Tougher Packs With Less Material For Fourstones

The introduction of a sleeve sealing system at the Hexam-based factory of Fourstones Paper Mill has allowed the company to create tougher packs whilst using less overall material.

Fourstones Paper Mill are a specialist manufacturer of paper products including tissues, wipes and pads, primarily for industrial use. They also supply a high volume of heavy-duty paper towels to the food industry in multi-packs and were looking to improve the packaging of these.

The business - which has been operating for more than 250 years - attributes its great success to 'listening to customer's needs and reacting to them'. And so when many of their end-users requested a reduction in packaging waste liabilities, it naturally followed that Fourstones sought the expertise of our packaging experts. After using cardboard cartons for many years, Fourstones were keen to understand the credentials of a shrink-wrapping system to deliver slimmed-down packs. At YPS we were keen to demonstrate that shrink film is an ideal asset in the challenge to cut down excess packaging due to Its thin, lightweight composition, void-preventing properties and classification as fully recyclable.

Following extensive machinery trials with Foursone's paper towels, we installed into the mill a specially modified extra-wide inline sleeve wrapping machine and shrink tunnel. Due to the nature of the product, it was critical that a totally sealed pack was produced in order to be completely waterproof. So to prevent the tell-tale sleeve sealing effect of a 'bullseye’ hole at the sides of each pack, we recommended a wider configuration of the standard inline machine. This meant that a 1200mm wide shrink film could be run which guaranteed a generous film overlap at each side of the multipacks and therefore a totally enclosed finish once heat shrunk.

Furthermore, a specially modified infeed arrangement was designed and integrated into the wrapping line to accommodate the loose collations of paper towel rolls. This consisted of an adjustable pusher assembly complete with side guides in order to securely hold the packs together whilst the shrink film is applied to the collated products. The airflow in the shrink tunnel was also modified in order to ensure that the ends of the shrink film were securely sealed together, to guarantee that the all-important totally enclosed pack was achieved.

Following the installation, Peter Duxbury, the owner of Fourstones Paper Mill said:

We now have a much more resilient, tougher and weather-proof pack, at a fraction of the cost and size of cartons.