Packaging machines for Kanpur

Moisture, and what it does to a carton

Finished leather carries moisture, and so does the air around it for most of the year in Kanpur. Board loses strength as it takes moisture up, and a carton rated for its load when dry is not rated for it after a week in a humid godown.

That is a strapping case rather than a heavier-board case. Two straps at moderate tension hold a softened carton's shape where tape alone will not, and they keep holding it as the board weakens. Tension has to be moderate: a damp carton cuts at the edge under a tight strap, and the cut is where it fails.

Where hides or leather travel in bulk rather than in cartons, the pack is a bundle and the tool is a pneumatic strapping tool applied to it where it stands. No arch will take a bundle of hides.

Odour transfer, which nobody warns you about

Leather and the chemicals used on it carry a smell, and it moves. A consignment of finished goods stored or shipped beside tanned leather can pick up enough of it to be queried by a buyer, and there is no way to take it out afterwards.

This is a storage and loading question rather than a machine one, and saying so is more use than selling equipment. Keep finished goods away from wet stock, load them separately, and do not share a wrapped pallet between the two.

Where film is used, it holds the smell in as effectively as it holds the load — which helps if the pallet is all one kind of goods and hurts badly if it is not.

Chemicals and drums in the same belt

Tanning and finishing move drums of chemicals, and Kanpur's tannery belt handles a great many of them.

A drum carrier and lifter with a working safety lock takes the tipping point out of the lift. Capacity is quoted against a full steel drum; plastic drums have a different rim and the jaw is not interchangeable.

For the people doing it, safety products — bought in and supplied by us rather than made at our works, and worth being clear about.

Saddlery, harness and orders with an inspection clause

Kanpur has supplied saddlery, harness and leather accessories against inspected orders for a very long time, and an inspection clause changes the order in which the packing happens.

Goods are inspected, then packed, and the pack is expected to show whether it has been opened since. That rules out a pack that has to be cut open and taped shut again at every stage, and it rules in a sealed carton with the strap applied last, so that a cut strap is visible before anybody looks at the tape.

It also means keeping a small stock of the same board and the same strap colour. If a carton has to be opened for a re-check, the repack should not be obviously different from the twenty beside it - a mismatched carton invites a second inspection nobody has time for.

None of this needs a bigger machine. It needs the strapping step placed after sealing rather than before it, which is a layout decision and costs nothing.