Berhalter: B6 Swiss die-cutter maxes out on performance and digitalization
22 Jul 2021 | Berhalter
Dalibor Schuman, managing director at Berhalter, outlines the Swiss die-cutting specialist’s most advanced machine to date – the B6 – which combines the latest in technology, intelligence and performance. Schuman also discusses Berhalter’s CUTcontrol IoT platform for predictive and preventive maintenance and use of robotics, and ponders the future of die-cutting solutions.
Josh Reel, reporter for Packant Insights.
Joining me today is Dalibor Schumann, managing director of Beerhalter, a Swiss dye cutting specialist.
Dalibor, for our viewers that are not so familiar with diet cutting, could you start by explaining what diet cutting is exactly and how it can benefit the consumer packet industry?
Yes, of course.
So, die cutting itself is a piece in the complete supply chain of a final product, but it decides significantly about success.
What die-cutting solution you choose decides about the, variants of the product, sustainability, quality, as , of course, at the end, efficiency.
So, Beerhwi die cutting is a global active company, one of the leading supplier of modern and intelligent die-cutting solutions for the food packaging industry, but also, we serve global markets such as beverage, pet food, pharmaceuticals, and of course, food.
Our die-cutting systems are the most high-performance solution for efficient and accurate punching of printed and unprinted materials from rolls like aluminum, plastic, paper, or more and more also compound materials.
We are talking about an output of up to 400,000 yogurt lits per hour produced on a single Beerhalter die cutting machine, which means about 8 to 9 million yogurt lids are produced on a die cutting machine per day.
Our machines and punching tools are the start of numerous packaging solutions like flat packaging lids out of aluminum or polyester such as used for Nesty yogurt lids or amica fela lids, but also to Philadelphia lids for cream cheese spreads.
Deep drawn aluminum lids such as those used for Sheba or Caesar, pet food, but also paper labels on beverages or beer bottles and labels for IML, which means inward label applications for Starbucks, coffee cups, or margarine containers are produced on beer-hearted eye cupping systems for everyday use.
So what can you tell us about your Swiss Diecaster B6 machine?
What makes it stand out from the competition and what sort of materials and applications is it designed for?
So the, the new and the revolutionary Beerhalter-Swiss die cutter B6 is our strongest statement in terms of technology, intelligence, and performance.
The B6 covers a web with up to 600 millimeters and underlines our target to be the fastest and most powerful high-performance die cutting machine in the market with up to 500 strokes per minute.
Further, we defined with the B6 a complete new design language which stands for innovative, Dynamic and intelligent technologies.
The currently most powerful and innovative high-performance eye-cutting machine is designed to, to cover all.
Needs from the customer production.
So, V6 meets all material requirements and can be used to die cut flat packaging lids, deep drawing lids, paper labels, but also email labels for medium to higher volumes without limitation in the material specification or thicknesses or geometries.
Therefore, you can say, You can use the B6 for medium to high volumes for a complex materials, but also complex product design.
So, in all cases, we will be able to support the customer with a high performance and, and, a high-value by cutting machine.
OK.
And your die cutters can come equipped with your cut control digitalization platform.
What benefits does this digital platform bring to your die cutting operations?
I think, in, on, on the beginning, it's important to know that our machine die-cutting machines are prepared to, to use newest technologies and intelligence to increase performance and productivity.
In order to do that, it's important to understand the production processes and to make the production processes much more clear and transparent.
And, exactly, the, the, our cut control system, which is a digital support system, do exactly like that, do that, which means, we Try to cross-link and finally digitalize the die cutting processes.
Only if, if we make the production more transparent, as already said, we can understand the production much better and identify and optimize possible efficiency and capacity utilization.
So, in this case, cut control offers all functions for monitoring from OE operating data, notifications to data analysis.
And our target is to visualize all relevant data, processes, but also historical events.
Production orders can be better planned and controlled in future.
That's absolute the, the target.
And, it is a must from our point of view to make the production more smartly and intelligent in order to improve at the end, the productivity and machine availability.
OK, and if we turn our attention to the use of robotics, how is your company using intelligent packaging robotics to optimize the die-cutting process?
What sort of benefits do they bring?
To say it simply, robotic technology for die cutting automation is clearly used to increase productivity as as to reduce production costs at the same time.
So our automatic beamst handling system is used for counting, separating, and handling of die cutlets and label stacks.
That means we are handling the die cutting stacks fully automatically from, from the die cutting machine to a plastic blister or cardboard box.
So we create a perfect customized automatic packaging solution.
Which results in significant personal cost savings and increases production capacity.
So, as all knows that the requirements for hygienic standards are constantly increasing in the food and packaging industry.
Our technology, our robotic beams technology helps to improve the protection of the product, of the packed product against contamination.
That's on one side, the advantage of the beam stack robotic system, but also on the other side, our customer has more and more problems to Get the right number of good operators.
Here we help with our robot optimization solution.
For example, with one robotic beam stack, we can connect 3 punching machines to be operated just by only 1 person.
So, if you calculate the 3 shift operation, it means a saving of 6 operators, and also enormous reduction of production costs.
So, we have Customers, they have up to 30, 40 die cutting machines.
So if you calculate that, you can save a lot of, of operators and of course at the end costs.
OK.
And just finally, what is the future of diecast in your, in your, perception?
What sort of innovation can bring your technology to the next level, and what is the next level?
For us, it's important always or that the top priority is always to be close to our customer demands and to really understand their requirements.
Therefore, It's a must already today, but in the future, even more to have a perfect interplay between all processes and technologies.
So, we have really to, on one side, understand how the development is.
From the thig cutted materials, so materials are getting more complex and more thin and thinner, so the operating and handling will be more difficult.
On the other side, the, the pressure from the market to get more cost effective or more Cost, Effective, yeah, and then cost-effective products, is increasing by every day, so it's important to have on one side, technologies available which can reduce the cost from the customer production facility on the other side to increase the, the security or the production security itself and we are already developing a lot of, of systems which will be , displayed, in the next months and also next year to, to the market, but always with the target, as I explained to reduce costs and increase efficiencies.
So robotic is 11 target which will be, of course, further developed, and with the digitalization, with understanding, the process is much better.
We are able to help customers to digitalize exactly the right demand.
OK, that's very interesting.
Thank you, Deleboor.
That is, all we have time for today, unfortunately, but thank you again for joining Passion Insights.
Yeah.
You're welcome.
Thank you so much for that.
