WEILBURGER Graphics brings world’s most modern production plant for SENOLITH® WB coatings into service

WEILBURGER Graphics GmbH in the Franconian town of Gerhardshofen, a globally renowned coatings, adhesive and flexo inks manufacturer for the graphic industry, brings its new, future-oriented and probably world’s most modern production plant for water-based coatings into service.

Just in time for its 140 years anniversary the new production plant was brought into action a few weeks ago after only 24 months of planning, developing and construction. More than 30,000 tons of water-based coatings can additionally be manufactured in the new plant by the coating specialist each year, in this way backing up the long-term growing plans from this global player. A higher production capacity was not the top priority in the new plant’s job profile. Production flexibility, highest food safety and environmentally sound manufacturing processes with resource maximization and energy efficiency for the SENOLITH^® WB coatings were the main criteria for the new installation, according to the management and planning team.

In order to achieve these requirements, only modern high-tech components from the highest quality and accuracy were used, so that no contamination risks during production can occur, which would be against international food safety standards.  In this way the company can maximize the food safety of all the coatings to be produced in this plant as well as increase the quality and improve the operating conditions. As an example, the solids used on matt coatings are prepared in a separate suction chamber, in order to avoid leaks into the ambient air under the aspects of work safety.

An additional challenge was to reduce the use of washing water, without compromising the product quality. This was achieved by using an integrated washing system and a fully automatic washing program inside the batch tank, which warrants a maximum cleaning efficiency with the least water usage. The accumulated washing water is subsequently filtered through an ultra-filtering device for reuse. Also, for the operation of this plant large amounts of compressed air for pumping and valve timing are necessary, so a completely new concept was developed to warrant the maximum utilization ratio of compressed air and thermal discharge. The produced thermal energy is then used for the premises heat grid, in this way reducing the heating costs of the company, which already uses a photovoltaic installation as well as an environmentally friendly thermal power station.  But the electricity the company uses also came from 100 % renewable energy sources. In this sense alone the company could reduce its CO₂ emissions from 2009 to 2017 by more than 1,500 tons.

The fact that all these measures serve the continuous development of the sustainability philosophy at WEILBURGER Graphics GmbH, is confirmed by the implementation of support measures and environmental innovation programs at the start of the new plant’s construction.

However, as important as the environmental aspects are today, at the end of the day it is the product quality, the availability and the pricing in the global market what decides whether such an enormous investment will be profitable. The company has therefore accepted no compromises even since the planning stages of the new production plant. Fully automation based on Industry 4.0 Standards makes it possible to profitably manufacture different water based coatings in almost unlimited quantities, practically at the touch of a button. Such an increase in production capacity demands also an expansion of the storing capacity, which the company has self-evidently achieved, as well as the new possibility of filling big orders directly into the transport tanker. In this sense a completely new warehouse was built, with new lorry access paths as well as interconnected filing stations for direct filling of the tankers.

Dr. Jutta Richter, the Technical Manager responsible for the planning and building of the new production plant at WEILBURGER Graphics, says about the result: “With this new production plant we want to lay a milestone in the global coating market and work towards securing our objectives, which seemed unattainable even two years ago during the planning stages.  Together with our plant manufacturer we developed innovative solutions, which will surely change the way such production plants are made in the future.”

Günter Korbacher, Managing Director at WEILBURGER Graphics GmbH adds: “We are sure that with this production plant we have not just heralded our customers but also our competitors into a new era of industrial coating production. Not only our production conditions became more flexible, environmentally friendly and efficient, but also our products achieved an increase in quality through this installation. We are ready for the future! Our investment will carry us and our customers into the new decade and we will remain a more stable and reliable partner in the long term.”

The company offers together with the production capacity increase diverse jobs and internships and is happy to receive applicants that want to be trained and work at the probably world’s most modern production plant for water-based coatings.

More information: www.weilburger.com

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