Best Practices on the Corrugator

Improve your Corrugator's Performance by Adopting Proven Practices and Learn How Good or Poor Processes Can Affect Bottom Lines

This course is designed to give an understanding of each element in the corrugating process, which will lead to higher productivity and profitability, better quality and reduce waste and downtime.

• What are the current trends in corrugator operations?
• What are the best pre- and post-print options?
• Which properties of the raw material are vital to guarantee your board quality will be acceptable?
• What's the best way to handle your finished product?
• Which factors are going to limit your corrugator's production?

These and other questions will be answered at the TAPPI Best Practices on the Corrugator Course.

As a course participant, you'll learn how to understand each element within the corrugating process. You'll study the basics of how each component in the corrugator system works and how to run each component with optimum settings for peak performance.

You'll develop an understanding of the critical properties of the raw materials that are vital to guarantee acceptable quality board. The course instructors teach participants how the “Centerline Process” can be adopted in their plants to achieve a product that is consistent every day and on all shifts. You will also learn the causes of excess waste and how to measure and eliminate this waste.

Why Should You Attend?

• Learn how to increase productivity, improve quality and minimize waste
• Take home new ideas and operational methods to improve production
• Share your specific problems and issues with the experts -Bring samples with you!
• Learn how you can maintain quality while reaching maximum corrugator speeds
• Find out how you can get the maximum output from the paper consumed
• Identify how and where you can reduce excess waste

Who Should Attend?

• Corrugator Operators
• Box Plant Supervisors
• Production Managers
• Staff Engineers
• Technical Service Managers in corrugated container plants and paper corporations

No prerequisites for the course. However, 1-5 years experience in subject matter is suggested.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this course, you should be able to:

• Describe elements of the corrugating process.
• Troubleshoot the most common operational problems.
• Recognize critical properties of paperboard, starch adhesive and how to control warp.
• Describe the centerline conditions for running the corrugator.
• Explain how to control stop time and keep it to a minimum.
• Describe how to be in compliance with quality and reach maximum speed of the corrugator.
• Explain the importance of training/cross training the crew and motivating the team to become a high performance team.

Earn CEUs

TAPPI will award 2 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for completion of the curriculum.

The Education Project Center of TAPPI has been reviewed and approved as an Authorized Provider by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET), 1620 I Street, NW, Suite 615, Washington, DC 20006.

TAPPI will award CEUs to participants who attend and participate in at least 80% of the educational sessions and complete a final program evaluation.

Tim Church, Course Chair
Tim is a Senior Technical Services Representative for HarperLove.

He began his career in 1980 at the Georgia-Pacific box plant in Owosso, Michigan. He has experience on flexos, diecutters, curtain coaters, tapers, stitchers and other miscellaneous finishing equipment. Tim worked his way up through every position on the corrugator and learned to schedule by hand. His natural leadership and interpersonal skills led to his joining the management team, and he has held supervisory roles in corrugating, converting, scheduling, and shipping. Tim served as Corrugator/Cascader Superintendent, led the Food Safety program, and championed the Mobile Equipment & Pedestrian Safety program as well as many other safety initiatives. He has been with HarperLove since 2014 and embodies HarperLove's ethic of “To Serve is To Solve.” Tim has authored a segment in the Troubleshooting Board Defects series in Corrugated Today magazine, is active with TAPPI, and is currently the course chair for the Introduction to Corrugated, Corrugator Best Practices, and Advanced Bonding courses.

Dan Dyson
Daniel Dyson is the Vice President of Production for Avista Solutions International, Inc., a software company serving the Corrugated Packaging Industry and is also serving on the Board of Directors for Avista. He has an extensive background in business, business development, and is particularly strong in Production Planning and Management. He has authored white papers on the subject of scheduling, production and planning, and roll stock analysis. He worked for MacMillan Bathhurst in the Guelph, Ontario, Canada facility for 21 years. He has been instrumental in developing the Solutions Trim Scheduling system now used in over 70 facilities in 7 countries over the entire Western Hemisphere. This is in addition to contributing to the design of the Planning Board for production planning in a full box plant or converting operation. Dan brings his 38 years of practical hands-on experience in Production Planning and Management in the Corrugated Packaging Industry to the forefront when he leads in training sessions or delivers technical presentations on the subject.

Robin A. Sommers
Robin Sommers is a senior project and process manager for Kadant Johnson Systems Division focused on process steam systems for the corrugator industry. He joined Kadant Johnson in the summer of 2014 after working at Donahue & Associates, supplier of Donahue Steam Systems, for 15 years. He previously was in R&D and product design engineering. Robin earned a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University.

Steve Woodard
Steve is the Vice-President of Sales and Corporate Services for ARC International. He is a 34-year veteran of the anilox roller and related industries. A 1976 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill with a B.S. degree in Business Administration, he is in his 31st year of service with ARC International and is responsible for the development and management of national account programs with corrugated, wide web, and narrow web corporations. Throughout his career, Woodard has been active with TAPPI and FTA with committee involvement and technical presentations. In 2012 he received his certification as a Six Sigma Green Belt from UNC-Charlotte.

Steve Nerney
Steve Nerney is a Mechanical Engineer with a Masters in Business Administration and 33 years of industry experience. He is currently Installation and Training Leader for BWPapersystems. Prior roles include plant engineer, plant superintendent, and production manager for Inland Container and Gaylord Container Plants. Mr. Nerney will be presenting strategies, tips, and tactics for splicing best practices.

John Sofinowski
John is Senior Product Manager for BW Paper Systems. He is a Mechanical Engineer with 43 years of experience in the Corrugated Industry. He started as a project engineer with Ward Machinery and later joined United Container Machinery as Vice President of Engineering, and later as Vice President and Product Manager for Corrugated Rolls. He then joined BW Paper Systems in 2002 where he is currently the senior product manager.

Bob Bashford 
Bob Bashford has been with Albany International for 32 years. He started out in the manufacturing of dryer fabrics and corrugator belts. Bob's work in supervisory roles led to his work as designer and applications engineer for corrugator belts. His current role is global product manager for corrugator belts. His work history has given him the knowledge to grow and bring new technology to the ever changing corrugator industry.

Sam Chapman
Sam is currently a Senior Technical Services Representative for HarperLove. Sam began his career in 1984, at the Georgia-Pacific Packaging Plant in West Monroe, LA. While there, he gained experience and knowledge of the corrugator, while holding positions at both, the wet end and the dry end. Sam joined the management team as Corrugator Supervisor, then moved to Maintenance Coordinator, and also served as Reliability Manager for 8 years. Sam joined the HarperLove Team in 2015, bringing with him over 30 years of experience and dedication. Sam currently performs Waste and Dwell Audits, in addition to his regularly scheduled duties. His efforts in gathering and tracking data have allowed him to successfully assist his clients in reducing overall plant waste. Sam is also very customer driven, and enjoys meeting and serving the needs and expectations of his customers.