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| Lipton
Looks to Standard-Knapp for Tray/Shrink Conversion |
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By
Kristofer Kolstad
Vice President of Marketing
For some time, the Lipton organization has contemplated
a change in secondary packaging for their diverse
line of pasta sauce. The driving force behind
the project is material savings. Moving from
RSC cases to trays with shrink film would dramatically
reduce costs. Lipton currently has several glass
jar sizes for their Ragu and Five Brothers product
lines. Considering Lipton's concern for jar integrity
and appearance, this type of packaging change
is not made without significant research and
a high level of scrutiny. Lipton currently has
the leadership position in the red sauce segment
and does not want to risk losing market share
on account of poor packaging. The look and presentation
of the jar is essential to maintaining their
premium image and market position.
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The
Five Brothers brand is of particular concern,
due to the square shape and unusual curves in
the jars. This shape leads to small point contacts
when the jars are adjacent to each other. Improper
packaging of these jars can lead to breakage,
label scuffing, and jar scarring. Scarring can
weaken the jar and result in breakage. Scarring
can also reduce the brand image of the product
on the retail shelf. The current case style is
a full-depth RSC with four flaps that close to
form the top. The jars are separated inside the
case by full depth chipboard partitions. These
partitions keep each jar from contacting neighboring
jars during shipping and handling. The cases
are re-shippers and are made by the glass house.
The
planned move to trays has several advantages. Initially,
Lipton will realize a significant reduction in
glass costs when it is purchased in "bulk" on
pallets. Lipton's current method of purchasing
glass in re-shippers is not only more expensive,
but it also ties up more materials in the supply
chain - thus limiting flexibility, change, and
special promotions. When a case is changed by a
canner using re-shippers, it is more likely that
there will be higher levels of obsolescence than
if they were using bulk glass and making their
own containers. |
| Encasing Trays in Wrapping
Film |
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| Santo Mignosa inspects product
on the Orion |
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The
move to trays is also more cost-effective than
the existing RSC cases. As a general rule,
trays consist of one-third of the corrugated
used in a standard RSC case. The elimination
of the chipboard partitions in an RSC case
also leads to big material savings.
Glass-to-glass
packaging is becoming more acceptable in the
industry. When a tray packer forms a tray around
glass containers, the fit is very tight and
the relative motion of the jars is limited.
Furthermore, the polyethylene film is pulled
tightly over the tray in the heat tunnel, creating
an even tighter package. The result is a package
that pulls the jars together and limits the
relative oscillating motion that would otherwise
occur during trucking or rail shipment. The
key in the Lipton decision was to conclusively
prove that glass-to-glass handling of the special
Ragu and Five Brothers jars would not degrade
the jar appearance or reduce the brand's appeal
in the marketplace. Considering the potential
implications, Standard-Knapp partnered with
Lipton to develop a strategy for proving the
benefits of moving to tray/shrink style packaging.
The initial testing plan included the tray
packing and shrink wrapping of 20,000 trays,
which would then be road tested for survivability. |
Standard-Knapp
set up a simulated-production environment with the
goal of packing 4,000 cases per day. The
jars would be tray packed and shrink wrapped
on the Continuum
Integrated System and than shipped back to Lipton
for the road tests. Such a project might be simple
for
a contract packer who deals with such projects
on a regular basis, but Standard-Knapp's expertise
is
in
designing and manufacturing high-tech machinery.
Handling nearly 200,000 jars of tomato sauce
and 20,000 trays
is not something that we do on a regular basis.
The logistics of the project were rather daunting,
and
we knew that precise planning was the key.
Prior
to the Lipton Challenge, Standard-Knapp planned
extensively to coordinate the activities of
engineering, manufacturing, and materials logistics.
With limited floor space, the arrival, handling,
and shipment of the day's run was a challenge.
Carolyn Hassell in Applications handled the
materials logistics, including shrink film,
hot melt glue, corrugated tray blanks, stretch
film (and Orion stretch wrapper), pallet pads,
and the RSC cases of filled tomato sauce. Tom
Brown, Assembly Supervisor, handled the people
logistics for loading of product, corrugated
waste removal, hand palletizing, stretch wrapping
of pallets, and the storage and movement of
the completed pallets. Paul Fazzino, Controls
Engineering, and Ric Duane, Service Engineering,
were the technical support for machine operation
and setup. Ted Dickes, Lipton's account manager,
not only helped coordinate the contract, he
served as our primary source of inspiration.
Employees
from all levels of the company participated,
including our President, Art Tanner. The
cooperation and team spirit among all involved
was incredible.
Whenever an area required more assistance,
somebody would volunteer, without prompting,
in order to keep the process going. By the
end of the week, we were finished eight hours
ahead of schedule and had all five sizes
en route to various destinations.
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| Continuum
Tray Packer/Integrated Shrink Wrapper |
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Lipton
shipped the 20,000 trays along various routes to
subject them to actual road conditions. At the end
of the routes, every jar was evaluated for damage,
and the results were logged and then compiled in
a master database. The compiled data proved that
glass-to-glass is viable. Lipton is proceeding to
convert their lines, utilizing the Continuum Tray
Packer and Integrated Shrink Wrapper.
Needless
to say, during the Lipton Challenge, Standard-Knapp
displayed both flexibility and the willingness to
partner with our customer in the pursuit of new packaging
solutions. |
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to table of contents -- |
| Zero-Gap
Infeed Allows Even Lanes and Jam-Free Packing |
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By
Mike Weaver
V.P. of Engineering
What is it?
Standard-Knapp's Zero-Gap Infeed divides round
products into lanes without moving parts, ensuring balanced
lanes and jam-resistant operation.
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What problems is it designed to address?
Standard-Knapp, and others, have made continuous-motion
systems for many years. These systems, while
compact, have had two inherent problems. They
all start with a close packaged hexagonal pattern
(pack pattern) and divide the product with
lane guides of staggered length (see figure
1). The combination of the pattern and the
staggered lane guides work, as long as there
are no voids in the pack pattern.
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| Figure
1: Conventional Oscillator Product Division |
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In reality, it is difficult to guarantee a void-free
pattern in a dedicated size line (running one diameter
size), and it is impossible to do it in a changeover
line. For any lane divider to be successful, it must
be void-tolerant. Oscillator-type laning systems have
difficulty handling voids. The first problem occurs
when a void enters the pattern and two containers align
themselves side-by-side. These containers push a leading
container head-on into a lane guide. The mass of containers
collects behind the triad, and the containers align
themselves to form a bridge, resulting in a jam. An
oscillator is used to sweep the lane guides laterally
to break up the jam, but oscillators will break up
only 40 to 80 percent of the jams. Furthermore, the
oscillating motion is undesirable for soft PET type
bottles, fiber cans and delicate labels.
The second
problem is not as obvious but is equally important.
Because the entering pattern is packed,
each container has a pre-assigned lane, and bottles
are barred from passing each other to fill in the
void. So, what happens to the void? It is actually
carried
into a lane, and the affected lane is permanently
unbalanced. The process continues until one lane has
lost enough
cans to result in a line pressure loss that stops
the machine. The operator of the machine must then
manually
correct the problem.
The Zero-Gap Approach
The Zero-Gap design first divides the packed
pattern into two or three groups of containers.
Even numbers of finished lanes use two groups,
and odd numbers use three. The group is squeezed
together until there is one less container in
the pattern (see figure 2).
The
merging operation makes the void disappear,
and a void-free (Zero-Gap) pattern is presented
to the lane guides. This pattern may consist
of one or two lanes of product. In the case
of two lanes, a lane guide separates the lanes
in the conventional manner. Since the pattern
is void-free, perfect, jam-free division occurs
naturally. The void, or bubble, is funneled
upstream and is corrected in the pattern-forming
section. The bubble is then collapsed in the
pattern-forming section by temporarily disturbing
the pack pattern. The product does not jam
in this section because the jam bridge would
result in two unsupported containers, instead
of one. |
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| Figure
2: New Zero Gap Infeed |
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Where is it used?
Zero-Gap Infeed is appropriate anywhere jams are frequent
and changeover desirable. We have used this system
for continuous motion packaging at speeds up to 75
trays per minute and intermittent applications up
to 40 cases per minute. This concept may be used
for applications including soft drink, beer, wine,
food, and household products. Retrofit kits are also
available for certain models. |
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| Orbitron's
Flexibility Answers Challenge |
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By
Peter Burton
Senior Product Designer
When
the Florida Ice & Farm Company, S.A.
contacted Standard-Knapp to help expand its plant
operations, the challenge resulted in a new application
for the Orbitron product line.
Originally
developed to pack 16 and 20 oz. PET bottles
into trays,
the Orbitron appeared as
the ideal candidate for assisting Florida Ice
in packing aluminum beer cans into plastic
trays. In contrast to the new application,
the Orbitron
currently packs the following products into
plastic and corrugated cases ranging from 2-1/2" to
15" tall: |
| Materials:
• PET
• Glass
• Kraft or rigid plastic
• Metal containers - some compressible
Pack
Patterns:
• One through four lane
• Belly band
• Single, 4, 6, or 8-packs in hi-cone Speeds:
• Up to 65 cases per minute, depending on
product specifications.
Initially, Florida
Ice wanted to
retrofit an existing Standard-Knapp model 202
Traymore tray packer to meet their
plant expansion, but
that solution was not cost-effective. After
careful research and development testing, Standard-Knapp
realized that the best solution would be to
install an Orbitron Continuous Motion Packer that was
outfitted with the capacity to meet
both the flexibility
and the speeds of the customer's application. |
| Beer
cans packed into plastic trays. |
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By combining a number
of proven concepts, Standard-Knapp was able to provide
a solution which not only met the capacity of the original
plant expansion, but also created opportunities for
future improvements in both reliability and speed.
The Orbitron could also pack the same product into
pre-formed corrugated trays and be installed in parallel
with the existing Standard-Knapp Traymore.
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The Orbitron can packaging machine
utilizes an idea originally conceived by Standard-Knapp's
recently retired Vice President of Engineering,
John Raudat. Raudat's concept included a system
that gently handles product by continuously sweeping
it into trays. Incoming product is separated
by a series of contoured wedge-shaped supports
gradually descending into the product stream
while moving forward at line speed. Just as the
product is grouped, it is merged into the plastic
case that travels at the same rate of speed as
the product. The result is a smooth and efficient
transfer of product into the case, even at high
speeds.
Many
of the products handled by the Orbitron are
hot filled. There are other containers, such
as aluminum cans, which may also benefit from
this type of no-impact, controlled packaging.
Thus, the installation at Florida Ice & Farm
Company, S.A. gives this customer the capability
to handle other types of containers, should the
need arise. |
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| S-K
Commits to Excellence with ISO 9001 Certification |
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By
David Lau
Manager of Field Service
Congratulations to the entire company for
its highly-regarded accomplishment of passing
the ISO 9001 certification audit. Yes, that
is correct. Standard-Knapp has earned the
right to declare itself ISO 9001 registered.
This type of certification covers our design,
manufacturing, and distribution. It means
that Standard-Knapp has a documented quality
system that monitors and continually improves
the processes for designing, procuring, fabricating,
assembling, selling, installing, and servicing
our products. Our new system meets all of
the requirements of the ISO 9001 international
quality standard.
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ISO 9000 is a set of internationally recognized
standards with requirements for the documenting
and auditing of all processes and operating procedures.
ISO has a unique requirement for the continuous
improvement of these processes through auditing.
ISO 9001 is the most comprehensive and demanding
of the ISO 9000 standards and consists of 20 elements
or functions within an organization.
How
and when did Standard-Knapp's commitment
to becoming certified begin? When I started
with Standard-Knapp in 1995, the company
had two primary corporate objectives. Our
President, Art Tanner, explained to me
that the single biggest thrust was the
development of new machinery for the packaging
industry. The second most important objective
was to ensure that our customers consistently
receive the highest quality machinery and
services. Art recognized that, in order
to achieve these objectives, we required
a more formal quality system and that ISO
9000 would be a perfect foundation. Standard-Knapp
chose to implement ISO because of its inherent
value as a quality foundation, not because
of customer demands or market forces.
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| S-K
celebrates ISO 9001 approval with
a company picnic. |
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By
December of 1995, the ISO 9001 Approval Board
was established. The Board consisted of ten individuals
representing different disciplines and functions
within the company. The Board was responsible
for developing and implementing the procedures
to define the controlled processes within Standard-Knapp.
The board was also required to train the organization
on the new system. As with all new systems, a
substantial amount of change was required --
testing many employees within our organization.
Upon
implementation of the new ISO system, Standard-Knapp
had to undergo
internal audits by formally-trained
employees to verify full compliance with the
20 elements and all of the various procedures.
When
audits uncover deviations between the actual
practices within the organization and the ISO
requirements, corrections must be made. These
corrections must
be preventative and progressive in nature. "We
will try harder next time" is not acceptable.
Standard-Knapp trained 20 internal auditors in
1996 and seven more in 1998. The practice of "self
auditing" was the biggest attraction to
Standard-Knapp when ISO 9000 was selected for
implementation in
1995. To this day, top management still believes
that the internal audit is the most valuable
component of the quality program. Audits are
given high priority. In August, 1998, TUV Rheinland,
a certified ISO
9000 registrar, performed a pre-assessment audit
to report on our readiness for certification.
The results of that audit listed a number of
minor
deficiencies to be corrected prior to certification.
Standard-Knapp implemented the necessary corrections
and was ready for the certification audit in
February of 1999. Zane Daugarty and Vijay Rao
from TUV performed
the formal certification audit. Our quality system
passed, and we are now officially ISO certified.
The
ultimate goal of our new quality system is to
have satisfied customers and to continuously
improve the quality of our products and services.
We have a number of quality measures built
into our system including the "Adopt-a-Customer" program
where an employee calls the customer at the
two week and six week points after a machine installation.
The customer's satisfaction in six categories
is tracked. This program, along with an array
of others,
has helped Standard-Knapp move into the 21st
century with a sound quality foundation. Many
thanks to
all who have been involved! Standard-Knapp
recognizes
that the ISO approval is just the first step
in an ongoing effort towards excellence. |
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