Custom Power Conveyors Serve a Number of Packaging Purposes

While most conveyors are manufactured to carry bottles and other containers from one machine to another on a packaging line, power conveyors can be used for more than transfer.  From loading and accumulating to cooling and rejecting, power conveyors can add efficiency and reliability to a packaging process in unique ways.

 

 

Of course, the most common use of power conveyors is to transfer bottles from one station to another, from liquid fillers to capping machines, capping machines to labelers, and so on.  When used for transfer, there are several different styles of conveyor available.  Low profile conveyors can be used when space is tight, to move through packaging machines such as the fillers and cappers noted above, or to move through other obstacles on a production floor.  Some other conveyors include sanitary style models for foods, beverages and other projects where avoiding contamination is a must and an HDPE conveyor for acids and other projects involving harsh chemicals.  In the end, conveyor systems can be designed and manufactured to transfer almost any product or container.  But the usefulness of power conveyors does not end with the ability to transfer.

 

 

Power conveyors can also be used to load bottles on the main conveyor at the beginning of a packaging system.  Loading and laning conveyors are manufactured with a loading table at the front end of the machine.  Operators of the packaging line can lay out bags or boxes of bottle and easily place them on the loading conveyor.  Some of these conveyors will include lanes to assist in lining up the correct number of bottles for each set that is released.  For example, if a packaging system uses a 12 head filling machine, the loading conveyor may be divided into 12 lanes to keep a continuous cycle of bottles entering the filler.  The loading conveyor will normally be custom manufactured to fit the needs of the packager based on bottle size, speed and the pre-packaging of the containers.

 

 

At the opposite end of the spectrum, conveyors provide an alternative for accumulating finished product.  Loading tables can be added to long stretches of conveyors to provide inline packing stations for some facilities.  Serpentine power conveyors may be used as well, providing more space for accumulation without sacrificing long stretches on the production floor.  

 

Cooling conveyors work in the same way.  Some products must be filled at high temperatures, to lower the viscosity of the product and add reliability to the filling machine.  Candles, for example, will be heated to allow a liquid fill.  Once filled, these products may require a cooling down time to gel or set before moving on to the capping machine, labeling machine and other equipment.  Straight line, serpentine or even vertically tiered conveyor systems can be used to cool the products by adding time and, for some projects, fans to speed the process.

 

 

Conveyor systems can also be tailored to include a rejection system.  In essence, a rejection system can simply be a split in the conveyor, with one branch continuing along the packaging line and the other allowing for mis-packaged product to be accumulated.  Sensors may be placed on different packaging machines and if a bottle does not receive a cap, code or other necessary component, the rejection apparatus kicks in and the bottle is removed from the main conveyor system.  The rejection system will not normally require a custom conveyor, but rather a modification and addition to a normal power conveyor to allow for the offshoot of bottles with errors.

 

To learn more about power conveyors and conveyor systems, browse the conveyors and turntables section of the Liquid Packaging Solutions website or call toll free at 1-888-393-3693 to speak with a Packaging Specialist.