Packaging Machine Adjustments - Height

Simple adjustments can be crucial to product output when dealing with a number of different packaging machines.  Bottle changeover should not be time consuming, as that is time spent not turning out finished product for the customers.  One of the adjustments that will be made on a regular basis when a facility is dealing with more than one single bottle or container size is the height of the different machines.  Whether semi-automatic or automatic, height adjustments on all packaging machinery should be quick and simple to make.

Rinsing machines, filling equipment and capping machines can all be manufactured in semi-automatic or automatic models, and each machine can normally be manufactured with different types of height adjustments.  

POWER HEIGHT

Most automatic packaging machines will include a power height adjustment.  For rinsing machines, the power height will control the rinse nozzles, allowing the operator to raise or lower the nozzles as needed by simply flipping a switch to the left or the right.  The same concept is used for raising and lowering fill heads on a number of different filling machines, including overflow fillers, gravity fillers, pump fillers and custom filling equipment.  The fill heads are quickly and easily adjustable with the flip of a switch.  Power height for automatic capping machines differs slightly in that the entire casing will be raised and lowered using the switch.  For example, on a spindle capper, the gripper belts and spindle sets will both rise when using the power height.  Gripper belts and spindle disks will have separate controls for raising, lowering and widening or narrowing.  Power height may be used on semi-automatic portable or tabletop machines, but will not be included or necessary on many of the semi-automatic models.

HYDRAULIC JACK

While a hydraulic jack could theoretically be used on filling machinery, rinsers or capping equipment, there are simply better height adjustments available in almost any given scenario.  A hydraulic jack is most likely to be found on heavier equipment, such as a vibratory bowl that feeds and orients caps for automatic capping machines.  The bowl and the cart that supports the bowl together may simply have too much weight for any type of hand crank height adjustment, and power height could be costly and somewhat unnecessary as the bowl will pretty much stay in one place once set up.  Height adjustment using a hydraulic jack is the ideal option for packaging machinery in this and other similar situations.

MANUAL JACK

The manual jack will use a hand crank on various pieces of packaging machinery to adjust the heights, similar to the adjustments discussed under the power height section above.  This type of height adjustment could be used on almost any rinsing machine, liquid filler or capping machine, but will be found the most on portable, semi-automatic type packaging machines.  The operator of these machines simply uses the hand crank to adjust the jack, which in turn moves a specific component of the packaging machine up or down.  Rinse heads, fill heads, spindle disks, chuck capping heads and many other components can be adjusted using a manual jack.

MANUAL CRANK

The manual crank works just like the manual jack, only the jack is taken out of the equation.  This type of height adjustment will be used most often on tabletop packaging machinery, like fillers and cappers.  In general, the hand crank will turn a piece of threaded rod, causing the fill heads or capping heads to move up or down, as desired.  The light weight of the fill bar or the capping head assembly allows the crank to move easily and keeps the height adjustment quick and simple.

To learn more about the height adjustment on the different packaging machines, simply visit the page of the machine that interests you and click on the height adjustment link under features or options, or call toll free at 1-888-393-3693 for more information!