Making, filling and packaging round jars
Initial situation
Foil-wrapped chocolates are poured into plastic jars, weighed, given wrap-around bands and packed in a carton, all by hand. The plastic jars are purchased from packaging suppliers and not produced on site. The crash-lock-bottom boxes are formed manually.
Detailed task definition
The chocolate figures are to be taken from 4 wrapping machines, dispensed and weighed in total. This is to be followed by automated wrap-around banding, labelling and cartoning. The tray is to be provided by a carton former. Further, it must be possible to carton mixed packs. Temporary storage must be possible to make up for fluctuations in production speed or short downtimes. The round plastic jars and lids are to be made from plastic film web on site.
Equipment
Brief description
The round jars and lids are made from plastic film web on a KRÖNING machine [9]. A shuttle system [G] transports the empty jars [A] to the individual processing machines. To this end, they are first put in the approaching shuttle [1] and transported to the filling and weighing stations [2]. The chocolates [B] are now poured into the empty jars and then weighed. Defective products are sorted out [11] before they get into the round jar. The filled round jars [I] with the flawless chocolates are conveyed to the next station, where the lid is put on [3][C] by a pneumatic manipulator. The filled round jars with lids are now given wrap-around bands [4] [D] and then provided with a label [5] [E]. This is followed by an optional temporary storage stage [6]. The round jars arriving on the transport belts are pre-grouped with the help of a camera [7] into groups of three jars with three different types of packaging. At the same time, the cartons are formed [12] [F] by a KRÖNING machine. Finally, the finished jars are stacked in groups of three in the supplied boxes by a robot [8] [F].
Challenges
- Fluctuating product weight
- Product distribution when filling the round jar
- Transport and storage of the lids
- Positioning accuracy of the band
- Cartoning (because of the interior dimensions of the carton)
Advantages of the system
- Other packaging geometries can be processed optionally.
- Any variation possible when filling the trays
- Production of plastic jar and lid
- Filling the round jars densely