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Proficiently packed Pringles

Weighing just 8 g and resting on two ‘feet’ instead of a flat bottom, P&G’s single-serve Pringles package is automatically filled and case-packed on custom-built gear.

This pick-and-place robot uses vacuum pick-up cups to transfer filled cups from the filling/lidding system to the case packer.
This pick-and-place robot uses vacuum pick-up cups to transfer filled cups from the filling/lidding system to the case packer.

At some point in their careers, most packing engineers face a tough assignment or two. But few will ever face a more challenging task than the one that fell to technology leaders Greg Follmer and Mauro Montrucchio of Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble when they and their colleagues were asked to design an automated packaging line capable of denesting, filling, backflushing, lidding, and case packing Smart Stacks (see packworld.com/go/c020).

These single servings of Pringles-brand potato crisps are sold in a polypropylene cup whose light 8-g weight alone makes it a nightmare to handle. Add to that the shape of its bottom—formed like the curvy snack itself rather than flat and predictable—and it’s clear just how challenging the Smart Stacks line was going to be.

This story provides a glimpse of the line designed by the P&G team. “Glimpse,” it should be noted, is the operative word, since confidentiality agreements between P&G and its suppliers prevent a detailed description of the line in its entirety. Packaging World editors weren’t allowed inside the Jackson, TN, plant where the sophisticated line operates, nor were they given much performance data, including the number of cups per minute at which the high-speed line runs.

What P&G did share, however, was limited information about the filling and lidding equipment supplied by Hans Rychiger AG of Switzerland and the case-packing equipment supplied by BluePrint Automation (Colonial Heights, VA). PW also visited BluePrint Automation’s manufacturing facility to see a Smart Stacks case packing system under construction. Here then is what PW was able to learn about what a Smart Stacks packaging line looks like.

Denesting

At the beginning of the line are two machines provided by Hans Rychiger, represented in the United States by Packaging Technologies and Inspection (Tuckahoe, NY). The first is a multilane denester. It’s responsible for denesting cups from magazines into the second Rychiger system, which performs tasks including filling, backflushing, checkweighing, and lidding.

Cups are thermoformed polypropylene supplied by Printpack’s Rampart Packaging Div. (Williamsburg, VA) and Winpak Portion Packaging (Langhorne, PA). The denester automatically feeds cups to the infeed of the second Rychiger system, which is essentially one huge transport device. On it are mounted a variety of stations dedicated to specific tasks.

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