Pneumatic conveyor system makes it easy to transfer the lid

problem lies in

SunSweet Growers is a filling company located in northern California, USA. To meet the needs of its number one customer, SunSweet purchased an advanced filling system capable of filling 750 bottles per minute, installed at its factory in Yuba, California. in.

After the new filling line was put into use, SunSweet encountered such a problem: the caps used by SunSweet were all packed in cartons and shipped to the factory. Workers had to manually transport one box and one box to the filling line. , And need to climb up three ladders, then open the package and pour the lid into the guide hopper. This will certainly have an adverse effect on production. At the same time, the continuous handling of boxes will easily pose a potential threat to the personal safety of workers.

SunSweet knows that they must change the status quo. In fact, this is a simple arithmetic problem. Since the speed of the filling line is 750 bottles/minute, and the lid guide hopper can only load 3,100 caps at a time, the hopper must be reloaded every three minutes. This requires a full-time worker to be responsible. Obviously, the intensity of work in three minutes will be exhausted after 10 hours of work.

In addition, if the lid in the hopper is used up, the filling line will automatically close and the staff will have to remove all the bottles left on the production line, pour out the freshly filled product, and then re-clean the bottle. And then refilling and capping, which brought about significant losses in production and production efficiency.

solution

SunSweet has formulated the corresponding parameters and requirements for the lid storage and delivery system. SunSweet requires that the lids be loaded easily and that the number of caps loaded at a time can support the production line for 30 minutes; when the lid is not enough, the level control device on the lid hopper sends a signal that needs to be loaded, the transfer system can automatically send the lid into The hopper; the transfer system must be clean, easy to clean, and can protect the lid from the factory environment; because in a wet factory environment, all components on the conveyor system, especially those that come into contact with the product, are best made of stainless steel. .

Because VAC-U-MAX has extensive experience in the lid transfer field, SunSweet asked the company to design a transport system that meets its own specifications.

VAC-U-MAX's designed delivery system easily met SunSweet's requirements. The lid's supply hopper and conveyor system's power and control units are housed in a single module that only occupies 5 cubic feet of space. The stainless steel frame has four sides made of thermoplastic polycarbonate, transparent and Moisture protection provides convenience for the staff in real-time inspection, while also protecting various components within the module from the adverse effects of the wet environment of the factory. The top surface of the module, which is the opening of the lid feeding hopper, has a stainless steel cover to prevent the lid inside the hopper from being contaminated by moisture and foreign matter.

This module is located outside the filling line and provides a quantitative cover for the conveyor belt. The system is pneumatically actuated (upright about 17 feet high and horizontally up to 35 feet) and the lid is transported to a guide hopper mounted above the lid press. The entire VAC-U-MAX system is controlled by a simple level controller on the capping machine. When the lid is below the horizontal control line, the controller will send a signal, the conveyor system will start delivering the lid, and the cover will cover the horizontal control line. After that, the transmission will continue for a period of time, and this time is adjustable. Every half hour, the operator had to put 11 boxes of lids on the storage hopper, and then he could comfortably stay.

Today, SunSweet Growers has a fully automated production line that can keep up with any demand.

“The new VAC-U-MAX delivery system is really convenient,” said Ken Hensley, operations and maintenance manager at SunSweet. “This is a fail-safe transmission system that ensures continuous production. It helps us reduce Loss of production and downtime greatly reduced expenses."

Source: Packaging Machinery