Brown launches case packing system, lip roller

Brown Machine Group LLC is manufacturing a new case packing system at its automation division in Knoxville, Tenn., that is designed to erect cartons and pack product sequentially within the same machine.

The ComPack series takes up less floor space compared to similar machines on the market and processors can customize their machines with a variety of standard features depending on their needs and applications, according to officials at the Beaverton, Mich.-based company.

Brown focused on the food and beverage industry but plans to expand the machines capabilities and features for other markets.

The series launch follows the introduction of a case packer called HTP-1 at NPE 2018, which Brown officials said "gained massive momentum" after its launch.

Demand for automation increases by the day due to the lack of skilled and general labor. Brown is adding four more sales staff to support the company's sales and growth initiatives.

The automation is provided by Nalle Automation Systems.

Brown is also introducing a new lip roller at K 2019 that is manufactured at the company's headquarters site in Beaverton.

The company says the LR-2020S optimizes changeover time and increases output. The servo-driven lip roller can store recipes for products and processes. The company says it virtually eliminates the need for manual adjustments.

The new design allows operators to pull from their previously stored recipes, start up quickly and maintain consistency between runs and products.

The system also has new Plexiglass guards that give operators a clear view inside the machine for maintenance and setup.

In addition, it can run as a left-hand or right-hand machine, which gives processors flexibility with their factory floor layouts.

Brown demonstrated the machine every hour on the hour at K 2019, producing 12-ounce amorphous PET cups along with downstream equipment for counting, wrapping and case packing.

The demonstrations lasted 5-10 minutes. Servo-driven crowd rollers moved the cups into the lip roller. From there, the cups fed through a four-stop oven and then advanced into the lip rolling screws, which form the lip roll profile onto the cup. After the cups were rim rolled, they were conveyed to the next automated step.

Then, NAS's ComPack series counter and wrapper system took over. The cups were separated into specific stack counts and fed into the vertical wrapper, which used patented low temperature seal jaws to cut and seal the product sleeves for the next stage of automation.

The wrapped sleeves of cups then were positioned into a pre-set patterns. When the machine got a signal to advance, the sleeves were placed into an erected carton, which was then closed and the box was sealed.

The finished box was then conveyed out of the case packer.

The ComPack series is adjustable for different products and box sizes.