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Presenting a Host of Innovations at Salon d’ Emballage 2006: Schütz Steps up its Activities in France
Focus on expanding drum business / Market upturn since the beginning of the year / Pushing ahead with new technology
Selters / Paris. Along with its affiliate Schütz France, Schütz GmbH und Co. KgaA from Selters in Germany will be presenting the most important products and innovations from its Industrial Packaging division at Salon d’Emballage in Paris. Here, the company will have the opportunity to underscore once again its leading position in the international packaging sector as one of the industry’s major trade fairs (Hall 6, Stand G028). The company’s prime goal in France is to promote its business in plastic drums.
“We will soon also be able to introduce the Schütz-developed security layer technology to our site in Marcoussis,” Andrea Adolf, general manager of Schütz France, points out. This multilayer extrusion blowmoulding process permits the simultaneous plasticisation of between three and six functional layers. The process opens up new prospects both for IBCs and drums.
Schütz sees great potential in the French market for transport containers, particularly in the three-layer Ecobulk MX-EX that is available with a selection of different functional features. It comes, for example, with an antistatic, translucent inner bottle and optionally with UV protection (white), but can also be ordered with a conductive, black inner bottle that protects against UV radiation as well as visible light. The containers are suitable for the transportation of filling goods with a flashpoint of less than 61 degrees Celsius or of substances in the explosion categories 2A and 2A/B.
The six-layer model of the Ecobulk, the MX-EV, makes an ideal substitute for the stainless steel containers that are especially used in the food industry, especially. The MX-EV features an EVOH oxygen and permeation barrier as well as a choice of black or white UV protection.
Andrea Adolf is making promotion of the drum business in France her top priority. “Revolutionary production technology has given rise to a new and exceptionally promising drum generation,” says the general manager. “In response to market demand, we are concentrating not only on the standard products, but also, chiefly, on the three-layer F1 tighthead drum that can also be used in hazardous areas 1 and 2.”
The overall performance of the new drum, which was developed in close collaboration with Basell, is outstanding. The material used is the new multimodal polyethylene Histif 5431Z produced by Basell using the company’s innovative advanced-cascade process technology.
This drum’s property profile makes it superior in every way to drums made with conventionally used materials. All in all, its cold-temperature impact strength, greatly improved stacking-pressure resistance and tremendous resistance to stress cracking make the new drum a convincing proposition. Schütz conducted a series of successful cold drop tests from up to three metres, a sensational height for drums. An optimised top-plate geometry also provides greater protection for the two bungs.
Schütz found its ideal site in Marcoussis, 20 kilometres south of Paris, back in 1986 and the company has long since advanced to become the front runner on the French market. Today, Schütz France employs a workforce of approximately 120.
“We plan to consolidate and successively expand our position,” says Ms Adolf, looking to the future confidently. Despite constantly rising prices for PE, steel and energy as well as the difficult situation on the transport market, the general manager of Schütz France reports an appreciable market upturn in the first half of the year. “Against this background, we are optimistic that our revolutionary production technology and offensive in the drum sector will put even more wind in our sails.”
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