Partners in Packaging

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PIP giving good vibrations

A NEW concept for feeding and orienting cylindrical products suitable for the pharmaceutical and hardware industries has been launched by Partners in Packaging principle MGS Machine Systems, of the US.

As products are selected and oriented directly from the bulk bin, the CP-Feeder has a much smaller footprint than conventional systems. Typically a pre-feeder meters product from bulk into the bowl for orienting but the new engineering employed for the CP-Feeder means that orientation takes place on the pre-feeder. This can give a saving of up to 50% on footprint depending on job specifications. For example where a bowl of 40 inches with a pre-feeder of 40” was original used the total footprint becomes 40”. However, bowls vary in size from 10in-50in depending on application and the smaller the bowl the less the footprint saving.

The CP-Feeder for vibratory or centrifugal bowl feeders creates a queue of rounded products at the base of the elevated track which, via newly designed lugs, feeds product one at the time on to the machine. Once on the elevated track product is passed at speed to the delivery point.

Servo-drives ensure precise speed matches to downstream equipment, while easily adjustable, no-contact optical sensing devices are tooled without the use of air jets or weight bias.

Scanners check for product orientation and a pneumatic system rejects them back to the base of the hopper for recycling. The linear product transport methods utilised is claimed to ensure less product damage, high output speeds, user-friendly optical sensors, and quiet operation.

Speeds vary from 10 - 600 parts/minute dependent on applications. For example, rubber stoppers for the pharmaceutical industry run at up to 600/minute using a newly developed adjustable speed pot. The CP feeder will match conventional speeds for shorter length products and run faster for longer length parts.

Also from MGS comes a range of pharmaceutical grade vibratory bowls that are hand crafted from 316L stainless steel; electro polishing available if required. Escapement and other product handling devices can be added to the base bowls to optimise the orientation of medical device products for downstream operations.