Any packaging expert who has been in the industry for dozens of years will agree that the market is changing significantly and the need for flexible filling is real. Rather that setting up one product for multiple shifts, it’s now common practice to prepare smaller lot sizes with multiple changeovers. While this type of program complexity comes with many benefits, including drawing a wider range of customers and maintaining an edge with the competition, it also equates to more problems if the filling machinery can’t keep up with the extra demands.
Changeover is the Name of the Game
Every industry cycles through hot button terms and issues every few years, and for the packaging industry in 2016 “changeover” is one such term. It is defined as the process of switching a line that runs one product type to run another product type. Changeover has the potential to be a time-consuming and costly dilemma, so much so that it is often identified as the single most critical machine feature for any packaging machinery line.
A Machine That Achieves Swift Changeover
Companies of all types are now looking for single packaging lines that can accomplish everything they need before, during, and after turnover. One option is a linear monoblock bottle filling line that provides quick turnover and flexibility all in one place. Ideally, this type of machine will automatically sense and adjust to different bottle sizes, then fill them and cap them, all while handling up to 150 bottles per minute.
Ken Richardson, who has been in the packaging industry for more than 20 years, is very pleased with such machines especially the “reduced number of format parts, and tooling that is less expensive than traditional systems. It’s more economical for customers.”
He goes on to explain, “It’s a really cool, quick changeover feature. It’s part of the system’s electronic changeover, which is format recipe driven. You call up a recipe on the machine’s HMI and the machine changes over according to bottle size and height.”
If all companies can take advantage of such flexible technology, they can achieve better efficiency and pass those savings along to the customers.
