The production at the plant in Gothenburg, Sweden, comprises pure snuff, snuff in pouches of 1 gram and mini-pouches of 0.5 gram. 900 000 boxes with snuff are produced each day. FlexLink conveyors have been running successfully since the start 15 years ago and every upgrade or rebuilding brings in more FlexLink installations.

Rikard Klövmark, Maintenance Engineer, Swedish Match Snuff Division: “We have used FlexLink conveyors and components since the foundation of the plant in 1984. The first rebuilding was made in 1988 when the first larger FlexLink line was installed. Other major FlexLink installations followed in 1991 and 1993. This autumn yet another FlexLink line will be installed.

The dominating conveyor system in the plant
In the pouch lines, empty boxes are placed on a cleated XL elevator that goes up to the line, which runs under the ceiling. A parallel line transports the lids the same way. The boxes and the lids are led over to two FlexLink XW accumulation conveyors,  feeding down to the different filling stations where the snuff is pouched and filled into the boxes. Thereafter, the lids are put on. There are four filling and packing stations, each with two parallel packers. One line fills and packs 43 000 boxes a shift.

FlexLink in-line alpine buffering
The ready packed boxes are transported to labeling passing an alpine conveyor, serving as a buffer, as the labeling machine has to be refilled approximately four times an hour. There are three similar lines in the plant and the largest of the three alpine conveyors has nearly 100 meters of FlexLink chain. After labeling, the snuffboxes are wrapped in packages of ten and taken up to the third XW wide conveyor leading to the case packers. 

“I recently checked the FlexLink installation from 1991. All our FlexLink conveyors keep on running without problems, with none or very little maintenance, says Rikard Klövmark.

“An outstanding compact solution”
“We are all very satisfied with the FlexLink installations. We think that FlexLink is outstanding when dealing with small spaces. “With FlexLink you eliminate the security risks connected with having too many machines too close around you. We are striving to get as much free space as possible in our plant. “FlexLink has a good reputation and we know that the company comes to your help when you need it. A good co-operation is worth a lot”, ends Rikard Klövmark.