The former divider system of DuPont however had one flaw, which was that filled lacquer cans of a certain size were transported to the labelling and packaging line one-by-one on conveyor belts. As a result, the operators had to reset these lines according to can size. This reduced flexibility and to those lines standing still.

Divider System, a tailor-made invention for DuPont
The area available to install an optimal divider system was around 35 m². After an initial analysis DuPont formulated their need to transport various sizes of automatically-filled cans to the corresponding labelling and packaging machines.

Bob Demessemaeker of Grontmij came up with the concept of a compact Divider System in vertical formation, in which five filler lines are linked to four labelling and packaging machines via conveyor belts of adjustable height. The idea was fleshed out in close cooperation with Ferag, the company that built the system.

As well as developing the divider system, the project also encompassed the replacement of a very dated packaging machine, mounting a new labelling machine and replacing almost all the conveyor belts to and from the divider system.

Project management
DuPont entrusted the entire project management and project coordination to Grontmij. Throughout the entire project, Grontmij also acted as a strategic link between the various suppliers (Ferag for the divider system and the conveyor belts, Langguth for the labelling machine and OLI for the packaging machine). This was not only down to strong project management, but also to the efforts of a range of staff from various engineering disciplines who brought specific expertise - including explosion safety - to the table in order to link of all the filling, labelling and packaging processes together.

"Great satisfaction"
In the words of DuPont project manager, Filip Hermans: "The divider system project was highly successful and gives us at DuPont a great sense of satisfaction. In 15 months' time, the system will have paid for itself and we will be able to link up filling, labelling and packaging quickly and flexibly in the future. Working with the various partners also went extremely well. As far as Grontmij is concerned, they provided not only innovative thinking but they provided great added value in terms of project management and electrical engineering."