Pro Mach’s Roberts PolyPro brand will introduce the highest speed, and most innovative, handle applicator in the company’s history at this year’s Pack Expo exhibition.
This new, up to 600 bottles-per-minute, handle applicator utilises a continuous motion roll-feed design to achieve 2, 4, 6, 8, and 12 packs. The roll-feed design has reduced the cost of handle dies as well as the number of dies required – one die per bottle neck size, not pack-size configuration. This significantly lowers the acquisition cost of this new continuous motion handle applicator.
The latest generation of fully recyclable HDPE handles are thin, light, and strong. The cost compared to the previous generation of handles has fallen by 26% principally, from a significant reduction in material sourced per handle. Operators no longer have to fill stacks of handles into a machine magazine, but simply load a roll of handles onto the machine. To change rolls, operators weld the end of the in-use roll to the beginning of the next roll with one push of a button. Each machine accommodates two rolls of handles.
In the past, handles were applied at the end of the packaging line to bottles already packed in cases. This limited throughput to fewer than 500 bottles a minute. The new machine is located right after the capper. Not having to deal with in-case application meant that design engineers could reduce the footprint of the new machine.
“Brand owners and co-packers that are running high speed operations with one, two, or three bottle neck sizes per line will discover this is the solution they have been waiting for,” said Roberts PolyPro sales director Chris Turner. “The high throughput, favourable cost of acquisition through die cost reductions, small footprint, reduced materials cost, lower operator involvement, and exceptional flexibility make this high speed handle applicator a machine to learn more about.”
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