Stretch Hood A is accessable without a platform and steps. Maintenance work, such as changing the blades, or the sealing bars, is now handled at floor level. The operator opens a drawer for these activities, providing free access to blades and sealing bars. The machine is automatically brought to a standstill to protect the operator. This rapid access capability helps speed maintenance, and reduce the risk of accidents and malfunctions.
With just a few actions, and completely without tools, the operator can feed in the film. This means substantial reductions to tooling and conversion times. The compact design of the stretch hood results in lower height and a smaller footprint.
An innovative, material friendly film transport system feeds the previously created film hood into the system. On its way to the crimping and stretching unit, the sealing seam on the film hood cools down so that it can be crimped without losing time. This eliminates the need for an energy-intensive cooling unit and time-consuming cooling. The pallets can be packed in a shorter cycle time while at the same time ensuring improved packaging performance and less energy consumption.
The HMI offers an even more ergonomic workflow to the user. A newly-developed operator panel features an optimized user interface and graphical navigation. The operator can control the machine safely with minimal training. The soft-touch panel uses pictograms to guide the user through the machine control menus. The panel also gives the operator access to all required training programs. The system is controlled by a Siemens SIMATIC S7-300.
The stretch hood also features energy-saving motors and low compressed air requirements.
With its U-shaped frame design, the stretch hood can be easily connected to existing conveying systems. Removing the need to interrupt the conveying system also helps provide smooth conveying performance for the pallets and stability of the palletized goods.
The stretch hood can be equipped with the company’s OptiStretch system. The crimping bow, made of high-quality steel, swivels in even closer to the package, substantially improving the controlled application of film to the package. This improves system availability and enhances the visual appearance. The palletized goods are clearly visible through the smooth surface of the transparent, highly-flexible film.
To be able to process various films, and implement a variety of packaging processes, such as understretch or high-rack stretch, the new system can be equipped with the company’s multistretch system.
