The use of the INDUS NEVA system in the garden furniture sector
As a producer of over five million plastic garden furniture sets per year, Jardin processes countless plastic granules on an annual basis. For over 14 years, these plastic granules have been stored in big bags.
The big bags are stacked with the help of 250 INDUS NEVA systems: a construction specially designed for carrying big bags. The NEVA system is not only used by Jardin for storing, but also for transporting and discharging the plastic granules on several production lines. “The discharge process with a NEVA is up to fifteen times faster. Moreover, this system proves to be safer and more sustainable compared to our old system.”
NEVA system proves efficiency when handling big bags
‘’Discharging process is up to fifteen times faster’’
A simple garden chair or a complete lounge set: plastic manufacturer Jardin in Rijen (Netherlands) ensures its clients a comfortable and enjoyable summer in their garden, campsite or terrace. In the past, Jardin used cardboard octabins to store the material used to make their furniture: plastic granules. However, the octagonal bulk packaging did not contribute to an effective and sustainable production process, says Mehmet Turkyilmaz, Injection Molding manager at Jardin.
Turkyilmaz: ‘’Pallets with octabins often fell because of the weak construction: it just was not stable enough. The weight of a filled octabin with synthetic granules can easily be 800 to 900 kilos. The stacking led to several incidents every year, which caused fear in the workplace. In addition, the octabins were not sustainable; they could only be used a limited number of times. Finally, the system took up too much space, especially after we decided to no longer stack the octabins to prevent them from falling. The lack of space meant we had to rent external space to store the plastic granules. All things considered, the use of octabins was no longer profitable for Jardin; my search for another system began.”
Turkyilmaz quickly began his journey to find a new storage and handling system. Unfortunately, the possible solutions he found along the way, did not meet his requirements. For example, metal frames turned out to be too expensive. Introducing big bags to store the raw material turned out to be a good move, but the big bags refused to stand upright on a pallet. ‘Shortly after, I read an article about the NEVA system. This system, that can store, stack and discharge materials in big bags, interested me right away. I noticed the bowl-shaped bottom deck, which can be easily opened by hand with a slide/valve. This part of the NEVA works very well for unloading plastic granules. The big bags discharge the plastic granules on the production line without any problems; a feature a flat pallet cannot provide. For Jardin, switching to big bags and the NEVA system, meant we no longer had to perform additional manual activities to discharge our product on the production line. Moreover, the NEVA system proved to be a lot safer as well.’’
To determine whether the NEVA system would work effectively in the Jardin factory, Indus Bulk Logistics supplied four NEVA systems for testing. ‘’I intentionally asked for several NEVA’s to be delivered, because they can be stacked on top of each other. We successfully tested the system by stacking three NEVA’s with full big bags. Even more important than efficient stacking, is safety in the workplace. We carefully examined the stability, robustness and stiffness of the system. In addition, we had three forklift drivers from each shift, a total of fifteen drivers, work with the NEVA system for two weeks. We paid special attention to the process of picking up a big bag in a NEVA, and placing it on the production line. The discharge of the plastic granules was also analyzed. All of this to examine whether the NEVA system would add value to our production process.” It turned out to be the case. Jardin purchased 250 NEVA systems. All applications of the NEVA system (filling, storage, stacking, transport and unloading of big bags), are currently being used in the Jardin factory. ‘’The system still works excellent. Metal reinforcement in the bottom deck of the NEVA systems, ensures stability throughout the years.’’ Since introducing the NEVA system, the number of incidents decreased and contentment among employees returned to the factory in Rijen: both in the storage and production part of the factory. ‘’Having our big bags placed in the NEVA system saves us much time: a forklift truck places a NEVA on our production line within two minutes, instead of 15 minutes in the old construction. And because NEVA’s can be stacked, the big bags filled with plastic granules take up minimal floor space. Everyone is still very pleased with this system,” says Turkyilmaz.
The NEVA system used in the factory of Jardin, has a stacking capacity of up to 6000 kilos. This means that a maximum weight of 4000 kg can be placed on the lower system. The storage capacity is therefore a maximum of six meters, or 6000 kilos per 1.4 meter.
