Omega Design Corp.: CDFI Canister Feeder for Desiccants

Omega Design Corporation—a provider of bottle unscrambling technology and packaging machinery for the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and consumer healthcare industries—has introduced the CDFI Canister Feeder, an intermittent-motion machine designed for inserting desiccants or oxygen absorbers into a broad range of bottles, jars, tubes, and vials. This addition to the company’s Impact series of packaging equipment is a low-cost unit made to accommodate up to 100 containers per minute.

The CDFI Canister Feeder is designed to dispense single or multiple canister drops with a selector switch. It features a simple set-up, and accepts canisters from all major manufacturers, according to the company.

The unit accommodates canister sizes ranging from 1 to 3 gm, using the appropriate tooling, without requiring bottle change parts. Changeover should take less than 5 minutes, and the machine should be supplied with a five-gallon canister reservoir or ten-gallon hopper with elevator.

The unit works as follows:

• Operators load desiccants into the hopper reservoir, then adjust the machine for the ensuing bottle run.

• An elevator belt carries desiccants into a sorter, down a vertical chute, and onto a dispensing plate.

• The desired quantity is then dispensed automatically, and the Allen Bradley PLC verifies that desiccants have exited the machine.

The CDFI Canister Feeder is built on a freestanding mobile frame to help ease transportation to conveying stations on factory floors. The unit was designed as aflexible, plug-and-play system that can be utilized as needed,with the aim of meeting manufacturers’ demands for increasingly customizable line configurations.