
Southern Ropes maximises production efficiencies with Motan
SOUTHERN Ropes, one of Africa’s top rope manufacturers, had a real need to improve batch consistency, with the concomitant need to reduce material spillage and labour input.
“Batch changeovers were also taking too long, as this was a manual process,” explains managing director, Marcus Twine.
The Cape Town company purchased a Motan Gravimetric Central feeder from GreenTech Plastics Machinery in July last year and has seen a considerable improvement in materials handling since. We chatted with Marcus.
Why did you choose the Motan Gravimetric Central feeder?
“The local availability, price, and quality, including proficient project management were deciding factors. JC Jonker (Greentech’s sales manager) completed a full needs analysis at the onset of the project, to ensure all technical aspects were considered for the final solution.”
What have been the benefits for Southern Ropes?
“Staff could be reallocated to more meaningful tasks and batch consistency was significantly increased. We know how much raw material is being used daily and no stock is unaccounted for and underutilised with internal logistics being efficiently streamlined.”
Which factors stood out for you in the performance of the Motan feeder?
“The central vacuum system gives us the ability to increase batch volume from small feeding bags to one-ton material bags. The reliability of the system means we have zero to no downtime in production, saving us time and money.”
Southern Ropes, has been expanding its production operations and has recently acquired adjacent premises at the old Castle Brewery in Woodstock in Cape Town founded in 1984, is celebrating its 40th year in operation. It is one of the largest manufacturers of high-quality synthetic ropes in Africa, catering to various markets, producing ropes for commercial marine, leisure marine, industrial, mining and offshore applications. It manufactures twisted and braided ropes to standard and custom specifications, extruding polypropylene and polyethylene yarns on-site.
Southern Ropes also exports products to Australia, America, the UAE and many parts of Europe.