Product category:
Machinery and Production Equipment
News Release from: Sigpack Systems | Subject: Johnson Wax
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 02 May 2002
TopLoaders are a breath of fresh air
Johnson Wax UK sought a packaging solution to replace one of its existing robot cells to meet two major goals.
While Johnson Wax makes a huge range of furniture waxes, polishes, and window cleaners, it is the company's Glade air fresheners that have enjoyed an enormous growth in recent times The growth in these products presented the company with a packaging challenge that was successfully met by SIG Pack Systems
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 20 Feb 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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At Interpack 2002 SIG Pack Systems will present three new packaging systems, and will exhibit alongside other SIG Pack companies and with the SIG Beverages division.
Novel package can be resealed after opening
SIG Pack Systems has a range of machinery and systems which produce a new type of resealable packaging that is ideal for foods and non-food items that need to be kept fresh after the initial opening.
Johnson Wax UK sought a packaging solution to replace one of its existing robot cells to meet two major goals.
First, the new packaging solution had to meet the rising demand, by increasing the output per operating shift, and, second, it had to deliver a more efficient means of secondary packaging the Glade containers.
The handling of the individual containers is doubly difficult, due to the wedge shape of the container and because the scented contents are jelly-like and wobble when the containers are handled.
Further reading
Bumper sales for SIG Pack Systems
In the second six months of the current fiscal year, sales in complete systems and in secondary packaging systems by SIG Pack Systems increased by 150% over the full year 2001.
Robots take the biscuit
Bahlsen, the German manufacturer of cakes and biscuits, has modernised a packaging line with 24 SIG Delta robots.
Coupled with these considerations, every other package has to be rotated through 180 degrees so that they can be placed evenly to enable efficient stacking into the shipping carton.
SIG adapted one of its TopLoader machines for the packaging task.
This robot cell has two independently fed product inflows, each of which feeds an automatic grouping unit.
In a simultaneous process, cartons are fed into the cell, positioned and then filled with the Glade products.
The TopLoader automatically selects which of the two grouping units it takes the products from.
Depending on their size, the cartons are filled with varying numbers of air fresheners.
As a result of the need to rotate every second product by 180 degrees before insertion into the carton, SIG's engineers developed a special gripper which uses a vacuum system.
This gripper ensures that, even during the rapid rotation, the products do not fly away or become damaged.
Operating efficiency has been assured using Internet connections.
The operator panel is a touch screen display with a user-friendly Windows NT interface.
The software links, via the Internet, to SIG's service department.
Packaging line efficiency is thereby maintained at an exceptionally and consistently high level.
If a problem occurs at any time of day or night, SIG specialists can log onto the machine directly and usually solve the problem without the need for time consuming site visits, with their associated costs - especially in lost production! Several hundred SIG TopLoader cells are in use globally in both food and non-food industries, most of which operate through multiple shifts.
Approximately 25% of these machines are in use in Great Britain alone.
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