Over 30% material savings for fashion mailings

The problem: wrapping paper "dusts" fashion

The customer had many other problems in addition to the logistics performance in packaging. It began with the sensible fashion goods being protected with the relatively rough paper packing material for use. Paper has a too high inherent odor for this industry and covers the sensitive fashion products with dust. In addition, its crumple optic is visually not as attractive as air cushions for fashion customers, as crease-resistance is very important in this industry. The appearance of the packages changed fundamentally for the better, when they switched to an air cushion solution by FLOETER.

Too much packaging material was consumed

In addition, the customer complained that too much cushioning material was used in packaging. Calculations showed that the packers usually packed too much paper in the boxes. Paper is not always easy to dispense and fashion goods are always light goods. It is hard to avoid that, because the packers tend to get too much material to cushion the products in the box.

The solution: Special air cushions

The experts from FLOETER analysed the customer's packing situation. Actually in the studies it was discovered that air cushion mats would have been the suitable solution. These are due to their matching the needed width to separate goods with intermediate layers. However, air cushion mats tend to be produced slower than air cushion chains. The calculations of the cycle times showed that the goals could not be achieved with their existing mats.

Since FLOETER is not only a dealer or system integrator of air cushion solutions, but also a manufacturer, a multi-chamber air cushion chain with the special dimension of 300 mm width and the correct section length was developed for the customer. Since fashion is always a matter of light goods, FLOETER has designed a super-thin and therefore environmentally friendly film of only 12µm thick. The packer can lay the thin chains easily between the fashion goods. This brings speed into the processes, saves work and reduced film material of over 30%.

64 packing stations with 16 machines

The biggest challenge of the project, however, was to set up the customer's 64 packing stations as efficiently as possible for the booming mail order requirements. The 64 packing places were divided into 16 units with one machine each. One AirWave1 machine was enough to supply 4 packers with enough material - often a machine is set up at each packing station. In addition, the project plan advised the installation of storage units into the existing process infrastructure. For this purpose, overhead units have been used to provide the films at each working station without wasting space. The overhead units are installed above the packing stations as a "cushion store" together with a machine. They can be lifted down to change the film and the surface is completely free for the packing process!