Fast process from beginning to end

BEUMER Group supplies adaptable packaging line to Mexican cement manufacturer Cruz Azul: The Cooperativa La Cruz Azul S.C.L, third-largest cement manufacturer in Mexico, required an entire packaging line for the flexible and fully automated filling, palletising and packaging of different types of a new tile mortar. The BEUMER Group solution won out over the competition, providing everything from one single source. This included the BEUMER fillpac R filling system that was adapted for filling different materials. They also included the BEUMER bag placer to ensure a more efficient filling of the high-quality materials. With this new packaging line, Cruz Azul can achieve their projected production capacity. Gigantic bridges, high-rises, tunnels for roads, subways and sewage systems: some of biggest construction projects in Latin America are currently being built in Mexico. This makes the country the second largest cement market on the continent, right after Brazil. In order to hold their own against national and international competition, Mexican manufacturers are developing more and more high-class materials. Cooperativa La Cruz Azul, headquartered in Mexico City, is one of them. The production of this leading company, founded in 1881, is aimed exclusively towards the domestic market. The manufacturer operates four plants with a yearly production of around eight million tons of Portland cement per year, which is only one of their end products. The main plant is in Jasso in the state of Hidalgo. The city is located in a region that is very rich in limestone. A football club founded by employees of this cement plant in 1927 is now playing in the top level of the Mexican football league, with national and international success. Decisive factors: supplier reliability and quality Success plays an important role for Cruz Azul as well. Its cement production represents 22 percent of the national market. With the goal to further increase this share, the cooperative developed high-quality tile mortar in eight different variations as one of their new products. "The quality of the building materials is decisive in order to remain competitive," explains Victor Luna, Managing Director at Cruz Azul in Hidalgo. Distributors and end customers also want the products to arrive by the required date and quantity. A small amount of the mortar is sold in big bags, the majority however is sold in 20- and 25-kilogram bags. This is why the manufacturer needed an entire packaging line that could meet very specific requirements: due to varying material densities, and as a consequence different flow properties of the different variants of the new product line, the filling system had to be adjustable to the different materials as well as to smaller bag sizes without extensive retrofitting of the machine through the employees. The line should then palletise precise and stable bags stacks and package them to protect the content against transport damage and atmospheric influences. Decision for the right partner March 2015: after an offer from another supplier had already gone in and the project was already at an advanced stage, employees from the cooperative Cruz Azul responsible for the project reached out to BEUMER Group to also hand in an offer. "We have been working closely together for the last 30 years," says Victor Luna. "We have a long-standing relationship and trust in the BEUMER brand." This trustful relationship is not surprising. BEUMER Group was already able to convince in 2008. In an extensive major order for the plant in the state of Puebla, the system supplier provided and installed five bucket elevators and two palletising and packaging lines in only 26 months. They consist of BEUMER paletpac palletisers and the BEUMER stretch hood high-capacity packaging systems. As with the current project, one of the requirements for this line was to palletise and package various bagged materials, without extensive retrofitting of the machines. Victor Luna emphasises that BEUMER Group provided them with an adaptable technology with which his colleagues are working efficiently to this day.