Control Panels - Container Cleaning Equipment

The control panels for container cleaning equipment - air rinsers, wet rinsers and bottle vacuums - are similar to the control panels found on liquid fillers.  The control panel on container cleaning equipment will include power switches, speed controls, controls for auxillary machinery and a touchscreen operator interface to set rinse times, vacuum times, pump durations and more.  The individual controls on each automatic rinsing or washing machine will depend on the individual application, but the general controls that will be found on most of these packaging machines are discussed below.

 

Each automatic container cleaning machine will include a main power switch and an emergency stop (E-stop) button.  These simple controls allow power to be turned on and off quickly and easily.  The E-stop button allows for immediate cessation of the operation of the machine in the event of a malfunction, such as bottle jams on the conveyor line.  In addition to the power switches, many automatic container cleaning machines will include controls for auxillary equipment such as a turntable or the conveyor used with the rinsing machine.  Including power and speed controls for component machines on the rinser control panel allows for centralized control and eases the burden on the operator of the packaging equipment.

 

In addition to the power and speed controls, most container cleaning machines will include a touchscreen operator interface which allows the machine to quickly and easily be set up to run a specific container.  The standard screens found on the operator interface are described in more detail below.

 

 

The main screen of the rinsing machine will include several display items.  This screen will show a count of the total number of bottles cleaned under total production.  The main screen on the rinser will also display the infeed container count, which is equal to the number of bottles cleaned each cycle.  The main screen of most container cleaning machines will also include on/off touchscreen buttons for the rinse cycle and other components of the machine, such as the belt conveyor system or a loading turntable.  Of course, the main screen will also include touchscreen buttons allowing access to each of the deeper menu pages.

 

 

The manual toggle screen allows the operator of the rinsing machine to manually control different functions associated with the equipment.  Manual toggle will not be used during actual production runs, and all settings should remain on auto to run correctly during production.  However, an operator may use this screen to manually control the indexing gates, the carriage on an inverting rinsing machine, or the head dive on a bottle vacuum.  Manually controlling these features may assist in troubleshooting, cleanup or set-up of the machine.

 

 

The rinser set up screen is used to turn different components on or off for production runs.  Vision systems, automatic indexing and other features can be switched on or off and changes will take effect when the container cleaning machine is reset and runs the next cycle.  The rinser set up screen will normally be factory pre-set for optimum performance before it is installed at the customer site.

 

 

The adjust pre-sets menu on automatic rinsing machines allows the user to set the delay and duration times that make up the rinsing cycle.  These times will control, among other things, how long indexing gates are open and closed (on rinsers using pin, or gate, indexing), how long the rinse will last and how long the carriage will delay before returning bottles to the belt conveyor system (on inverting rinsing machines).  Again, as long as bottles are supplied, these pre-sets will normally be programmed at the factory prior to installation.  The pre-sets can also be saved for different bottle types and sizes in the recipe screen discussed below.

 

Bottle vacuums may include one additional screen similar to the adjust pre-sets screen.  This additional screen, the air vac times screen, will allow the operator to set the parameters for the vacuuming of the bottles once the rinse is complete.

 

 

The auto set up screen for the rinsing machines will allow the operator to automatically set up indexing times for the container cleaning equipment.  The operator simply places bottles on the belt conveyor system and runs a cycle of bottles through the rinsing machine to record the necessary indexing time.  Again, indexing times, along with all of the filler set-up and adjust pre-sets information, can be stored using the recipe screen for quick recall. 

 

 

As discussed briefly above, the container cleaning equipment includes a recipe screen that allows the operator of the machine to record and recall all times and functions entered for a specific bottle.  The obvious advantage is that set up need only occur one time for each bottle run on the packaging machines.  Once recorded, all times and functions can be recalled with a few touches of the operator interface screen.

 

 

The alarm screen for container cleaning machines, just like the alarm screen for liquid fillers, acts as a troubleshooting assistant.  If the rinsing machine or bottle washer malfunctions for any reason, the alarm screen will help pinpoint the cause of the malfunction.  

 

While these screen encompass most of the controls that will be found on any container cleaning machine, each individual application is unique.  Some rinsing machines will use only a fraction of the controls, while bottle washers may include additional functions, such as sanitizing time, heat controls and more.  If you would like to learn more about the container cleaning equipment manufactured by Liquid Packaging Solutions, Inc., click here to browse the machinery, or call a Packaging Specialist toll free today at 1-888-393-3693.