Mentholator Case Study

A major contract to build a flavoured application system.

CADceptual Design won a major contract with Gallaher Tobacco in Ballymena, Ireland, to design and build a flavoured application system to accurately and safely apply flavour solutions to the foil-backed paper used in the production of mentholated cigarettes. 

There were several challenges identified at the concept and design phase, including maintaining foil tension and preventing hoop stresses, accurately delivering the solution to varying foil width and linear speeds, managing the highly flammable vapours, loading and unloading the heavy foil bobbins, whilst ensuring through put of up to 50 bobbins per shift.


Services Delivered

  • Innovation & concept development
  • Design & technical engineering
  • Prototyping & product optimisation
  • Turnkey production & build

Work Flow

  • Requirements capture
  • Proof of concept
  • Concept visuals
  • Concept development
  • Electronics & electrical design
  • Test & analysis
  • Build services

Benefits

Our background in the Tobacco industry combined with our ability to design and build complete turnkey solutions meant we could carry out all aspect of this project from concept to commissioning at one location. This enabled our teams to work closely together to produce a cohesive product, overcome challenges and resolve issues quickly which significantly reduced time, cost and risk to the end client.


Value Added

We were able to produce a comprehensive machine manual which outline the machine and operating cycle, controls, full machine illustrations and BOM's, mechanical and electrical schematics as well as covering all safety aspects of the machine cycle, operator interface and maintenance. 

This provided valuable support to Gallaher to reduce the time and cost to carry out:

  • Installation and connecting services
  • Internal HSE requirements
  • Operator training
  • Preventative maintenance and fault finding
  • Spares and replacement part identification

 

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