Machinery Update September \ October 2017

38 MACHINERY UPDATE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 www.machineryupdate.co.uk
Components
Installation News
Compact palletisers transform
efficiencies for biscuit packing
Aturnkey palletising
solution from
Brillopak is on
track to yield a return
on investment within
less than 15 months by
dramatically reducing
labour requirements
at the end of a line.
Seven compact
palletisers have
been installed onto
a mezzanine floor of
the Ashby de la Zouch
co-packing centre of
Pladis, the owner of
United Biscuits and
McVities. In excess of
80 SKUs, most of which
involve different box
sizes, are handled here
which is why the palletising
solution had to be extremely
flexible in operation.
Previously, boxes of
products from seven different
lines were palletised manually
which was not only a labour
intensive operation but,
due to lack of space, also
caused congestion in the
packing area. Pladis therefore
approached several equipment
Pladis says the repeatable precision of the palletisers in operation is a credit to Brillopak
suppliers to propose a robotic
solution that would solve
these issues.
Four compact C2 KT400
single cell palletisers were
chosen for the manual pack
stations with a further two
KT400 for each flow wrapper
and a KT800 dual cell for the
high speed cartoner.
“This Brillopak solution met
our needs in terms of layout,
performance and price,”
says Mike Hellier from Pladis.
“The small footprint of the
palletiser combined with the
flexibility to handle our 50
plus SKUs with no tooling
changeover also had a big
impact on our decision.”
Each system uses the latest
Omron NJ series control
system incorporating motion
control, communications
and a separate safety
circuit. Pallet layer
patterns are set up
in-house following
training that was
given by Brillopak.
Product setup involves
simply keying in
the SKU number or
selecting from a drop
down list.
The rest is set up
automatically and the
machine is ready to
operate.
All the machines
were inspected at
Brillopak’s factory
prior to installation
and barring minor
hiccups; the machines
went in on time and with a
minimum of disruption to
production.
Since this time, the
machines have performed
to the desired high level
of performance but have
exceeded Pladis’ expectations
in terms of reliability and
consistency.
T 01622 872907
W www.brillopak.co.uk
Feeding systems are a key part of the new
continuous production concept at Pfizer
Coperion K-Tron has supplied
two feeding systems
comprising five feeders each
to Pfizer Manufacturing
in Germany, as part of
a project to expand its
existing plant and switch
to continuous production.
The compact arrangement
of pharmaceutical feeders
supplied accurately deliver
ingredients into the
continuous mixing process,
thereby guaranteeing
consistent and high quality
end products.
In converting its facility to
continuous production, Pfizer
is increasing the flexibility
and also sustainability of
the plant by implementing
various environmentally
friendly measures.
This makes the plant one of
the most modern and automated
pharmaceutical production
facilities in the world.
In the continuous system,
individual production steps
such as supplying, feeding
and mixing are linked
together in the process
without interruption and
optimally tuned to one
another. To help achieve this,
Coperion K-Tron supplied two
complete feeding systems,
each consisting of two highaccuracy
K-PH-ML-D5-KT20
gravimetric twin screw
feeders with ActiFlow and
P10 Jetfilters, along with three
K-PH-ML-D5-KT35 gravimetric
twin screw feeders with
ActiFlow and P10 Jetfilters.
Coperion K-Tron digital SFT
weighbridges continuously
measure the weight of each
The feeding systems deliver accuracy
feeder, allowing the KCM
feeder control modules to
monitor and regulate the feed
rates accurately.
T 0161 209 4810
W www.coperionktron.com