Automated Packaging and Packing Solutions
Most Australian manufacturers need to utilise a single production line for many different products due to the small size of the runs, making the packaging and packing process a mission-critical operation in itself. Effective packaging and packing affects the success of your product in many ways including:
• Consumer choice
• Integrity of product
• Shelf life
• Tracking / inventory management
• Cost to market
Although automation of these processes has brought many benefits to manufacturers over the years, new technologies available today from specialised robotics and automation providers deliver sophistication in packaging previously unheard of.
Packing machines provide fast solutions for any packing procedure. From both heat clamp and heat shrink sealing to boxing, wrapping and vacuum packing, there are a number of available options to suit the specific needs of your business.
The range of machines available that can be readily adapted and integrated into your production line covers every type of packing imaginable including:
• Shrink sealing and boxing for the biscuit
industry
• Filling, canning, gassing and sealing for the
beverage industry
• Bag sealing for a wide range of products
• Sealing jars and containers for various food products
• Ampoules, bottles, syringes and cartridges for the pharmaceutical
industry
Integration
It is important not to think of packaging and packing as a stand-alone process. More and
more companies, especially in the food and beverage industries, are integrating their
entire production process to incorporate other in-line processing stages including:
• Checking
• Treatment
• Sterilisation
• Labelling
• Testing
• Coding
• Filling
• Closing
An illustration of effective integration can be found in the food industry where large
volumes of biscuits are being produced around the clock.
For example: Vision technology is utilised to ensure that all biscuits leaving the oven are
checked for product quality and identification before being fed on to a number of belts –
cookies on to one, crackers on to a second,
crispbread another…… let’s stick with the crispbread.
From here the crispbread may be accumulated,
stacked and shrink sealed into individual packs.
Next, four packs will be grouped automatically
and placed into boxes.
The boxes are then glued and closed.
Before packing the boxes pass through a
scanner to ensure that no foreign materials
have been sealed in.
Finally, vision is again used to check barcodes and dates prior
to packing.
Packing could involve accumulation and placement into
shippers along with an RFID tag for tracking.
They are then stacked on to pallets and shrink wrapped prior
to transfer into storage or on to trucks.
And all this without human intervention!
Machinery Automation & Robotics
1/101 Derby Street
Silverwater NSW 2128
Phone: (61) 2 9748 7001
http://www.machineryautomation.com.au