Tag: Filler

Goldie Oldies

Written on by Rich Frain

Old doesn’t mean obsolete. Not in packaging machinery. We routinely rebuild machines from the 80’s, 70’s and earlier.

Manufacturing used to be much more stable than it is today. Technology and products evolved slowly. When someone bought a new capper or cartoner there was a good chance it would be running the same package and product 20 years later.

The classic example of this is Coca-Cola. For over 50 years there was only one “Coke” product. Coca-Cola in a 6oz returnable glass bottle. Since there was no need to run additional products, the line could be optimized to run this forever.

This meant heavy duty machinery made up of castings and forgings. It meant standardized designs where reliability and simplicity of operation and maintenance were key parameters. Flexibility? Why bother? The product would never change.

We can see this heritage in today’s machines. A Jones CMV cartoner, Resina capper or Cozzoli filler today looks and runs much the same as it did in the 50 years ago. The benefit in the plant is that after all these years and all these machines, they have been completely debugged. Whatever can go wrong has and has been fixed. The strong designs survived, the weak ones fell by the wayside.

There are some drawbacks to old machines. Safety guarding is one. Electrical and control systems are another. Fortunately, these drawbacks tend to be relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. Safety guarding is easily fabricated from 80/20 material and Lexan. PLCs are incredibly cheap and easy to program. At Frain, we usually don’t even mess with the old electronics. We find it simpler to just tear it out and start anew with PLCs, HMIs and other 21st century controls.

Flexibility can be built into the machine using quick change parts and the addition of scales, blocks and indicators for easy and precise setting.

Old doesn’t have to mean out of date. Many of these older machines are timeless and, with proper care and some periodic upgrades, will still be running when our grandchildren have retired.

That’s why they are called goldie oldies.

Whitepaper: Managing Constraints

Written on by John Henry

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and a packaging line is only as fast as its slowest machine. The slowest machine is the constraint that determines the potential output of the line.

Buffers can be used to manage this constraint to improve total throughput. The terms buffer and accumulator are often used interchangeably. They are actually two similar but different things.

An accumulator amasses product for the next production step. A case packer will often have an accumulation section at the infeed where bottles are distributed from 1 lane to multiple lanes in a section that may be several feet long. The purpose of this accumulation is to provide sufficient backpressure to allow the  case packer to function smoothly.

The purpose of a buffer is to provide an up- or downstream buffer for a machine to smooth line flow.

As an example, let’s assume a 200ppm bottling line consisting of the following equipment, arranged sequentially and connected by 5’ lengths of conveyor.

Each machine runs reliably at 200ppm with no stoppages. Yeah, I know, but let’s pretend.

Download the complete Managing Constraints Whitepaper to continue learning about how to use buffers to increase production with minimal expense.

Whitepaper: Dry Filling

Written on by John Henry

In previous papers I discussed liquid filling. This month I’ll talk about dry, or solids, filling. There are many types of dry products ranging from fine powders like talc or flour, to irregular pieces like frozen chicken parts. Other types of dry products include pharmaceutical powders, regular shaped products like nuts and bolts, candies and pharmaceutical tablets.

A variety of filling technologies are available. Many times more than one technology will give satisfactory results on a particular product/package combination. In most instances, there is one technology which will give the best results when all factors are considered.

Dry filling technologies can be broken down into 3 basic categories:

  • Volumetric filling dispenses a measured volume of product.
  • Weight filling dispenses a measured weight of product.
  • Piece filling dispenses a specific count of product.

Sometimes the package label claim will determine the technology to be used. Two popular candy mints are packed in similar containers. In the 90’s and prior, one of them claimed a certain weight of mints on the label. The other claimed a specific number of mints. To assure label claims were met, one had to be filled by count, the other by weight.

Download the complete Dry Filling Whitepaper to continue learning about dry or solid filling.

Making music, Banging heads

Written on by Rich Frain

The New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chicago Bears have two things in common:

First they both pretty much have the “best of the best” musicians and players.

Second, having the “best of the best”, by itself does them no good.

No matter how good either group is, unless they are matched with each other and working in synchronization they will be pretty horrible.

Your packaging line is much the same. You may have the best available machines but unless they are matched and working in harmony, they will likely be inefficient troublemakers. When buying a new line it is easy to see each machine in isolation. The folks that fabricate the fillers generally do not construct case packers. This can lead to a collection of individual machinery rather than a single tightly integrated packaging line.

Not much can be done about multiple vendors. They are a fact of life and you have to deal with them. What can be done is to approach lines as systems rather than collections. You must think about what will be upstream and downstream of each machine. Intermittent motion filler are great machines. So are continuous motion rotary capper are also great machines. But they might not be the best combination for your line.

Bottles leave the filler and arrive at the capper in groups. If filler and capper are not perfectly balanced, this can result in the capper starting and stopping excessively, in some cases beating itself to death. An inline friction wheel capper might be better here since it can better handle the intermittent infeed.

It doesn’t end when the right machines are chosen. They need to be integrated together into a line. Some of this is mechanical such as connecting conveyors and making transfers. Other integration is electrical/electronic to make sure that the various machines talk to each other. Still other integration is aesthetic such as running ducts under, over or behind the line to manage all the wiring and tubing to each machine. A good looking line will run better than an ugly one all things being equal.

There is a lot more I don’t have space to mention here. The main point is to think of the line as a single system or “machine” rather than a collection of machines. Do this and you will be well on your way to building a better line.

At Frain we know about integration. We have over 8,000 machines in inventory buy new machines as needed. This lets us provide you with not just the proper machine but the proper combination of machines for your needs. Then our team of mechanics, electricians, programmers and engineers build a line that meets all your needs. Since we build the entire line, we can test and demonstrate the line as a system to your satisfaction before they leave our plant.

At Frain, we make it work for you.