Project Details
Client
Undisclosed
Location
UK
Material
Cardboard
Model
CKSR16 Channel Press
The Challenge
A major retailer faced growing volumes of bulky cardboard waste, with a manual process that was costly, time-consuming, and offered no return.
The challenge called for a scalable, efficient solution to cut labour, handle higher volumes, and unlock value from their waste.
01
Manual labour & time-consuming
The retailer’s packaging steadily increased in size, which significantly affected labour time. The customer had been disposing of the oversize cardboard material by manually flattening the product before tipping into a compactor.
02
Negatively affecting growth plans
With their current successful online platform, needs and ongoing expansion plans, the customer required an automated solution to handle more material.
03
Little to no rebate for the material
They were paying a waste contractor to collect waste from site (10 collections per week).
£110*
Per tone in revenue
4T to 7.5T
Throughput per day
The Solution
01
Custom engineered solution to suit
Following consultations, a site survey and internal meetings, we came up with a custom engineered solution to suit. We helped centralise the waste processing to fit with the current process lines in the factory.
02
Conveyors
In distribution centres, conveyors are instrumental in transporting product throughout the distribution hub. In this particular case, the client already had an internal conveyance system which we had to integrate and extend for optimum material handling.
03
Channel press baler
The CKSR16 channel baler provides customers with a fully automated waste handling solution to enhance throughput whilst reducing onsite labour. Producing mill compliant bales via the 50-tonne compaction press and vertical 4-fold automated tying off mechanism, this solution fitted the customer’s peak requirements of 12–15T per day.
04
Return on investment (ROI)
Rebates for their cardboard increased from £40 per tonne in loose material to £110 per tonne in a baled format. Therefore, producing an ROI in less than 6 months and reducing the onsite logistical movements (carbon footprint) from 10 collections per week to 2.5.
05
Installation
With new CK conveyance placed internally, automatically transferring the product externally to where the baler was situated, the internal racking space capabilities were increased whilst also enhancing operational H&S.
The Benefits
Reduced labour
This new set-up means that the labour intensive operation of breaking down boxes and putting them in 1100 ltr bins has now ceased. The machine only requires one person to oversee daily maintenance, wire change, and bale stacking.
A new commodity product
The material is made into a mill size bale giving the company the ability to broker their own waste and get the best prices available. By producing their own bales, there is a huge saving on the transport of compactor bins and gate fees.
Increased capacity
They are achieving minimum bale weights of 480–520kg per bale and have the capacity of up to 5T per hour throughput. This allows for future growth plans.
Refined their de-packaging process
The solution meant that the customer could refine their de-packaging process and boxes could simply be placed on a conveyor in their original format (not cut up) and processed for compaction.
How Our Solutions Make a Difference
When we approached CK International they provided us with an integrated solution that took into account all of the challenges we were facing. As a result, we are now able to easily manage the amount of material we process as well as increasing our ROI. We can now focus on growth, knowing we have the capacity to handle it. We are delighted with the results of this project!