1/5/2015 12:25:00 AM
HEADLINES
Weighpack Marks 40 Years of Supplying Fastener Packing Machines Worldwide
Weighpack is marking the 40th anniversary of its founding by Andries Kout.
Weighpack has supplied packing machines for 300+ fastener and hardware customers in 47 countries, from the Americas to Asia, Scandinavia to Australia. In addition to fastener manufacturing and distribution industries, customers include steel producers, raw material processors, automotive and aerospace industries.
‘Dries’ Kout started hand-packing screws in his uncle’s company at age 14 – and became so frustrated with the inefficiency that he set out to develop a machine to do the job. His uncle imported screws from Ohio in quarter kegs, 60 kilos each – no pallets, no fork trucks, just manhandled from the lorry. They were plated in the Netherlands and then packed in 144 or 1,000 pieces, using balance scales.
“We should make a machine to do this,” Kout recalled to Fastener+Fixing magazine. “After I completed my studies I had a time waiting to see if I would have to serve in the army so my uncle said, ‘Why don’t you get on and make your machine?’”
At trade fairs there were “big counting machines in France; we went to companies such as Bilwinco and Autopack. Then we came across Weighpack, based in Redditch, UK, making machines for the confectionary industry. They were, though, really sturdy machines so we said; ‘Can we modify this machine for screws?’ We made the weigh-heads, brought them back to Holland and started to make the machine work in our own screw company.”
The uncle and nephew quickly noticed a difference between selling screws and supplying packing machines.
“If you supplied the wrong screws, you just sent out replacements. With a machine you had to provide a warranty and service support.” So, in 1974 the packing machine business was separated and Weighpack Continental was founded: 55% owned by Dries Kout and 45% by Weighpack Limited.
“Characteristically the products our industry handles are small volume and high weight – exactly the opposite of the food business. Those industries load pallets two meters high to maximize use of volume. In fasteners a pallet can be no more than 700mm high and may weigh 1200 kilos.”
“If you look at a packing machine handling fasteners there is very high kinetic energy, a lot of hard impact. There is real damage potential to the machine and to the parts, particularly threaded fasteners,” Kout told F+F’s Phil Matten. “So we developed robust machines to match the needs of our industry. We made a lift and tip unit that could discharge a production container into a hopper. At the other end we worked out how to receive packed products straight onto pallets, ready for warehousing or shipment. We developed everything in between: the dosing, the counting, the labelling, the closing, the check weighing – even the ‘breaking of the mess’.”
Initially Weighpack delivered machines to fastener or steel producers. As fastener imports into Europe grew, distributors needed to repack Asian product into European cartons.
In 1986 Dries Kout bought out the UK share of Weighpack, and it became a wholly-owned Dutch business.
Weighpack supplies equipment for threaded and non-threaded fasteners and other low volume, high weight products. Within those products there is variation in size, weight and volume – from 3mm diameter to 24mm diameter, from a few millimeters to many centimeters long, from a few grams to several kilos per piece.
Weighpack also supplies a variety of industries, including automotive, industrial, construction and aerospace, with differing kinds of boxes, recyclable KLTs and plastic bags.
“In the late 1990s the zero defect requirement appeared,” Kout recalled. From that came Weighpack’s “Diamond Rubber” – insulating material for machines, Kout told F+F. “It dramatically reduces the noise and impact damage but its unique diamond surface pattern also ensures that oily flat products, like washers, do not stick to it.”
The requirement for inspection equipment escalated. “We were cautious about this,” Kout acknowledged. “Supply a defective part today and it is not just the parts manufacturer which is liable, it is also the supplier of the inspection machine. This liability concerned me because it is really not so clear that an fastener can be inspected to 100%.”
Currently Weighpack works with other inspection specialists to integrate technologies.
“We are still looking for detecting elements that we could reliably develop ourselves,” Kout added.
In 40 years Weighpack control technologies have changed from analogue to semi-digital, to entirely digital. Now Internet connections allow Weighpack to diagnose for local engineers to return systems back on line quickly.
Weighpack has grown from four people in 1974 to 30 permanent staff plus a network of local sub-contractors and agents across the world.
“Every machine we design and produce is assembled from a base of around 600 tried and tested components. We provide all the dimensional and power supply information the customer needs to plan the line into his own product flow,” Kout explains. “Each machine is fully commissioned here in Weighpack, using the customer’s own parts and with the customer present.”
When the machine arrives at the customer’s plant, the Weighpack team works with the customer to assemble and test.
De Werf 24-26, 2544 EK Den Haag, the Netherlands. Tel: (31) 70 3067 1000 Email: info@weighpackinternational.com Web: weighpack.nl
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