More success stories from the most diverse applications which partners Micromech Systems and Parker has been supporting for food processing equipment and packaging machinery manufacturers.

Sync gates in bottle handling systems

In many filling systems one of the challenges frequently faced by manufacturers is the need to separate a single lane continuous product stream of bottles into several lanes in order to bundle them suitable for palletising. The main issue is that obviously bottles require careful handling at high speeds with high dynamic response. The limited stroke length of the linear actuators regularly used in these applications also limits the flexibility of the machine.

In partnership with a manufacturer of conveyor systems for bottles and pallet systems a new sync gate was created. The distribution of the product stream took place via a two-axis system with one axis placed orthogonally to the travel direction and a linear drive parallel to the conveyor. A ready-to-mount standard linear actuator with toothed belt was used for this purpose where at the time of distribution, the linear actuator moves synchronously to the conveyor speed. The distributor lid is mounted on the linear actuator. The actuator is first synchronised to the conveyor speed in order to split the product stream and then moves orthogonally to the conveyor direction. After completion of the cross movement, the linear actuator returns to its original position.

In addition to the linear actuator the solution included two servo drives and a complete software technology package. If required the servo drives can be integrated via a communication bus option to all common control environments. Thanks to the complete application solution installed it was also possible to bring the machine to market with minimised engineering overhead saving expensive building costs for customers.

This advance allowed the machine manufacturer to offer a machine that speeded up the whole packing and palletising process and as a result their customers are delighted with the outcome, higher production and of course reduced costs.

Micromech is Parker’s motion partner and can offer a bespoke solution to meet all of your motion control needs, for more information contact Alan Spinks on 01376 333333 or alan@micromech.co.uk