Comprehensive renovation and modernisation of a plastic packaging screw machine

A complete refurbishment service and the modernisation and adaptation of a four-head continuous motion capper to handle 40 new packaging formats. Our work consisted of dismantling, full refurbishment and designing completely new solutions to handle formats that were previously beyond the reach of this machine.

The capping machine previously handled 4 round bottle formats, and its changeover required the replacement of many parts, which were very problematic to store due to their size. In the new version, thanks to the use of 3D printing and fully tool-less changeover, the number of formats has increased from 4 to 40, and the volume of format parts has been reduced by 30% anyway.

The set-up time before the upgrade was approximately two hours, and after the production start-up, it was necessary to fine-tune the screw machine. Thanks to the unique design and the benzene tool set-up in accordance with Poka Yoke principles, the possibility of incorrectly fitting the format tooling was eliminated and set-up time was reduced to a few minutes. In addition, a completely new machine operating interface was developed as part of this project, guiding the operator through the individual set-up steps and collecting information from the machine on whether the individual steps have been carried out (this determines progress to the next set-up step). The system displays graphic instructions in the form of pictures for the individual steps. For each of the formats, the values for the post-mix pressures are stored in the machine's memory, and automatic pressure control systems are now responsible for adjusting them to the parameters according to the recipe.

The machine has also been provided with a ruler that continuously collects information about its position and automatically adjusts the height of the turning heads to the given packaging format. The system allows full statistics to be collected on current production and informs the operator of any malfunctions on the machine. Five types of heads have been developed for the capping machine to handle screw, flip top, atomiser, pump, rollon and push packages. The machine has been equipped with an additional reject track and a system for verifying that the closure has been applied correctly and that it has been tightened correctly. The screwing capacity has been increased from the initial 33 pieces per minute to as many as 60 pieces per minute, depending on the type of head used and the type of packaging.