At Schütz in Selters, the ongoing development of innovative products and services is an integral part of day-to-day business policy. Against this background, the Industrial Packaging division recently increased the size of its label plates and created a protective cover for intermediate bulk containers (IBCs). Both developments will facilitate customers' daily handling of the Ecobulk range of IBCs. The label plate modification was triggered by customer demand for a larger area to be reserved for information stickers. The 6-space plate is now 21% bigger and the actual label space is 400mm in height (+ 50mm) and 527mm wide (+ 32mm), which is more than ample for attaching all the information connected with the transport of the filling goods. The new development also responds to the call for plates to be sturdier and safer. The plate has a reinforced, raised edge that acts as a spacer, protecting the attached labels from mechanical influences. As an extra safety measure, the plate edges have also been curled in so as to minimise the risk of personal injury during handling. All in all, the new label plate is designed to help eliminate handling errors and to ensure greater safety. Last but not least, the new IBC label plates are also an aid to originality protection in the interests quality and safety. For one thing, an unmissable imprint of the Schütz logo in the bottom left-hand corner provides clear evidence of the IBC's origin. For another, the plate cannot be detached from the steel grid without de-stroying the metal side strips that hold it in place. IBC protective cover: simple, clean, value-preserving, cost-cutting The idea behind the ex-tremely sturdy, multi-use polypropylene cover was to come up with a solu-tion to an old familiar problem. IBCs are frequently exposed to conditions that can cause contamination or corrosion, which render a return transport, or collection and reconditioning, far more difficult or even impossible. In very dusty environments, airborne particles can interact with water, chemi-cals or other liquids to cause extreme contamination or white rust, both of which are detrimental to the IBC's steel cage. Acid environments (food in-dustry, metal industry) also cause a reaction with the zinc layer of the steel cage, however. The use of stirrers (eg, in the processing of paints, lac-quers, resins and glues and similar substances) is also a common cause of contamination or incrustation of the entire IBC. The new IBC protective cover from Schütz is a solution that's as simple as its effective. Slipping on the IBC cover is an easy job that can be done by just one person. The cover has transparent windows on a level with the label plates and pallet slits that allow access to both lift and fork-lift trucks. Flaps with hook-and-loop fasteners near the filling openings and valves guarantee speedy ac-cess and unimpeded good functioning of the IBC during filling and empty-ing. The bandwidth of applications for the IBC protective cover is tremen-dous. After all, it is even certified for use in ex zones 1 and 2, where the protective cover must be separately earthed by means of a special earthing strap.