Detergent Bottle Filling and Capping
A consumer goods manufacturer fills, caps and packages multiple sizes of detergent bottles. The most efficient method was to package the bottles into the box first, and then fill and cap them. Due to the conditions, IP65 or higher rated motion control systems were preferred. Their current machine used manually operated levers to move the filling lines up and down and change the distance between fill heads on the grid determined by the bottle size.
They needed to a maximum 50V motion control system to minimize risk of shock in the wet environment in keeping with OSHA standards. In addition, high level output needed to be maintained and the factory floor space was limited. The machine needed to be adjustable on the fly for different bottle heights and proper cap positioning. The current manual adjustment was time consuming and not efficient. Distance between fill heads also needed to be adjusted on the fly but was a manual adjustment as well.
The Solution
Using SmartMotors from MOOG Animatics and no external controller, the machine was redesigned to adjust rack bars based on I/O from sensors for each bottle size. The SmartMotors were also used to adjust the entire height of the conveyor line based on bottle size. Because they operate between 24V-48V, OSHA shock hazard was not an issue.
Fill heads were set to adjust to the proper pitch and spacing based on the I/O from the sensors detecting bottle size. Adjusting the processing line to fit multiple bottle sizes and decreasing overall size of the control cabinet by using the integrated SmartMotor decreased the factory footprint of the total machine. Furthermore, the company did not need to purchase a step down transformer from 3 phase 480V AC down to 240V AC or less, decreasing total cost of ownership.
Download Application Notes: Animatics- Wet Process Bottle Filling & Capping