Krefeld – Baumer hhs successfully staged the premiere of the Xfeed at FachPack 2018. The company introduced this innovative centralized adhesive supply system for hot melt units to the public for the first time at its booth at the packaging trade fair in Nuremberg (Hall 2). With a number of unique features, the Xfeed offers significant advantages particularly when relatively high volumes of hot melt need to be applied on a gluing line. While the focus at the packaging trade fair in Nuremberg naturally was on packaging applications, including end-of-line processes, other sectors, such as the furniture and automotive industries, can also benefit from a centralized adhesive supply in a variety of ways.

“The response of FachPack visitors to our Xfeed system even exceeded our expectations. We held numerous detailed conversations with visitors in Nuremberg and acquired many new contacts. These talks have already resulted in a variety of interesting projects,” says Markus Leier, Director of Sales at Baumer hhs, about the successful product launch. “Large packaging manufacturers and end-of-line service providers alike are receiving Xfeed with open arms. Adhesives manufacturers in particular are interested in our centralised adhesive supply system because with Xfeed, they can offer their customers new ways to optimise logistics by delivering adhesives in larger containers, which are both an economical and ecological advantage since they reduce packaging waste and simplify transport.”

The automated, closed-loop system efficiently supplies adhesive granules on-demand to up to 20 hot melt units from a central storage location, bridging long distances of up to 200 metres even at high feed rates. In addition to the Xmelt family of hot melt units from Baumer hhs, the Xfeed is also compatible with systems from all other manufacturers. In other words, with Xfeed, customers can centrally supply even heterogeneous system configurations with adhesive. Both of these features are unique on the market.

Furthermore, centralised adhesive supply with Xfeed means increased ease-of-operation. Gone are the days when machine operators had to handle and transport sacks of adhesive granules or store them at their machines. Because the hot melt units remain closed at all times during production, the possibility of accidents occurring at work, such as burns, can be eliminated entirely. The system further offers simple operation via an intuitive touchscreen menu. What’s more, a centralised adhesive supply promotes a cleaner work environment: No granules are spilled in production any more, and the adhesive can no longer be contaminated on the way from material storage to the hot melt systems.

Supplying hot melt units with adhesive granules on-demand ensures that the adhesives are consistently delivered at the same viscosity every time, meaning the method guarantees maximum stability for gluing processes. At the Xfeed Centre, the operator can select the quantity of adhesive to be conveyed to each hot melt unit as required for a specific application.

Thanks to the system’s modular design, customers can flexibly adapt automated glue supply to their specific needs. As a rule, conveying adhesive granules with Xfeed is more cost-efficient than manual supply for upwards of five hot melt units. Depending on the number of units connected and the local set-up, the Xfeed can cut costs by up to 90%. Finally, statistics provided by the system help to optimise adhesive consumption.

At Baumer hhs, customers have just one representative for their entire gluing process, which means they get all the system components and services they need from a single source. The Xfeed, with all of these advantages, rounds out the company’s range of products and services for hot melt application. Solutions from Baumer hhs offer all kinds of possibilities for optimising gluing processes end-to-end while achieving high energy efficiency, starting with storage, feed, distribution and filling, and extending to melting, conveying and application, as well as quality control and monitoring.

The premiere of the Xfeed centralised adhesive supply system was a resounding success for Baumer hhs at FachPack 2018.