Conveying & accumulation

Bag depalletizer

Pacific Robotics' (San Diego, CA) PR-110 robot depalletizes loads of bagged material as tall as 80". It uses a regenerative vacuum blower and a proprietary pickup head to systematically remove bags from the pallet load and place them on a conveyor.

September 30, 1996

Palletizing/depalletizing: Page 68

Conveying & accumulation

Carton conveyor cleans up beverage act

As an alternative to roller conveyors, a chain conveyor carries beverage packs 900' without scuffing or marring.

September 30, 1996

Conveying & accumulation

Vacuum pumps

PIAB (Hingham, MA) released a new brochure highlighting the company's line of vacuum pumps. PIAB vacuum systems are designed to perform most packaging procedures, including erecting, loading, opening, inserting, labeling, palletizing, forming and vacuum conveying.

August 31, 1996

Conveying & accumulation

Ocean Spray's vision improves inspection

Juice maker automates vision system for detecting fill heights and cap application on PET bottles containing hot-filled juices. Productivity rises, labor costs decline, resulting in payback in less than one year.

August 31, 1996

Conveying & accumulation

A reusable case for automation

New equipment at Herr Foods is among the first that erects, packs and seals tough-to-handle corrugated cases that are reused up to five times.

August 31, 1996

Blisters/clamshells/skin packaging

Now beverage cans will open wide-- really, really wide

Suddenly, it seems, U.S. brewers are looking to change one of the most popular and endearing features of their cans--the easy-opening features. Last month (See PW, August '96, page 8), we reported on the conversion by Miller Brewing Co., Milwaukee, WI, from its standard, easy-opening stay-on tab (SOT) end to a large opening end (LOE) developed for Miller by Reynolds Metals Co.

August 31, 1996

Conveying & accumulation

Bar-code labels drive automated warehouse

In 1992, Herr's built a 40ꯠ sq' automated warehouse that makes use of bar-coded labels on cases of finished goods to automatically sort and stack cases.

August 31, 1996

Palletizing/depalletizing

Load 'roping' helps Callery Judge quality

Florida fruit grower produces top quality pallet loads that reflect its computerized state-of-the-art packinghouse technology.

August 31, 1996

Secondary Packaging

Clear container sensor

The CCS Series adaptive clear-container photoelectic sensor from Honeywell's Micro Switch Div. (Freeport, IL) senses glass and plastic containers at a rate of 2ꯠ/min.

May 31, 1996

Secondary Packaging

Robotic palletizer

Model A730 robotic palletizer from Columbia/Okura (Vancouver, WA) can accommodate multiple products and production lines. This vertical, multi-articulated palletizer has a 300° radius of movement.

May 31, 1996

Conveying & accumulation

Unloader, orienter speed Seagram's glass flask line

Automated uncasing speeds output and reduces costs for 375-mL glass flasks. Quick-change bottle orienter aligns bottles for downstream functions.

May 31, 1996

Conveying & accumulation

Blue Diamond shines with new case handling system

From case setup to case taping, corrugated cases are automatically guided through a "smart" handling system, part of which is hoisted out of the way when 1겨-lb totes are running.

May 31, 1996

Conveying & accumulation

Yoshida sauce line sizzles

Yoshida's gourmet sauce is so popular at club stores in the U.S. and export markets around the globe, its packaging needed increased speed and versatility.

May 31, 1996