtend is different. It connects together the units the user wants using a bus system which is cost-efficient and versatile. Elements can be added as the users' needs change."

Major installation after on-site evaluation

It was this versatility that was one of the attractions for staff at the Field Packaging plant at East Kilbride, Scotland, when they began looking for new systems to replace five existing gluing units. "Future upgradeability was a key part of our specification," recalls Production Manager, Mr Jim Hemple. "We specialize in complex, multipoint work and our designers are always pushing the boundaries of what you can do with a carton. It means we can never know what we will need a year or two down the line, so it was important to future-proof ourselves as far as possible with our new equipment."

The plant wanted to achieve a number of objectives with the investment. "One of the main things was to find a glue system that would allow us to run multipoint and side seam gluing using the same, high viscosity, adhesive," says Mr Hemple. "We run a lot of heavy board-to-board laminates, litho-lam and Metpol boards, so a higher viscosity adhesive gives us better gluing. If we could find such a system it would also mean we could rationalise our adhesive supply and reduce the number of spares we need to hold."

After whittling down their initial short list to two suppliers, the plant carried out extensive trials, running two loaned installations side-by-side. "The hhs system ran our preferred adhesive much more reliably, even though the glue was five times more viscous than standard glues," says Mr Hemple. "The new hhs P-500 glue guns are particularly good and give very accurate delivery."

As well as technical issues, the plant also felt that the service support from hhs would be better. "This was a big thing for us," says Mr Hemple. "We felt confident that the hhs team in the UK would manage the project with minimum disruption to our production and I'm pleased to say that's how it panned out. In fact they did a fabulous job all the way from planning and installation through to commissioning and training."

The plant utilized its flexible, Customer-demand led Rostering Pattern (CDL) to ensure that each member of staff was available for training at the correct time and so was fully trained before utilizing the equipment unaided. The crews soon reported that they liked the Xtend's touch screen system because of its userfriendly behaviour and were equally enthusiastic about the whole hhs system. "You usually get teething troubles for the first few weeks with a new bit of kit," commented operator Tommy Turner. "But after we'd had the hhs system for a fortnight I suddenly realised we'd not had a single problem with it." hhs plan to follow up the training pro-actively to ensure that the plant maintains maximum productivity and minimum downtime.

Twenty years in gluing and quality assurance systems

Celebrating its twentieth anniversary during 2006, hhs Gluing Systems is based in Krefeld, near Dusseldorf, Germany and supplies gluing systems and quality assurance systems to the carton, corrugated, packaging, tobacco, print finishing and direct mail industries. The company employs around 150 staff worldwide and has subsidiaries in the USA, Italy, Spain and the UK, the latter of which has a large stock holding. The company attributes its success to being in tune with its customers' working practice and environment, citing as one example of this its provision of loan stock to enable customers' production to continue
while equipment is repaired or serviced.

The Xtend system represents a pathway for users to progress from simple, stand-alone, glue pattern controllers to fully integrated quality assurance lines. "Xtend is incredibly versatile," says Mr Jadon.

The unit also acts as a controller for the types of QA systems that are particularly important to pharmaceutical packaging manufacturers and are now spreading into other arenas. The systems include code reading for all current and future code (Colour codes, pharma code UPC/EAN, RFID and 2D-Data matrix), Disk applied side seam glue monitoring and glue nozzle monitoring, as well as glue detection on a range of substrates including ULT optical detection on Metpol surfaces.

It is in this field of quality assurance that Mr Jadon sees the hhs technology as especially effective. "When it comes to glue line detection we don't use 'closed loop' technology where the system is supposed to compensate for errors in laying down the line. There are a lot of built-in assumptions when you use 'closed loop' and it's easy for the glue line to drift off track without flagging up an error.” hhs takes a completely different approach, starting with the development of highly accurate glue guns such as the hhs P500 non-contact gun.

The second element of the hhs approach is a verification system that uses a separate system loop, creating completely independent verification of glue presence and position. "If the glue line is out of tolerance then the carton gets ejected," explains Mr Jadon. "Then, if there are pre set Number of consecutive ejections the system stops the gluer and tells the operator what the problem is. That way you're not self perpetuating an error. After all, if your glue guns are good they don't just drift, there must be a reason."

With the gluing department being the last opportunity to inspect the product before despatch to the customer, Mr Jadon advocates the importance of an integrated and accurate gluing system. "High speeds and automatic packers have made visual inspection almost impossible. Systems like Xtend are there to maintain our customers' reputations and to protect them from the consequences of bad cartons getting out of the plant."

Come and see the Xtend system at the Ipex 2006 show.

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