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Dashing Through the Plant - Power Conveyors

While somewhere on this planet, there are likely power conveyor systems dashing products through the snow, that is not our area of expertise. So instead, we will talk about power conveyors dashing bottles and products through the bottling plant, from loading and transferring to cooling and accumulating.

LOADING OR LANING CONVEYORS

Before the bottles can even start to dash through the production plant, they need to be loaded onto the power conveyor system! While there are other machines that can perform or assist with this function, such as bottle unscramblers, bottle hoppers or turntables, a loading conveyor can also be used for this task. Generally speaking, the loading or laning conveyor will consist of a power conveyor running perpendicular to the main conveyor on a packaging system along with a loading table. Operators of a packaging line can easily unload containers on the table and guide them into lanes that will be presented to the main line. Once on the main belt conveyor, the containers are delivered to the other packaging machinery.

POWER CONVEYORS FOR TRANSFER

When most people think of a conveyor system, they think of the system of machines that move bottles or containers from one place to another, and transferring products is probably the most common chore by such a system. While standard power conveyors exist, the advantage of the transfer system is that the machines can be manufactured to move product in a straight line, up, down, left, right or whatever direction is necessary. Conveying systems can also be manufactured to the necessary specifications for the job at hand, including custom height, custom width and even custom material, while remaining simple to operate, usually only requiring a flip of an on/off switch and occasional adjustments to speed using a dial.

COOLING CONVEYOR SYSTEMS

Cooling conveyors could be described as a special kind of transferring conveyor. These machines are used in special packaging applications where a product will be hot when filled. For example, candles can obviously not be placed into glass jars in their solid form, instead the wax is melted to achieve the fill. To avoid damaging containers, in many cases the product must be allowed to cool before being capped or sealed. This can be accomplished using vertical and horizontal space, just like with a regular transfer container, but will often include special belting or even a fan system to assist the cooling process.

ACCUMULATING CONVEYORS

Similar to loading containers at the beginning of a packaging system, accumulating product at the end can be accomplished in a variety of manners, including turntables once again as well as automating the process with case packers, pallet wrappers and other equipment. However, some packagers will use an accumulating conveyor to prepare product to ship. These conveyors may simply be an extension of the main system with packing tables added to the sides to accomodate quick preparation. Other systems may use a serpentine conveyor or other custom system to gather product until they can be packed. Just like with every other type of system, accumulating systems will be tailored to the project at hand.

Visit the power conveyor section of Liquid Packaging Solutions website to see some of the options available and how these machines can benefit your own packaging system.