Europe’s second largest steel producer Corus has purchased automated packing lines for coils and sheets. During the past years Corus has been automating not only the production lines, but their material handling and packing functions too. It is the total automation of the mills, which can set the companies in front runner position. Pesmel has delivered an automated coil packing line to Corus Ijmuiden and automated sheet packing line to Corus Namascor in Holland.

In Ijmuiden mill, Corus has made big investments by having a new hot dip galvanizing line and a cold rolling mill. At the same time the company purchased an automated Pesmel coil handling and packing line, which is situated in the new logistic hall in Ijmuiden.

Corus Ijmuiden is producing two different types of coils, galvanized and organic coated. Different product types set requirements to the handling equipment as both products are handled in the same line. For this reason the line includes special carriages, which protects the organic coated coils from the oil originated  galvanized coils. By this carriage system the coils are fed into the logistic hall for packing. This kind of solution of transportation did not need any civil work during the installation and was cost-effective for the customer.

The packaging includes through the eye wrapping with stretch film and automated board strap feeding devices, circumferential and radial strapping and a station for inserting manual edge protection,  equipped with automated steel corner protection former and at the end, the labelling. The automated packaging line is designed to be very flexible as ten different packing codes with different materials can be performed. Also the weight of the steel coils vary from 2,7 to 30 tons.  The capacity of the packing line is ca. 15 coils/hour. The line is fully automated, running 24 hours a day with only one operator.

Another automated packing line was delivered to Corus Namascor. Namascor is the biggest service centre in Europe producing hot rolled steel and has been a part of Corus Group since 1998. The new Pesmel sheet packing line will replace the manual packaging with automated functions enabling the service centre to increase their production capacity significantly. The line handles and packages 6 m long sheet piles with total pile weight of 15 tons.

Pesmel sheet packing line is totally automated and only one operator is needed for supervising duty. The sophisticated features of the line include the following functions: First, the sheet pile is transported by conveyors to the packing. The pile is packed with stretch film. The longitudinal wrapping machine is equipped with edge wrapping function, in order to have a full protection against moisture and dirt. After wrapping, the sheet pile is transferred to the longitudinal strapping station, which is equipped with automatic edge protection. Next, during lateral strapping, the runner woods are inserted under the sheet pile. After the packaging is completed the sheet piles are automatically conveyed and stacked for intermediate warehousing. The capacity of the line is ca. 35 packets/hour.

During the layout design flexibility was emphasized and the system was designed so that it is easy and economical to expand the line in the future, if needed. Pesmel is known as a specialist in automated packing and handling systems and has a wide 30 years’ experience of the business, which is valued also by Corus.