Three conveyors make multiple wrap formats possible on e-cigarette shrink-wrapping line

YPS designed and integrated a three-belt infeed for complete automation of pre-shrink-wrap bundling ahead of an L-sealer packing lightweight collations of multiple e-cigarette cartons. 

The e-cigarette manufacturer approached YPS looking to completely automate the bundling process at the infeed of their packing process, to speed up production and reduce reliance on labour. 

The system had to guarantee a neat seal every time, for varying product collations.

YPS supplied a fully automatic, servo-driven L-sealer to wrap the packs, but it was the infeed conveyor arrangement that was specially designed to provide the level of speed and accuracy required.

Managing director Glyn Johnson emphasises the way that YPS works with customers to understand their exact needs and provide a system that meets those needs as precisely as possible. “Our engineering team bring their experience and knowledge to any situation, however unusual, so we can find the right solution,” he says.

Three infeed conveyor belts were supplied, with individually controllable speeds. The first conveyor moves relatively slowly to allow a single operator to load the products in the correct rotation for shrink wrapping and the correct order for the desired collated packs.

A sensor located on the second conveyor registers when the final conveyor is full, with no gapping between products. This sensor then releases the final conveyor to rotate by a programmed amount, related to the number of packs required for the current collation, and pushes them into the sealer for the bundle to be shrink-wrapped.

Changing the line configuration for a different product collation is a simple case of changing the recipe at the intuitive operator interface. This varies the amount of rotation for the final belt, allowing bundles of anything between two and ten products to be pushed to the sealer.

The YPS engineering team implemented an innovative system on the sealing jaw to guarantee that the lightweight, easily-damaged cartons would pass through the sealing process without it activating, eliminating the possibility of damage.

The automatic L-sealer controls were paired with the shrink tunnel controls so that all parameters could be accessed from the same user interface, making the equipment easy to use, says YPS, and ensuring full control over the wrapping operation.

The specially configured shrink-wrapping line produces a neatly sealed product bundle each time, it adds, and can be easily changed when different product collations are required.

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www.yps.co.uk