Conveyors treat cookies tenderly 8730

Riding the wave of demand for low-fat, low-carb snacks and desserts is Joseph's Lite Cookies of Deming, NM. Marketing its low-carb, sugar-free cookies to 14 countries and making them available on a popular home-shopping network, Joseph's found that the growing popularity and expanding variety of cookies forced them to maximize productivity at their 44,000-sq-ft plant. The co. selected a DynaCon(r) modular conveyor system, from Dynamic Conveyor Systems (www.dynamicconveyor.com), to accomplish the upgrade.

"The DynaCon system is flexible and portable," says Javier Reyes, plant manager for Joseph's. "Those attributes allow us to use the same conveyor system at two different locations in the plant, and to reconfigure the conveyor quickly and easily."

With three fat-free and nine sugar-free cookie varieties in production, the accessories and flexibility of the DynaCon system make it adaptable to Joseph's needs.

"The system is used to convey products from a form/fill machine onto a tabletop conveyor belt that leads into a metal detector, which is actually a module of the DynaCon system," says Reyes. "The system is lightweight, and it can be wheeled from one location to another in just minutes."

The system's modular design also allows users to configure it in many shapes and sizes, simply by snapping selected modules into place. It's available with variable-speed drives, and it can be standardized with a selection of accessories and replacement parts. Modules such as S-turns, cooling tunnels and water baths are available.

The system's polycarbonate construction facilitates cleaning procedures. At Joseph's, the conveyor is wiped down at least twice a day, using a sprayed-on, alcohol-based solution.

Dynamic Conveyor Corp., 800/640-6850 www.dynamicconveyor.com

Automation simply boosts productivity

In injection molding, automation often means dazzling and costly technology. But Leitchfield Plastics boosted productivity in its shipping operations with "simple automation" from Lantech (www.lantech.com), with the Q-300XTPlus stretch-wrapping machine.

One of six production divisions of Jones Plastic & Engineering, Louisville, KY, Leitchfield runs 20 presses, ranging from 200 to 2,000 tons, at its 95,000-sq-ft plant that produces parts primarily for the appliance industry. Finished parts are packed into cartons or bins that are then palletized in loads 3- to 10-ft high.

"Our stretch wrapper is located between our production-line warehouse and our shipping warehouse," says David Johnson, maintenance lead for Leitchfield. Fork-truck drivers from the line warehouse would bring pallets to the wrapper, where the shipping warehouse workers would pick them up, he explains. "That kind of synchronized operation is hard to maintain," Johnson continues. "We often had a bottleneck in that area."

The original stretch wrapper required the driver to dismount and start the wrapping process manually. If the driver departed, the wrapper would complete its load and have to wait with its table occupied until another driver returned. If a driver from the production line returned, he'd have to drop his load, cut and wipe the film and clear the load on the table, before placing the new load and starting the machine.

The Q-300XTPlus reduces the role of the fork-truck drivers, requiring them to simply pull a lanyard while remaining in their driver's seat. The machine automatically starts the film by holding it against the pallet load, and it completes the cut and wipe-down process upon wrap completion. It features an Intelli-sensor(TM) that reads load height and automatically adjusts the film overlap. An automatic cut/clamp mechanism attaches and feeds the wrap as the load starts to spin, then grabs the end of the film and cuts it upon completion. The unit's integral accumulation conveyor allows it to automatically queue up to six completed loads for subsequent pickup, freeing the table for new loads to wrap.

"You would not believe how this little bit of automation could improve the efficiency of our fork-truck operators," says Johnson. "Our drivers now have free time to help make packaging and straighten up the warehouse. "

Lantech.com, 800/866-0322 www.lantech.com

Airless packaging pumps and sprays

Rexam Dispensing Systems (www.rexam.com) offers a range of spray and lotion pumps for AirFree, an innovative, airless packaging system from Plastohm (www.packconcept.com).

Rexam's spray and lotion pumps are supplied for AirFree's 50-, 100- and 200-mL sizes. The sprays are designed to accommodate dosages from 150 to 230 microliters; lotion pumps can handle dosages from 80 to 1,000 microliters. The lotion pumps provide an excellent restitution rate for viscous formulas, dispensing up to 95 percent of package contents.

The system has a 360-deg dispensing capability, allowing the package to be used in any position. The pumps are designed with Rexam's Snap'On technology, allowing high-speed filling with no gasket requirements or need for specific filling equipment. Pumps cannot be removed by the end-user, protecting product integrity.

Rexam Dispensing Systems, 914/251-8420. www.rexam.com

Plastohm Packaging Div., 44 (0) 1825 768 812 www.packconcept.com