Serpa, a provider of secondary packaging equipment including cartoners, sleevers, case and tray packers, and robotic palletizers, recently added a drop packer to its equipment lineup.
At Pack Expo Las Vegas, the company unveiled the DP260 drop packer, part of the DP series case packers that drop or place product into a case. Built for efficiency and ease of use, the DP260 offers single drop at 30 cases per minute or a tandem drop option that is capable of achieving speeds of up to 60 cases per minute.
This machine also marks a few “firsts” for Serpa, a part of the ProMach family of brands. It’s the first entry into the drop packing segment, enabling the company to offer a more complete range of end-of-line packaging solutions from the filler through the stretch wrapper.
“It’s an exciting opportunity for us to bring the first drop packer underneath ProMach’s umbrella,” said Caden Johnston, Serpa’s vice president of sales, in an interview with Packaging OEM.
Until now, there was no drop packer within the ProMach product portfolio. Yet, there was a need for it, Johnston said, noting that Serpa was the company to fill the gap. “ProMach tasked us with leveraging a lot of our end-of-line capabilities that we currently have, taking those same features we have with our design and quality build to this piece of equipment specifically.”
And, while Serpa already provides equipment for pharmaceutical/nutraceutical, personal care and the home goods sectors, it also recognized an opportunity in the wine and spirits industry. That’s because the DP260 accommodates products of varying sizes that can be arranged in different packaging formats. It’s also built to protect the product.
A key element is its rapid, tool-less changeovers. With a lightweight product grid mounted on an ergonomically designed slide-out drawer, complete changeovers can be done in minutes. This not only makes the task fast, simple and repeatable for a single operator, it also reduces downtime and ensures production uptime.
“Changeover is always something we’ve prided ourselves on. We’ve taken a lot of that technology and paired it to this drop packer,” Johnston said.
Additional features include a servo-driven case elevator that will raise up to meet the product as its being loaded for a “soft catch” that ensures a gentle product drop into cases. This reduces the risk of damage. “We’re making sure that in the loading phase that we are reducing some of that gravity and some of the force when we’re dropping the product,” said Johnston.
With a maintenance-friendly design, operators have complete access to all machine components for ease of operation, upkeep and service. With easy operator access for clearing out cases, the line can be kept running at peak efficiency and promising 98% machine uptime.
Drop packing for productivity
Clean Control Corp., a manufacturer of cleaning products, is the first company to purchase the DP260 — and actually took the model on exhibit at Pack Expo to its Warner Robins, GA facility to automate the production line of its OdoBan 32-oz disinfectant spray bottles.
“Currently, our case packing process for this product is fully manual and labor intensive, making it one of the hardest jobs at the plant,” said Nic Bekkers, technical manager of Clean Control. “This new machine will enable us to mitigate some of the bottlenecks and pain points we see on the line and increase our productivity by almost double…We currently run 60 bottles per minute with 14 people. The new line will run 110 bottles a minute with four people.”
Bekkers admits buying serial number one of the drop packer machine represented a risk, but the Serpa team delivered on its promises. “For us it’s really about growth. If Walmart calls and said we need to go from a 32 ounce to a 27 ounce, well, traditionally with automation that’s really hard to do. With this machine we can changeover in five minutes. That was a huge bonus for me.”
The new drop packer can be integrated with other ProMach offerings on the production line, from upstream filling solutions to downstream palletizing. Also available in the series: a pick-and-place robotic application more commonly seen in the wine and spirits markets.
“This is really important,” said Mark Anderson, ProMach president and CEO during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Pack Expo. “We have a lot of machines that do the filling, capping, and labeling for the products that can get drop packed into this machine. I’ve wanted a drop packer in our portfolio of products for a long time. I want to thank the team here for making this happen. I’m excited for this, and I think you’ll sell a lot of these machines. I think this is the premium machine in the entire industry.”
