SubscribeThe Behr Bircher Cellpack BBC Group is a Swiss corporation managed and controlled by Prof. Dr. Giorgio Behr that is involved in various activities in the industrial sector and in office automation.
Permanent innovation, uncompromising quality, real teamwork and an open communication are the founda-tion of the corporation’s success. All six companies of the Behr Bircher BBC Group are specialists in their markets, and most of them occupy leading positions.
The management of the individual divisions follows clear targets while giving each division the highest pos-sible degree of independence. This leads to short decision paths and enables the company to react quickly to changes.
In 2004, the BBC Group achieved a sales volume of approx. CHF 278 million. The corporation currently has 951 employees, among them 69 trainees.
We spoke with Mr. Boris Cuk, Technical Manager of the locations in Villmergen (Switzerland) and Lauterecken.
Mr. Cuk, what made you decide on D.W. Renzmann as partner for this large project?
It is our philosophy that all workplaces should meet the highest requirements so that our employees will take pleasure in their work and achieve the best possible results. This concerns particularly the less popular tasks, such as cleaning parts in a printing house.
Since both our location in Lauterecken and our parent plant in Switzerland have been using washing ma-chines and distillation units by D.W. Renzmann for decades, it seemed logical to discuss this project with D.W. Renzmann as well. It did not take us long to realize the high professional competence of our col-leagues at D.W. Renzmann, and their efforts to work out a simple and efficient solution to our problem.
As a first step, we awarded a contract for the development of the entire project, including obtaining the ap-proval of the appropriate authorities for the realization of the planned measures.
Thanks to the exemplary preparation and drawing up of the application for the authorities, the project was approved without significant conditions. The frank, but also critical way in which D.W. Renzmann discussed the issues at hand was greatly appreciated by the authorities, and it is partly due to this that we are on very friendly terms with the authorities today.
Once the project had been approved, we looked for other suppliers, but we quickly realized that there was no qualified alternative to D.W. Renzmann. Consequently, the contract was awarded to D.W. Renzmann, with instructions to minimize the rebuilding measures, and hence the time during which the washing room would be unusable. This is primarily the task of the two project leaders that are in charge of this project. The project leader at Cellpack is Mr. Peter Groß, a young, committed colleague from our maintenance depart-ment. The project leader assigned by D.W. Renzmann is Mr. Jürgen Schank, who will see the project through from beginning to end.“
All units currently used at Cellpack will be dismantled and disposed of. The floor will be covered entirely with solvent collecting pans made of stainless steel. The pans will be lined with stainless steel bulb plates and the walls cased with polished stainless steel plates up to a height of 2 m. This sophisticated design of the walls and floor ensures a clean and low-maintenance washing room.
The washing room will be equipped with a washing machine of the model 340 for ink pans, hobbocks, hoses and small parts, and with a manual washing station and a special pump washing station. This pump washing station cleans pumps not only on the inside, but on the outside as well.
However, the main focus of the rebuilding measures is a new cylinder washing machine whose special in-stallation greatly simplifies the logistics involved in moving the cylinders. What makes this installation special is the fact that the washing machine is located in the washing room, but loaded and unloaded in the cylinder preparation room. This unusual and technically complex solution has been approved by the factory inspec-tion office in charge, the fire protection representative and the insurance. The washing machine is loaded and unloaded by means of special racks that will allow us to clean 4 cylinders at a time. (image below at Haendler und Nattermann with kind permission)
In this project the new ROTOmaX distillation unit will be used for the first time. This new type of distillation unit is characterized in particular by its maintenance-friendly design, modern control technology and easy operation. With appropriate accessories, this unit can also be operated in areas that are not protected against explosion. In the Cellpack project, this unit is heated with thermal oil, which in turn is heated by the exhaust air cleaning system. We plan to install the distillation unit out of doors; the unit will distill not only the solvent used in the washing room, but also the ink residues left over from production.