Efficient changes lead to higher disposal revenues!

AMK A. Müller GmbH & Co. KG based in Römerstein, Germany is a supplier to the automotive industry. Well known manufacturers such as Daimler are customers of the company. Now AMK disposes the resulting cardboard packaging and film with Strautmann balers. The company has around 130 employees at Römerstein, Germany which operates in 3 shifts from Monday to Friday.

The aim of AMK was to minimize the costs by optimizing waste management processes and getting higher revenues for compacted recyclables.

Disposal before
The packaging materials cardboard and film were stored in garbage cans and pallet cages and had to be taken to the outside placed troughs several times a day. Emptying garbage cans and pallet cages was done manually. That took a lot of time and was very exhausting. The troughs were quickly overfilled by the loose material, so that they had to be picked up daily by the waste disposal company. In addition monthly rental costs were incurred for the troughs.  This was very time and cost intensive.

Current disposal
AMK has changed their disposal of packaging material from troughs to a multi-chamber baler MK 700 for film and a baler with automatic emptying, called AutoLoadBaler. The change of disposal system from troughs to balers is very efficient. The AutoLoadBaler and the MK 700 have not only optimized the disposal process, at AMK, they have also increased the revenues for the recyclables.

AutoLoadBaler
Disposal of the cardboard packaging: Approximately 90 tonnes of cardboard are disposed of with the Strautmann AutoLoadBaler and nine collecting trolleys. The AutoLoadBaler is placed in the warehouse and the collection trolleys are stationed in the production and the warehouse at central points. Thus employees have shorter walkways and can easily put cardboard into the collecting trolley. As soon as the collection trolleys are full they are driven by an employee to the AutoLoadBaler. The collection trolley can easily be pushed into the side of the press. By pressing “push-button” automatic emptying of the collection trolley automatically and annoying manual emptying and waiting time are completely eliminated. With 530kN the cardboard is compacted into 400kg directly marketable bales. The bales are stored in the warehouse and marketed to high revenues. In line with the corporate objective of “protecting the environment”, CO² emission is saved by full truck load.

Multi – chamber baler
Disposal of inside film: The resulting film is compacted by a multi-chamber baler that is placed next the AutoLoadBaler in the warehouse. In production and warehouse the film is stored in pallet cages and PE garbage cans and then driven by an employee to the multi-chamber baler. The baler compacts the material  sorted inside two chambers. The press plate is moveable to the filled press chamber. The other chamber serves as material storage. With 70kN the film is compacted into a bale of approx. 40kg. Especially for film it is very lucrative to compact the re-expanded material to reduce the costs of transport and handling.

Advantages current disposal situation:

• Through central collection of the cardboard using the collecting trolley runways have been reduced.
• Time is saved because of automatic emptying manual insertion of cardboard is no longer necessary.
• Cost are saved. Monthly costs for collecting the troughs and rents are now completely eliminated.
• Disposal of the film causes less time and costs.
• By marketing cardboard and film bales cost are lowered and revenues are increased.
• AMK has also pursued the goal of saving CO² emissions. By compaction of the material in bales the recyclables only have to be collected quarterly: that saves a lot of transport routes.

AMK A. Müller GmbH & Co. KG. is very satisfied with Strautmann’s economic disposal concept. Since the balers have been installed, the costs have been minimized and the revenues for recyclables have been increased!

Bernd Hummel, Team Leader Engineering, AMK A. Müller GmbH & Co. KG., Head of Logistics, reported: “With an amortization period of approximately 18 months, the purchase of our disposal solution AutoLoadBaler is economical and efficient.“

Strautmann Umwelttechnik GmbH