BERRY
& Spence, well-known Cape Town film and bag
supplier, has just celebrated its 21st birthday,
but it hasn’t had time for presents: the
cash has been going the other way, in the form
of a R2,4-million purchase of a reel-to-reel bag
machine from Günter of Germany. The new capability
implies a fundamental shift for Berry & Spence.
Up till now it has supplied bags in stacks. Stacking
has its merits, but reels create better efficiencies
and improved space management. The
perforation capability on the new Günter
SMR-L system, which can run a 1200mm wide film
at up 150m/min, is a much faster solution. With
polymer prices going the way they have, this is
a necessary advantage for the company.
The new Günter machine, acquired via Technimac
of Johannesburg, is a high-speed system which
is applied to punch holes in-line with a film
extrusion process. This computerised electromagnetic
punching system permits trouble free in-line punching
either in parallel or in offset patterns, depending
on customer requirement.
Berry & Spence has been in operation since
1987 and has steadily expanded. Although it employs
just 20 people at its plant in Ottery, its efficiencies
are good and per employee-output is high.
|
It
supplies specialised high quality extruded polyethylene
(LD and linear low) tubing and sheeting for conversion
into a wide and diverse range of agricultural,
general packaging, stationery and baler bag products.
Tubing and sheeting is available from 250-1700mm
wide and 20-250 micron thick. The new machine
now enables it to supply a better service to its
bag customers.
Supplying such a value-added service is uppermost
in just about all manufacturers’ minds,
but doing so almost always involves investment.
B&S supplies the agriculture (mulch films,
mini tunnel sheeting, nursery bags, heating tubing
plus other products); stationery and general packaging
(treated sheeting for printing and laminating,
laundry, shrink, FFS and rubber release films)
markets as well as baler bags for just about anything.
Berry & Spence is very conscious of the environment
and is a signatory and contributing member to
the Plastics Federation’s Enviromark programme.
It recycles all its production scrap using two
in-house recycling systems.
MD Gordon Spence, founder of the company, has
been involved in industry associations for the
past 15 years. He was chairman of the PCA for
several years and was also vicechairman of the
Plastics Federation for a number of years.
He believes installing the new reel-to-reel capability
was a necessary step for the company that will
allow for better utilization and less wastage
by all of its bag customers. |
B & S team – MD Gordon Spence with
general manager Russell Mackintosh and production
manager Lionel Bantam in the plant at Sunset
Industrial Park, Ottery, Cape Town
Click here to
view the PDF version of this article
|
 |
Punched! – Berry & Spence has also
installed equipment for in-line punching of sheet
this year. Such sheet is used primarily in the
agriculture sector for planting saplings, but
other applications are appearing. Farmers previously
used to do this manually, which is time-consuming
and inconsistent. |
