Huhtamaki

Last Thursday, Materials and Processes drove down to DeSoto, Kansas, to take a tour of Huhtamaki.  We were greeted by plant manager, Aaron Smith, and learned about the many materials used in the company.  Here come the statistics.  Huhtamaki is a global packaging company that operates in 31 countries with 58 manufacturing units.  The Huhtamaki we toured was the headquarters for North America.  They have annual sales of $800 million.  Huhtamaki has 3 business units: consumer goods, retail, and food service.  There are 4 different technologies: fiber, shaped paperboard, folding carton, and plastics.  Paperboard converting operations include sheeting, printing, dye cutting, and forming.  In Huhtamaki, there is a machine shop and then an assembly area.  They custom make their machines in shop, which is very interesting.  On the other end is the assembly area, where they put their products together and ship them out.  Materials used in the assembly area include paperboard, commodity plastic resins, and molded fiber (wood cellulous).  Metals and engineered plastics are used for equipment manufacturing.  They make many different kinds of grades of cups.  There are bleached white (SBS), unbleached or “kraft” (SUS), and news back and other recycled grades.  Typical paperboard classifications include folding carton, cup stock, cylinder board, and corrugate box and linerboard.  Cup stock is usually SBS, and can include a clay coating.  They are specially made for high stretch for forming the top rims, like the cups you see at McDonalds. My favorite part of this trip was seeing how these cups were formed.  These cups started out in flat sheets and were molded by machines. The smaller the cup, the faster they are made.  This company was very high tech, and put together.   They produce everything from boxes and cups for fast food companies, to ice cream containers, to their own Chinet plates and cups.  This field trip presented us with an extremely good amount of information along with a wonderful tour of the place.