BAT corby automated his packaging process completely

"The introduction of the Pattyn equipment has allowed BAT Corby to utilise their resource effectively in other areas and reduce their costs."

British American Tobacco is one of the world's leading tobacco groups, with more than 300 quality brands sold in 180 markets around the world. The subsidiary company BAT Corby (UK) expands tobacco for export purposes to other BAT Operating Companies and third-parties.

Mr. Sean Callaghan, Engineering Manager at BAT Corby, commented, "the box making and closing process in our Boxfill area was very labour intensive, requiring considerable manual intervention. We had already invested in a tobacco weighfiller, and now needed to automate our packaging process completely, from case erecting bagmaking and inserting to bag folding and box closing. I selected the Belgian company Pattyn Packing Lines as a potential supplier and partner because of its extensive know-how and experience with the packing of bulk tobacco into large polybag lined cases and its valuable experience with major tobacco projects worldwide."

BAT Corby acquired the Giant case erector, bagmaker inserter and bag decuffer folder. The CE-11-G Giant case erector enables to form cases from blanks on a pallet. As the boxes are made just in time, a big storage area for storing preassembled boxes with bags is no longer needed.

Thanks to the Razim-11-G Giant bagmaker inserter BAT Corby's boxfilling area has become a one man operation, where originally it was two. Furthermore there's very little down time as one roll of gusseted film provides up to 1000 bags. Additionally the integrated mechanical plunger ensures that the bag is perfectly placed into the corners of the case, so no air remains between the bag and the box. There's no longer "human" contact with the inside of the bag, which is becoming a hygienic standard in food packaging.

After the polybag lined cases are filled, the DF-11-G closer decuffs and stretches the bag and automatically folds in the bag. In a second station the case flaps are closed. The closed box is then ready to be strapped.

"The complete line operates extremely well and due to the simple design, small problems are quickly and easily rectified."

Pattyn's project team supervised the complete project and advised BAT Corby as from the initial briefing to the project design, project management and implementation of the project. Pattyn's service engineers installed and commissioned the equipment within two weeks.

Mr. Sean Callaghan concluded:

"The end result is an efficient and fully automated packaging process that has generated the benefits expected by BAT Corby at the start of the project."

Mr. Sean Callaghan, Engineering Manager, BAT Corby