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Schütz at Ipack-Ima with extensive product line:
Innovative Advance Opens up new
Prospects for Drums and IBCs
Selters / Milan. Schütz GmbH & Co. KGaA from Selters, Germany, will be opening the new fair season at Ipack-Ima (14 to 18 February 2006), the Milan trade fair for the packaging and processing industry. SCHÜTZ will be showing a representative cross-section of the entire product portfolio of its Industrial Packaging division on a stand 100 m2 in size (Hall 4, Stand B 25).
In addition to conventional steel drums, fair visitors will also be able to see examples of the new generation of plastic drums. The world market leader for IBCs will also be presenting its extensive portfolio of transport containers.
Security layer technology, the multilayer extrusion blow-moulding process that enables the permanent extrusion of plastic drums (three and six layers) with capacities ranging between 150 and 1,000 litres, has been the basis for a remarkable innovative advance and was first introduced in 2005. This technology is the only one of its kind in the industry and an absolute trendsetter. It enables different functional materials to be processed at one and the same time according to the desired application.
This development opens up several potential new applications for plastic drums and IBCs. The main focus here is on the substitution of conventional steel products, with the emphasis on applications in the large-scale chemical and food industries. The technological advances are also aimed at optimising or economising production processes as well as minimising the use of raw materials. These plastic products, for the present made only in Selters, can also be obtained on the Italian market.
Joint concept with Basell on drum materials
In addition to its popular Ecobulk series and corresponding exhibits from the SX, LX and MX lines featuring different components for a wide variety of applications, Schütz will also be presenting an IBC in Milan that is particularly well suited to the transport and storage of liquid and paste-like foods.
Schütz also comes up with some trendsetting touches in its plastic drums. Various open-head products will be on show alongside the new F1 tight-head drum, for which a completely new material was developed in close co-operation with Basell, the leading producer of polyolefines. The starter material is the newly developed, extremely high-density Hostalen® Histif 5431 Z from Basell. The F1 tight-head drum is superior to conventional drums thanks to its significantly higher overall performance and especially to its tremendous stress-cracking resistance and ideal handling. The F1 tight-head drum even came up trumps in low-temperature drop tests performed from a, for drums, sensational high of three metres.
Important year in Italy/New plant in Dello
The Schütz stand at Ipack-Ima also represented the beginning of an important year for the company in Italy. Schütz plans to open a new production plant in Dello near Brescia in May 2006 now that the factory in Castenedelo, which has been in operation since 1998, has reached its limits.
According to Gianluigi Gualandris, general manager of Schütz Italia, the new plant in Dello will employ some 50 people. “Successive consolidation of our position as the IBC market leader in Italy is our main goal and we have created the best conditions for this with a 5.000 m² production shop and nearly 3.500 m² of storage space on a 30,000 m² site,” says a pleased Mr Gualandris.
Looking to the future, Schütz also plans to create production capacity for other types of packaging at the new site.
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