Accumulators Machines

Accumulating unscramblers, or accumulators, are designed to accumulate products or containers being processed on a conveyor-based production line. Accumulators can be located at the end of a conveyor-based production line to accumulate containers before packing or accumulators can be located a constraint, or bottleneck, or machine that requires periodic operator interaction during the production process (such as a labeler) to provide an accumulation area or buffer prior to the machine.

Accumulators can be of several different designs. The simplest design for an accumulator is a simple rotary disc. (See Unscrambler / Disc for more information.) Rotary disc unscramblers take in containers on a rotating disc and have plows to guide the product to the center of the disc. Bi-directional accumulators are located parallel to the line and move containers into the accumulator in one direction and discharge the accumulator by move the containers in the other direction. Inline accumulators are designed to keep the containers moving as the accumulator accumulates the containers. Inline accumulators will keep containers moving in a circular motion through a series of conveyor belts. Vertical accumulators are designed to accumulate containers in a vertical stack above the conveyor. As more containers can be processed, a vertical accumulator will lower the container onto the conveyor for further processing.

Accumulators at the end of the line are used to accumulate containers until it becomes feasible to package them. Some accumulators are used to accumulate a certain amount of product prior to loading all containers into a carton or case (i.e.: a six count of bottles into a case). Other accumulators are used to accumulate or batch containers so that a single operator can pack containers from multiple lines. Because of how lines are designed, a single operator packing multiple lines will require time to move from line to line, and will often batch the packing operation to limit the time traveling from line to line. The accumulator at the end of the line provides the operator with the time necessary to accomplish this.

Accumulators prior to constraint, or bottleneck, machines are used to help assure the continued production of the bottleneck machine. By definition, bottleneck machines are the slowest machine or the constraint machine with regards to production speed in a production line. By always having product available for processing by the bottleneck, the bottleneck machine is never and the maximum amount of throughput through the bottleneck machine is achieved.

Accumulators prior to machines such as labelers are used to buffer the production line against periodic interruption of the production line due to the machine requiring operator attention. In the case of pressure sensitive labelers, the roll of pressure sensitive labels needs to be replaced resulting in machine downtime (unless the labeler is designed with dual roll unwind and an automatic label web splicing station). The accumulation area accumulates containers while the operator changes the label roll so that the upstream machines do not have to stop production while the label roll is being changed. (This type of buffer is only effective if the labeler can out-pace or run faster than the remainder of the line so the labeler is able to by processing the containers in the accumulation area prior to more downtime. If the labeler can not process the containers in the accumulation area, eventually up-stream machinery will need to be shut down.)