Wet Shirred Fibrous

ViskoTeepak Complaint Approach - Article 2

The word “complaint” initially sounds pretty negative. It’s related to a non-compliant product that should be avoided in any industrial process chain.

What does ViskoTeepak do when a situation like this arises?

Fibrous
2023.11.30
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Does ViskoTeepak receive complaints from our customers?
Can we go public with this information?

Yes, we can, and we do. We are not perfect. Most of the time we can detect the root-cause of the reclamations we receive, even when it must be found externally. Accepting a failure is one thing. Addressing a mistake has an even greater importance when it comes to preventing the same issue from happening again in the future. ViskoTeepak can trace back most of the products by its unique traceability system that includes a detailed process data base in combination with seam marks on our casing. Our tech team also has the capability to link the specific casing properties with the customer’s requirements. This relation must fit in the first place. If something is wrong, the reason must be nearby, and we’ll be able to find it.

Most complaints could be divided into the following groups:

  • Customer-related complaints
  • ViskoTeepak-related complaints
  • Operator’s failures
  • Co-incidents

In the following 4 editions we’ll describe random issues that we received in the last decade. Not to blame people, but to make everyone aware and give the tools and knowledge to prevent such mistakes from happening again.

The first issue in this series described customer-related complaints. The second issue focused on company system dilemmas.

Issue 4 – Unidentified Elements in the Casing

Sometimes the customer happens to notice “black spots” embedded in the casing. Unidentified elements for our customers as shown in the pictures. Customers will usually refer to such unidentified elements as a piece of metal, a hair, or ink.

However, by far, most of the time the analyses show that these spots are actually pieces of wood, i.e. the raw material for cellulose. Harmless in nature, but it looks suspicious.

The basic material we use in our fibrous casing production is the wood that comes from the  abaca plant. The wood is chemically treated to obtain liquid cellulose that will be eventually converted into a wide roll of paper. The liquid cellulose is pre-filtered to make it homogeneous and remove any bigger elements. Sometimes, however, very small pieces of wood do slip through the system and show up in the paper used at a later stage to manufacture our fibrous casing.
 

Unidentified Elements in Casing

Issue 5 – Pleats on the reel stock resulting in poor printing

At the end of the fibrous extrusion process, the casing is reeled up. This is a very accurate job where tension, direction and workmanship are very important. During reeling, some pleats or folds may show up due to various causes. Most of the fibrous casing at the end of the processing, some folds show up. Most often it’s related to incidents detected immediately by the system. Once detected, folded casing is taken out of the process.

Sometimes few folded meters do slip through the manual control. As such reel stock only affects the printed casing.

A second check is implemented during printing, and improperly printed product will show up in the market only in a very limited number of cases. 

Pleats in Casing

Issue 6 – Splices in the Fibrous Casing

At a certain point during production, the casing is slit to let the gasses out. Gassing is inherent in the cellulose chemical regeneration process and can’t be avoided. The casing tubing is later blown up to a certain calibere based on the requested RSD (recommended stuffing diameter) and must be stuck back together again. The customer will eventually notice when the casing reaches the stuffing machine. The splices are part of the casing and as long as they are marked, they haven’t been an issue so far. Sometimes, however, they turn out to be hidden within the strands causing stops in the stuffing operation. Such stops should be avoided. The manual control is a constant point of attention in our fibrous process and converting.
 

Splices in Fibrous Casing

Article Author:
Jos Rutten
Technical Support Manager