Packaging Machinery Frightfest or Halloween Treat?

Searching for packaging machinery can be a little scary for first time packagers, and operating equipment for the first time may be a daunting task. But at Liquid Packaging Solutions, our employees strive to assist packagers and discover the ideal solution for each project. And our designs emphasize ease of use from our simplest machine to completely automated turnkey solutions.

AUTOMATIC PACKAGING MACHINES

Automatic packaging machines such as bottle fillers and rinsing machines use a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) for many different machine settings. The settings can range from fill and rinse times to pump speeds to automatic indexing set up and times. A touch screen operator interface allows operators of the equipment to quickly and easily change settings, while also including a recipe screen to conveniently save and recall recipes for certain combinations of bottles, product and other components.

Physical changes to railing on equipment like power conveyor systems and capping machines are designed to allow simple hand knob or crank adjustments wherever possible. Other adjustments, such as power height, will be made by flipping a switch left or right to raise or lower the necessary assembly or component of the equipment. Though the different screens, settings and knobs on automatic machinery control panels can seem a bit overwhelming to new users, the ease of operation soon becomes apparent following testing, installations and training on the equipment.

SEMI-AUTOMATIC PACKAGING MACHINES

Semi-automatic equipment will normally require more operator interaction than their automatic counterparts. But this does not mean that the machines are any more difficult to understand or operate. Rinsers and filling machines generally require the operator to position bottles over rinse or fill nozzles. Once in place, a simple switch is used to start the cleaning or filling cycle. Again, physical adjustments may be necessary where multiple bottles are used during the production day, but these changes will require few, if any, actual tools.

Capping machinery and other equipment will also require positioning of the bottle, but in many cases a sensor will indicate that the bottle or other container is in place, meaning no switch to start the cycle is necessary. Semi-automatic packaging equipment can be designed to allow for future upgrades as production levels increase, with certain pieces of equipment able to eventually run automatically with the addition of an indexing system and a control panel that allows such a switch.

CUSTOM PACKAGING EQUIPMENT

If you are familiar with Liquid Packaging Solutions, then you probably know that we consider all of our equipment to be custom packaging equipment, in that we strive to design, modify and build each machine to the specific needs of each packager working with LPS. When truly custom machinery is necessary, a design from scratch because of new products, new containers or any other reason, the engineering and production teams at LPS will focus on the ease of use as a main factor behind such design. In these cases, set up, changeover and even maintenance or cleaning may sometimes require a little more time, energy and muscle, but we have found that this is rarely the case. By keeping the ease of use as one motivating factor in the design, a solution can usually be found that will allow for quick set up, lower downtime and more production time.

Though the first sight of packaging equipment can feel like a scary Halloween night, after LPS testing and set up, FAT's, installation, training and troubleshooting services, packagers can feel confident that they will find machinery easy to use while also having LPS expertise a phone call away. If you have questions about packaging machinery or the operation of equipment, feel free to contact LPS today!