Health product labeling machine closely following market demand

With the growing demand for nutritional products, health products, herbal products, and other products that are considered natural health care products, the Show-Me Natural Products Company in the United States has launched a market-appropriate labeler. The company's packaging line automation reached 90%. The packaging line is equipped with Universal Labeling's new R-322 circular pressure sensitive labeller, which handles tablets and capsules at a rate of 35 bottles per minute.

various kinds

Show-Me packs hundreds of healthy, value-added supplements from a variety of brands that are sold to health food stores, sporting goods stores, nutrition centers, and other related places around the world. In terms of equipment selection, the key to Show-Me's non-dedicated production lines is its flexibility and versatility. Stickers and bottles can be changed frequently, sometimes three times a day. After a series of operations, this new labeling machine allows each vendor to process new orders as quickly as possible, and its configuration changes can be completed within 10 minutes.

Depending on the product and brand, Show-Me attaches film and paper pressure-sensitive labels to the bottles to handle different types, packaging configurations and grades of bottles. Some labels must be affixed to the bottle, and some are not necessary, depending on the product.

The handleable containers have a capacity range of 50-950cc and can fill 20-1000 tablets/capsules. Bottles supplied by All-American Containers are made of polyethylene, polystyrene or glass and are 2-10 inches in diameter. The top lid of the bottle is a 33-70mm spiral polypropylene cap supplied by Moldrite Plastics, most of which have a film/foil sensing inner or pressure sensitive liner, depending on the circumstances.

Show-me believes that since the variety is so diverse, labeling machines and other equipment must be reliable, versatile and durable, and must be flexible to meet customers.

Labeling on the go

The inline labeler is mounted on the casters so it can be moved between the packaging lines. With the expansion of Show-Me's production scale, this feature will be useful. The machine can attach a 1/2-6 inch wide loop label to a container up to 6 inches in diameter, which proves to be ideal for Show-Me's round capsules and tablets made of polystyrene/polyethylene or glass. bottle. The positioning accuracy of the tag is within 1/32 inch. If the label length is within 12 inches, the maximum speed is 250 stickers per minute.

The machine is driven by a stepper motor, eliminating the need for mechanical parts, and reducing maintenance and replacement due to wear. If parts are worn out, the positioning accuracy of the label will decrease. The stepper motor does not contain any worn parts. As long as it sends commands to it, it will rotate to send the label.

Other features include an easy-to-operate control panel, modular structure, a hot press for printing dates and lot numbers (optional), an SL2000 adjustable label head (to accommodate a variety of container heights), and the same Adjustable conveyors and some adjustable rails for quick installation. In this way, downtime can be reduced to a minimum, the label roll used for machine operation is up to 16 inches in diameter, and Show-Me uses a standard 12-inch diameter roll. The labeler can adapt to another container height as long as its loader assembly is adjusted quickly.

The machine is operated by a programmable logic controller with a non-contact photo-capacitor sensor, which improves the positioning accuracy of the tag because it does not require manual adjustment of the infeed starter wheel and other components. Just press the button to set the label according to the bottle position. After the bottle reaches the machine's horizontal feed conveyor, the over-the-batch sensor signals the PLC controls to send the appearance sticker as required.

The packaging was started when the bottle was manually removed from the frame and placed on a 36 inch diameter UniversalLabeling CT-36-F feed table (the table leading to the infeed of the inline tablet counter/packing machine). At the same time, tablets, capsules or soft gels are delivered from a stainless steel hopper to the counter and filler. The bottles are grouped in groups of four, delivered by a conveyor through a pneumatic door to the filler, and fillers are dispensed with two filler heads. When one bottle is full, the other will be accurately delivered under the filler head.

The filled bottle is stuffed with a cotton ball by a single-station filling machine. The next step is an address spiral top cover, which is carried out by a screw capper with a cap feeder. Then, the capped bottles were given a blank PVC film tape to prevent counterfeiting. Now, the shrink band is manual, but it will be automated soon. In the next step, the bottle will enter into a contraction path. It will shrink the belt at the bottleneck. Then, the packaged bottle will continue to move to the induction sealer (directed by Show-Me). The sealer will be an inner film. Heat seal from bottle cap to bottle mouth. Thereafter, the bottle is rotated 90° and moved to the downstream labeler, where it is affixed with a ring-shaped pressure-sensitive label.

When labeling, a rotating spacer controls the bottle flow rate so that the label can be well positioned on the bottle wall. The bottle passes the machine's photoelectric sensor and starts the label cycle. In addition, the sensor sends a signal to send a pressure-sensitive label from a 12-inch outer diameter label roll. However, the container first enters the packaging station, and a rotating belt perpendicular to the machine transfer bed begins to rotate the bottle. When the bottle and the label meet, it rubs the bottle toward a fast foam pad (all of these devices can be adjusted to the bottle diameter. ). Just as the labeler affixes the label to the bottle, its built-in hot-press printing encoder will batch the bottle, including the date.

As the bottle rotates, the label passes from the label roll through a stripper plate and is affixed by a reciprocating brush. The bottle always goes to the end of the rotating unit. All units are driven by stepper motors.

When the bottle is delivered to the (ten) cargo bed, it enters a 36-inch collection table. Next, these packaging containers that have been labelled, sealed, and sealed are subject to quality inspection. This is a standard operating procedure. After the inspection is completed, the palletizing can be done to prepare for shipments worldwide.