Nothing kills production rates like a changeover. The line stops. The changes are made. The tests have to be done. Even if everything works correctly when the line re-starts, you’ve lost that time forever. It would be nice to be able to stockpile product and avoid changeovers that way, but it’s a fat chance if it actually happens. It would be nice if you could do a changeover in fifteen minutes. Now imagine that you could finish a changeover in two minutes.
Two minutes, you say? Yes, two minutes, with the new TRQCP Robotic Case Packer featured recently in Packaging World’s web blog at Packaging World.com. It’s true that it will cost some money to acquire the machine, but it will start paying for itself immediately.
Think for a moment, how your current packing operation works.
When was the last time your plant managers didn’t hide saleable product from planners in order to avoid logistics headaches? It is obvious that production orders will change and change again. Maybe you are the manager who must constantly adapt to them.
That means you’re the same manager who must constantly stop the line and changeover to meet the ever-changing demands that planning puts upon you. You also have to answer to corporate when they ask you why your production numbers aren’t higher (that’s the only time planning is ever quiet).If it were up to you, you’d do less changeovers, but it’s not up to you, which is why you are constantly stopping your lines to do changeovers.
Now consider two-minute changeovers
If you could do changeovers in two minutes, you wouldn’t have to care. The TRQCP Robotic Case Packer makes this possible. How does it work?
The TRQCP Robotic Case Packer doesn’t have lugs and chains. Instead, a gantry robot transfers the case through the steps of loading, gluing and sealing. This design eliminates most of the mechanical apparatus that needs to be adjusted and repositioned in a traditional changeover. Most of the adjustments to this system are done automatically by the machine’s computer once the case size is known and entered.
The concept of robotic case transfer without lugs and chains is a brand new one. The publication Packaging Europe described it as “never before seen” in the packaging industry just last fall. The lug-and-chain case packer is the tried-and-true design that everyone uses because it was the industry standard for decades past.
The issue with the old lug-and-chain packer isn’t that it doesn’t work well. The issue is that the demand for product is constantly changing and therefore, the production lines must constantly be changed to meet it. The old packer was designed for a world where production runs were long and without constant interruptions. Sadly, that slower-moving word is a thing of the past and we need production lines that can change as quickly as we can send an e-mail. Robotic case packers require two minutes for changeover-roughly the time it takes to type and send a short e-mail.
Sources:
Packaging Europe
Packaging World
https://www.packworld.com/machinery/case-packing/afa-systems-robotic-case-packer