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Send to KindleNew labeling, inspection gear at prize-winning water bottler
Some of the PET bottles made in-house after they’ve been labeled and palletized are brought across the street where they’re depalletized and filled. But a significant percentage of the bottles blown are labeled and palletized and then shipped to other water bottling companies.
A third manufacturing option is to palletize unlabeled PET bottles and take them to the filling line across the street. That’s where the other two B&H labelers both Model 8000S machines are located. The filling line has two of these labelers so that labeling can keep pace with the filling speed which is in the range of 850 bottles/min.
A fourth and final manufacturing option involves 10-oz and 1-L glass bottles which are also filled on the filling line that has the two 8000S labelers.
Computer registration
All four B&H labelers have a Computer Registration System. According to Chris Ferree vice president of water operations at Mountain Valley this virtually eliminates labels that are cut out of register a problem common to mechanical systems.
After the registration system tells the machine where to cut the label the label is fed to a vaccuum drum. This drum rotates past a glue wheel. The drum is designed so that a narrow strip of material at the leading and trailing edges of the label is raised slightly. Consequently these two strips pick up glue as the vacuum drum rotates past the glue wheel. An instant later the leading edge comes in contact with a bottle causing the label to leave the vacuum drum and as the bottle rotates adhere to the bottle.
To speed changeover the labelers have a no-tools-required Rapid Change Over (RCO®) capability and color-coded change parts. Operators need only clamp the color-coded components in place and select the container description from memory on the control panel. At the push of a button the operator automatically sets the vacuum drum cutting drum and glue application system for positive label control. This ability to preprogram machine timing positions via the on-board computer reduces the skill level required to execute changeovers and ensures the labeler operates at optimum performance.
Unlike large commercial blowmolders that target customers purchasing 50 million bottles or more annually Mountain Valley caters to smaller beverage marketers. Some may purchase as few as 5 or 10 million bottles a year.
Currently Mountain Valley stocks 32 different labels from a variety of label suppliers to quickly satisfy the needs of its customers. This puts extra pressure on Mountain Valley’s labeling operation because it requires maximum production flexibility and short runs.
“A great deal of flexibility has been built into the B&H labelers to allow us to overcome issues with label material irregularity” says maintenance supervisor Steve Wilson.
Labeling wasn’t the only area where Mountain Valley improved its operation. Last summer the company installed a new fill-level inspection system from TapTone. The RayTrak online inspection system uses X-ray technology to detect underfills cocked caps and missing caps. Previously such inspections were done manually.
“It doesn’t miss” says Ferree. “We’ve been very happy with it.” —PR
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