Case sealer handles eggs with care

The private-label egg packer which counts Wal-Mart and Kroger as customers started up the case sealer in 2004. The cases contain 9- 15- 24- or 30-count cartons of eggs.

The machine accepts the total outflow of cases from more than a dozen production lines so “it has to be reliable” emphasizes plant general manager Mark Casper. There were no start-up issues and there has been no downtime associated with the sealer Casper says. The machine was procured and integrated by Flex-Pac.

A light curtain at the infeed identifies the case size via its height. The sealer’s servo-driven up-and-down movement to adjust to random case heights is capable of speeds its hydraulic-driven predecessor couldn’t achieve Casper says. Before they were operating at 10-12 cases/min now it’s 12-18 cases/min and the cases are accelerated up to 150’/min out the discharge. Capable of speeds to 26 cases/min the sealer operates over two shifts daily.

Handling eggs requires that all of the sealer’s operations are smooth emphasizes Casper who reports that “there have been no breakage issues.” Midwest Poultry also uses Marq case sealers at its two other plants. —Rick Lingle