Custom Designed Packaging Equipment
ESS Technologies, Inc. designs complete packaging lines by integrating high quality components from trusted sources with our own custom-designed equipment. Our engineering team has developed innovative solutions for a wide variety of applications including:
- Medical Device Assembly
- Diagnostic Test Kit Assembly
- Medical Device and Pharmaceutical Packaging
- Food and Confectionary Packaging
- Robotic Palletizing/Depalletizing
- Robotic Case Packing
- Robotic Loading/Unloading
- Robotic Assembly
- Robotic Collating
- Specialty Cartoning
The
design process for custom equipment remains the same, regardless of
the specific application. Our engineering design team works closely
with each customer to develop detailed information concerning the
level of automation required, equipment specifications, OSHA
requirements, flexibility, and future expandability. Based on the
requirements of the application, ESS engineers and project managers
will specify and integrate the best machines to meet the
specifications, and create custom equipment to integrate with these
components.
ESS
Technologies, Inc. also designs
assembly machines for medical
devices and diagnostic test kits. For one customer, ESS,
Technologies, Inc. designed an automated medical device assembly and
packaging process that integrated 16 pieces of feeding, assembly and
packaging equipment, incorporating eight multi-axis robots, vision,
and inspection. The resulting application reduced the customer’s
required personnel from 15 to 5, doubled the production output, and
took the product from individual components to a palletized load,
including the validation process.
In a second application, ESS designed a diagnostic kit assembly approach that incorporates a multi-station walking beam system with product feeders and inspection systems. This concept measures, cuts and inserts a media pad into a test kit, assembles the kit, inserts a reagent and inspects each step of the process. ESS also designed the robotic tooling to pick completed test kits from the assembly line and load them in trays for processing. After the assembly process, another robotic system loads the kit along with a desiccant into a pouch for final packaging.
Many
custom packaging solutions involve automating part or all of the
assembly or packaging process. ESS Technologies, Inc. is a FANUC
authorized systems integrator, and as such, ESS specializes in
incorporating robotic components by designing custom
end-of-arm-tooling (EOAT) for bags, bottles, pouches, cartons, or
other materials being handled by the robot. This tooling may include
options such as forced-sensing technology that tells the robot when
the product is grasped properly, or when a part is seated. This
results in automated packaging machines that reduce repetitive
motion in loading/unloading, pick-and-place, palletizing, cartoning,
and case packing applications.
Click here for more
information on robotics integration.
ESS also offers equipment for high-speed and custom cartoning applications such as packaging product into specialty shaped promotional cartons, or developing high speed cartoning lines that can handle multiple types of product with various infeeds and rigorous inspection requirements. For example, ESS engineers designed a high speed cartoning line around the Model AS 350 Automatic Horizontal Cartoner that filled 250 cartons per minute. The application called for five different sized cartons, each size containing a glass vial, a syringe and a leaflet. Vials were transported into the customized cartoner infeed from the filler while syringes were automatically fed from a hopper. Nine different vision inspection stations and bar code readers were used to inspect the product, read lot and date codes, and verify cartons, product, and leaflets before cartoning. The filled carton was also inspected for contents, closure, bar code, and lot/date code, and incorrect cartons were rejected. The overall line required little maintenance, and quick, tool-free changeover.
For more information or a complete system design proposal, contact ESS Technologies, Inc.
