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Product reorientation on the production line is an integral part of the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry. Pack Air Inc. has developed this one-of-a-kind powered conveyor device that consistently and gently reorientates products within a production line. Engineered to handle products efficiently and easily, powered Lift-up Starwheels and Twin-Chain Turners can reorientate a range of products like cases, bundles, and cartons. For this application, a powered Starwheel and Twin-Chain Turner were built to forward rotate and flat rotate large bundles of paper towels.
The flat-laying bundled product starts by accumulating on a Plastic Modular Belt with raised roller attachments to accumulate with low back pressure. Starwheels do require some sort of accumulation and backpressure, but since this is a powered device, a smaller amount of accumulation is needed. Sensors are needed on the infeed of the Starwheel to track the minimum required amount of product for this device to operate properly.
Once there is enough product accumulated, the Starwheel sets itself in the ready position with the first product moving into the open pocket. Each pocket allows only one product to be rotated at a time which causes a natural metering process to occur during this transition. Then it starts to rotate the flat bundle upward and gently sets it back down on the outfeed conveyor in a vertical orientation without falling over. The bundled product meets a Twin-Chain Turner that flat rotates the product 90 degrees using different belt speeds.
An advantage of the vertical Starwheel is that it can run up to 70 bundles per minute without the product becoming crooked, falling over, or damaged when setting it back down. Another beneficial function of the Lift-up Starwheel and Twin-Chain Turner combo is that the star can lift up vertically and the twin belted conveyor can be adjusted to the same speeds. This will allow the product to run straight through the devices without reorientating. Thus, making a Lift-up Starwheel and Twin-Chain Turner combo a 3-in-1 solution to your CPG product reorientation needs.
