Perfect for delivering the right amount of product and very convenient, pump bottles are highly appreciated by consumers and keep developing on all markets, from home and personal care to food products.
Serac thus paid particular attention to this kind of packaging while developing its new eMC capping machine, which relies on brushless technology to offer maximum efficiency in production, whatever the closing system.
Over 400 strokes per minute
The eMC capper has been designed to meet the ramp-up need of manufacturers who decide to operate less industrial sites and thus concentrate their production.
Configured with 12 heads, the eMC capper will be able to reach an output of 420 pump bottles per minute, that is, 35 pumps per minute for each capping head. It thus ranks at the highest productivity level of its category.
A versatile and space-saving machine
The eMC capper is able to handle nearly all the closing systems on the market: oriented, non-oriented, screw and push-on caps, screw or push-on finger pump sprayers and pump dispensers, push-on trigger sprayers. Hence, this machine can be considered for production lines having to deal with a wide variety of packagings, or as a scalable solution, allowing to anticipate a shift from conventional caps to pumps.
The dip tube gripper system grasps the tube at its highest point, which allows to properly align and straighten it before introducing it into the bottle. The capping machine can thus equally handle straight or bent tubes.
With all functions gathered in one single turret and mechanical cams replaced by servomotors, the capping unit is also more compact and less high. It will thus integrate more easily on existing lines.
Fully electronic for optimum quality
eMC for electronic motion control: the new Serac capping machine is entirely controlled by B&R electronic components, which deliver optimum flexibility and accuracy at every step of the capping process.
Each spindle uses two separate brushless motors: the first one controls the torque application as well as the spindle rotation speed while the second is used to manage the electronic cam (up and down movement for tube straightening and pressing force). Spindle rotation and up and down movements are independent, which allows grasping and releasing of the pumps with the spindle at standstill. This way, pumps are protected (threads and outer grooves) and screwing speed is not linked to the machine rotation speed.
Consistent use of electronics also simplifies production parameter management and allows qualifying of the screwing cycle (applied torque, number of rotations) for traceability and performance analysis purposes.
For significant savings on cycle times and machine availability
Electronic control allows instantaneous adaptation of capping head stroke to tube length, thus avoiding time losses due to unnecessary movements.
Electronics also increase the overall availability of the machine by reducing the number of wear parts and facilitating remote assistance.
Finally, Serac has extended on this machine its ultra-fast format changeover system: all tooling parts as well as capping jaws can be changed very quickly, without any tool.
Already adopted by a major company on the Home Care market, the eMC capper will officially be released for sale in September 2017 as stand-alone equipment or to be integrated in single block Combox lines.
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