Tiger Tim and Hayssen's Schib Light The Fire
Sep 14, 2017
With a production capacity of over 100 million consumer units, Tiger Tim Products is the leading manufacturer of firelighters in the world and offers a continuously developing product range in private label and distributor brands. Much of its production is being exported via a worldwide network of distribution partners.
Their manufacturing plant located in Mold, North Wales, meets the most stringent quality and safety requirements. Their packaging challenges were a difficult product to handle, a harsh, aggressive environment, and a high speed requirement. The application required a fully automatic line to be designed and manufactured for small firelighter blocks to be wrapped at speeds of up to 500 ppm.
BW Flexible Systems responded with a Schib high speed fully automatic wrapping system, including a chicane transfer belt system devised to receive and align the products arriving from the upstream manufacturing press. A multi-belt feeder with 6 servo axis then feeds the products onto a horizontal flow wrapper equipped with 4 crimpers, a twin reel holder, film auto splicer, and a photocell for pre-printed film registration. Furthermore, the line offers the great advantage of tool-less belt replacement, enabling a very quick and efficient cleaning and maintenance.
Paul Edwards, Operations Manager at Tiger Tim Products, said “We opted for Schib – (BW Flexible Systems) because of their ability to supply a complete system of superior quality and a level of support required”. “It has been quite a challenging project” quotes Ian Bickerdike, BW Flexible Systems Business Development Director for Horizontal Systems, “and we are happy to have been able to meet the customer’s specification requirements. Besides, we are very proud to share with Tiger Tim Products the same business principles, as we all work hard to earn the respect of those who value a high quality product and exceptional service”.
At Tiger Tim they have been so impressed by the quality of their new high speed packaging line and the support offered by BW Flexible Systems that they decided to purchase two more fully automatic Schib wrapping lines to pack their big firelighter blocks as well.
The two lines, installed in July 2017, includes two Schib CO50 electronic Flow Wrappers complete with cross feeders. Products arrive from customer’s processing carousel wide edge leading and are fed at 90° between the infeed cleats of the flow wrappers. Like that, the big firelighter blocks are packed narrow edge leading, at a speed of 240 ppm in total. A secure remote service unit has been included so to allow remote diagnostics and troubleshooting.