Kekkilä Oy: New turnkey factory delivered at record speed

Fire destroyed the Kekkilä Oy peat processing factory in Eurajoki, Finland, on April 27, 2010, but with the help of Premier Tech Industrial Equipment Group (IEG), finished product was moving along the conveyors of a brand-new factory less than one year later.

Fundamental to the client’s swift return to production was Premier Tech’s delivery of a turnkey operation made possible by Premier Tech’s expertise in peat processing, its ability to coordinate equipment supply and installation by its company’s globally dispersed business units, and the client’s speed at building a new factory.

The new facility, which produces mainly growing media for the professional growers, comprises screening, mixing, and bagging lines that permit simultaneous mixing of different peat-based recipes which are then packaged by four different bagging technologies. “[These] machines can be run at the same time, which means more effective processing,” notes factory manager Päivi Laakso.

Processing is effective because Premier Tech designed the entire system to be “very flexible,” explains Premier Tech project manager Guy D’amours. Screened peat can be moved into storage for later use or sent directly to each of the two mixing lines, where it’s mixed with other horticultural additives and a wide range of different fertilizers according to different recipes, thus allowing the factory to produce a huge range of blended materials.

Different blends can move from the mixing lines to any of the bagging lines, with each blend kept separate from the others to avoid contamination. Each blend feeds a dedicated hopper, and each hopper feeds a dedicated bagging line.

Four different bagging lines create loose bags and compressed bales destined for Kekkilä Oy’s commercial customers. Palletizers and a stretch hooder complete the process.

“The biggest challenge of this project was the short time frame … for such a big project,” recalls project manager D’amours. “The project included 12 hoppers, eight different types of screening and conditioning equipment, four different bagging technologies, and more than 60 bulk conveyors, which represent 1.6 km [nearly one mile] of conveyor belts! More than 40 truckloads were required to deliver all the equipment …”

All that equipment is only part of what enabled the client to rebound quickly after a devastating fire. “It was really teamwork … the kind of nice partnership Premier Tech is proud to be a part of,” says D’amours. That and Premier Tech IEG’s “know-how of the peat process industry,” says factory manager Laakso.