PW14 is Progroup’s new high-tech plant which is capable of producing up to 200,000 tonnes of corrugated board formats per year. Progroup invested some 72 million euro in this project on approximately 28,000 square metres of land, creating 50 new jobs.
Together with the adjacent PW07 plant, this even adds up to a production capacity of 825 million square metres per year. PW14, after the PW07 and PW10 plant in Trzcinica, is Progroup’s third production site in Poland, and the twelfth corrugated board plant of the family-owned company. And so Progroup strengthens its market position in Central and Eastern Europe, and continues with its consistent growth strategy.
Almost all standard grades of corrugated board can be produced at the PW14 plant, with a working width of 3.35m and a production speed of 400 m/min. At the heart of the corrugator is the Modul Facer® MF-A concept, which was developed by BHS Corrugated. It has been used for the first time anywhere with a working width of 3.35m at Progroup.
According to Maximilian Heindl, CEO of Progroup, «we have always aspired to lead the way on technology in the industry. This means we need to test new generations of machinery with partners like BHS Corrugated and work together to ensure they can operate stably».
The MF-A concept delivers a highly efficient production process and corrugated board of the finest quality. For example, it produces high-quality single and doublewall Next Board® corrugated board sheets with B, C and E flutes in all combinations. In comparison to conventional types of corrugated board, the Next Board® products benefit from much lower use of energy and raw materials and reduce CO2 emissions per tonne of corrugated board by 26% on average – and also deliver better strength figures.
Efficient energy production
The lowest possible CO2 emissions are also achieved thanks to the modern combined cooling, heat and power plant. This involves using waste heat from the plant’s own power generation either in an absorption chiller to ‘produce’ cold, or feeding the heat into the heating circuit, as required. This will save a significant quantity of fossil fuels. «This means we are taking another step towards securing an independent energy supply that conserves resources» says Heindl. The manufacturer of containerboard and corrugated board sheets is already implementing lots of measures at its sites to improve the life-cycle assessment. For example, at its Eisenhüttenstadt site in Germany it operates a waste-to-energy power plant which supplies the paper machine next door with all the steam it requires and also generates electricity. This is done by thermally utilising waste materials – some of which come from the paper production itself. The company will be completely carbon-neutral by 2045.
Fully automatic high-bay warehouse
The plant also features a fully automatic high-bay warehouse with more than 14,000 storage spaces and four automatic storage and retrieval machines. It will be able to store up to two days of corrugated sheetboard production and enable perfect just-in-time deliveries by decoupling the time between the manufacture of the corrugated board and the production of packaging by the customer.
Sustainable packaging park
The Polish packaging manufacturer has established its plant right next to PW14. Gatner Packaging and Progroup have already been cooperating successfully for many years at the Trzcinica site, and now they are doing the same in Stryków too: Progroup sends its corrugated sheets the short distance to its neighbour. The sheets can then convert them directly without any consignments needing to be shipped by truck. A significant amount of CO2 emissions and freight costs are saved by the two companies having closely interlinked logistics and production processes. This creates an extremely sustainable packaging park.