Walki invests in a new production line at Steinfurt plant

A new state-of-the-art production line at Walki Group’s Steinfurt plant, Germany, will support customers in the transition to sustainable and circular fibre–based packaging materials.

Driven by strong market trends and the new European regulatory framework, Walki has completed an investment surpassing six millions euros in a unique production line at its plant in Steinfurt. The line is now ready to start catering to customers who are making the transition to fibre-based materials. This latest investment will not only enable market launches of recyclable board and lining materials, but also facilitate substitution from plastic to fibre-based packaging and thus significantly reducing carbon-footprint.

The production line, called The Bridge, has been tailor-made to a unique multi-functional machine combining and upgrading the existing extruder line with a line for glue lamination and dispersion coating. “Glue lamination and dispersion technologies provide excellent barrier properties to fibre-based materials using significantly less plastics compared to conventional methods without compromising on functional features such as resistance to humidity, grease and mechanical stress,” says Bernd Schröer, Technology Development Director at Walki.

The new machine in Steinfurt is part of a bigger investment project in Central Europe. In January this year, a new barrier-board production line was augurated in Steinfurt’s sister plant in Wroclaw, Poland. Together the two plants offer a unique full-service production hub for customers in Central and Western Europe.

The Bridge is with its width of 3 metres also the widest on the market, making the materials suitable for most corrugating and converting lines, while also ensuring larger capacity and production output. The new investment will support customers in the food and non-food segments with barrier board and flexibles packaging. Industrial liner applications for corrugated boxed is another segment.