Hauni Premium Parts are now available in a bigger range featuring wearing parts and spares designed using innovative technologies and top-grade materials.
These parts consistently meet the set criteria: quality, functionality and better-than-ever durability.
With the first in this exquisite range of parts already well-established in the market, the demand remains strong. As hoped, Hauni seems to have struck the right note: these high-end parts, designed for extreme durability and extended service life, have turned out to be a major cost-reducing factor in filter and cigarette making.
Hans-Michael Schott, project manager production services with British American Tobacco in Bayreuth, confirms this. The factory was amongst the first to receive a complete suction rod conveyor from Hauni’s Premium Parts series.
"Just a short time after we had decided to buy the new assembly it was here and ready to fit. We were really pleased with the result," recalls Schott. And indeed, superb materials and workmanship have gone into the making of the wearing parts – guide rollers, tongue rails and channel cheeks – in this totally redesigned suction rod conveyor.
Premium quality parts that can be ordered separately for the suction rod conveyor include the suction tape guide rails. These too have been fully redesigned by Hauni engineers for inclusion in the Premium Parts line.
"The job involved optimizing not only the functional but also the quality aspects of the materials as well as the manufacturing process," explains Hartmut Meis, the technical manager in charge of Hauni’s Premium Parts project. "Improvements," he adds, "that make a significant difference. Parts are now bonded, making the tape guide rails much cheaper to produce, a benefit which Hauni passes on to customers. Furthermore, engineers have managed to increase the rails’ service life in addition to making maintenance much simpler."
Greater longevity as compared with their standard counterparts is also a feature of Premium trimmer discs. Schott says BAT tests corroborate this. The new discs, milled from tool-grade steel, are in fact made to last up to three times as long as conventional ones. The parts’ more accurate contouring also ensures a more evenly formed rod.
A Premium Parts garniture will even last four times the standard service life, being made entirely using a powder-metallurgy process. The garniture’s excellent wear resistance ensures consistent process parameters throughout its entire life cycle.
"We’ve also managed to cut maintenance costs, giving us a much better cost-to-benefit ratio," Hauni project manager Norbert Hohenschuh tells us.
Improvements like these naturally draw an appreciative response from Hauni customers. After Japan Tobacco International tested the redesigned Premium steel and ceramic glue rollers at their Trier facility in July, Ludwig Neumann from the JTI Engineering department said he reckoned they were a great success.
"From the time we placed our enquiry it only took a few days to obtain and fit the glue rollers," he said. "And we’re totally satisfied with the performance they’ve been giving."
Factors which contribute to that performance level include a perfect glue pattern, optimized heat application as well as the extremely high corrosion and wear resistance exhibited by the rollers. These are manufactured from either ceramic material or high-chromium powder-metallurgy steel.
"Factors like these make our Premium Parts so valuable to customers in their day-to-day work," says Hohenschuh. "That added value is something we achieve by listening to what clients want and working in their ideas when we develop new parts. The response shows we’re on the right track, which is why we intend to continue expanding our Premium Parts line."
