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
