Packaging machines for the Howrah belt

Jute: the bale and the hook

A jute bale is compressed, heavy and handled with a hook. That last detail decides more about the packing than anything else.

A hook goes through whatever is on the outside of the bale. Film wrapping a jute bale is film that will be torn within one handling, so it buys nothing. What holds a jute bale is strap, and what protects the goods is the hessian or the wrap the trade already uses.

Tension has to repeat, and on a bale of this weight it has to be high. That is pneumatic strapping tool territory rather than an arch, because the bale is made where it is pressed and does not travel to a machine.

Safety around a pressed jute bale comes down to choosing the right strap. How much it can take before breaking is set by its width and gauge, and when a strap on a compressed bale does give way, it snaps without warning.

Foundry and engineering: weight in a small footprint

Howrah's foundries ship castings and rough machined parts — dense, oily, and small for their weight, which is the classic burst-carton case.

Tape can close a carton's flaps, but it cannot carry the weight of castings; a pair of straps can. Past a certain weight, think in pallets rather than boxes, with the load strapped down to the pallet and not simply covered in film.

Then there are the floors. Sand, scale and concrete that has been patched again and again are what a Howrah foundry offers, and a pallet truck's wheels are the first thing to give up on it. Ask for polyurethane load wheels when ordering — they outlast the alternative by a long way and save a wheel change six months in.

Humidity, and a river

Sitting on the river and damp for most months, Howrah is hard on corrugated board. A carton strong enough for its contents on the day it was made will not still be that strong after seven days in a godown by the river.

Straps make up for much of the lost strength. A pair of straps, pulled only moderately tight, keeps a softened carton square where tape by itself fails — and moderate really matters here, since damp board lets a tight strap slice into its edges.

For machines rather than goods, the same climate argues for keeping electrical parts dry and for blowing a machine down at shift end. Neither is exotic and both extend the life of the equipment considerably.

A supply that dips, and a machine that has to live with it

Several of the older Howrah sheds run on a supply that sags when the heavy plant starts, and that is worth saying at enquiry stage rather than discovering afterwards.

A heater in a strapping head or a sealer does not fail dramatically on a low supply. It runs cool, and a cool weld holds until it is handled. The complaint that comes back is a joint that opened in transit, which is then blamed on the strap.

Tell us the point you intend to run it from. Where the supply is known to dip, the usual answer is a dedicated point rather than a spur off a machine circuit, and in some sheds a stabiliser - which is an electrical job for your own contractor, not something we would sell you sight unseen.

The same applies to earthing on an older floor. It is quick to check before the machine arrives and awkward to arrange around it afterwards.