FRANCE – Leading provider of packaging equipment, services, and complete solutions, Sidel has launched Bottle Switch, a changeover solution to maximize production uptime and efficiency for the packaging industry.
Designed for the Sidel EvoBLOW range, the Bottle Switch solution can be applied to gravimetric preform feeders, ovens and blowing wheels for switching in preform neck finishes and bottle shapes.
It provides the possibility to select and apply the right equipment process and configuration for every Stock Keeping Unit (SKU), with shortened changeover time during the high-precision and repeatable processes.
According to Sidel, the solution can offer 98% efficiency after every changeover to maintain the bottle quality and production performance.
Bottle Switch is intended to optimize changeovers and maximize the power of Sidel’s blowing machines. It is said to provide a fully robotized mold replacement, carried out by a double mold holder robot.
The SKU specifications are stored in the process recipes of the latest offering, which are accessible via Human Machine Interface (HMI) to save, centralize, and repeat processes.
The company says that Bottle Switch can manufacture up to 13.2 million bottles annually and cut the overall changeover time compared to a typical human changeover by 75%.
The solution, when used on the preform feeder and oven, takes only 17 minutes compared to standard manual changeover, which takes one hour and five minutes.
In addition, the automated and streamlined solution also cuts the changeover time per mold by four times. It takes only 30 seconds instead of the two minutes required for manual mold changes.
Additionally, the Bottle Switch offers effective and optimal use of manual operators’ resources while lowering the danger of accidents.
The company has been developing technologies to help optimize production. In March this year, Sidel introduced its RoboAccess_Pal S palletizing unit, which combines cobotic and robotic technology.
The company says with these capabilities, the unit can provide an agile, operable, and compact alternative to manual operations for the food, home, and personal care sectors.
Fabien Chiron, innovation manager for a palletizing product line at Sidel, at the time, said: “We have designed RoboAccess_Pal S to deliver a solution, which offers the best of both the robotic and cobotic worlds, addressing the needs of our customers across a wide range of applications and market categories.”
The RoboAccess_Pal S is said to deliver speeds of up to 12 cycles a minute and its size offers businesses a new level of compactness.
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