Fibre King has helped many customers to build and upgrade their production facilities by providing off-the-shelf and bespoke packaging solutions within the meat, dairy, beverage, food, FMCG, personal care, pharmaceutical and fresh produce industries.
Offering a turnkey service, Fibre King helps customers with everything from upgrades and services to tailored repairs and off-the-shelf packaging machinery such as case packers, palletisers, case and tray handling and crate equipment. Each Fibre King machine is backed by their full-service warranty, operator training and ongoing support.
“We listen to our customers evolving needs and invest in R&D to improve on existing machines,” said James Windsor, managing director for Fibre King. “New innovations can be integrated into our machines and our engineers are continuously looking for ways to drive productivity for our end users”.
According to Windsor, one of the latest trends which is becoming increasingly necessary is energy saving. In addition, the initial cost of energy saving components is becoming less of an issue when customers start weighing up the real savings that they can achieve. “While energy saving is great for the environment and does play its part, for our customers the bottom line is – how much will I save now and in the long run. Essentially, it’s about profitability, return on investment and ultimately, long-term gain” adds Windsor.
By managing and monitoring energy usage on a machine, the customer can realise real dollar savings.
With so many options on the market for energy saving, where do you start? For Fibre King, the biggest culprits are tackled first. “Relooking and refining your strategy when it comes to compressed air use and pneumatics in general can save you up to 80 per cent. This can be easily done by simply monitoring and controlling the amount of air used and lost due to costly leakages”.
Silent and of course, invisible, Windsor notes that customers tend to overlook the air wasted in a factory and it therefore needs to be monitored.
Collaborating with pneumatics specialist, SMC, Fibre King drew on the company’s expertise and R&D to ensure improved pneumatic energy saving solutions that could be offered to Fibre King’s customers to further drive value. For Windsor, this means each machine should be fitted with digital flow switches which measure the amount of air expelled. “PFM flow switches from SMC are used on our machines to monitor air flow and energy changes. Changes will be flagged as readings change, and it will also show you the differences in air usage with pressure changes. This saving translates directly into cost savings for our customers”.
Another SMC product which now comes standard in proposals and recommendations to customers is the ALDS (Automatic Leak Detection System). Windsor explains: “The ALDS can detect leaks immediately and anywhere on the system to help you save instantly.”
The ALDS can be easily integrated into the machine software and no external supervision is required. In addition, the intuitive Leak Test Cycle software offers great value to clients and a detailed report is provided with the leak value Nl/min for analysis and informed decision-making regarding energy loss and machine optimisation.
Windsor concludes saying that the partnership between Fibre King and SMC has helped to strengthen the brand’s offering to its customers. “We want to offer our customers speed, precision, reliability and peace-of-mind with intelligent packaging machinery to ‘future proof’ your business and increase profits. Realising energy savings forms part of our ongoing commitment to our customers, the industry and the environment.”