New carton carton sealing system improves consistency in the production of beverage plants

Fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit non-carbonized hot melt adhesive was sprayed on a carton filled with fruit drinks. The new sealing system reduces downtime, increases work efficiency, and saves nozzle replacement costs.

Distributing high quality products at Tyler Mountain Beverages's fruit beverage production facility in Paducah, Kentucky, requires quality equipment and excellent suppliers, solid supply partnerships, and ample workforce – this includes production lines. Everyone on the operator to the factory manager, when the problem arises, everyone here must have the ability to solve it. According to Kevin Tappa, general manager of Tyler Mountain, these factors have helped the company grow and succeed in the past years.

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The significant increase in Tyler Mountain's business was largely attributed to the 334,000-square-foot Paducah plant devoted to fruit beverage production. In 2005, this factory produced 7 million boxes or 32 million bottles of fruit drinks, which accounted for 75% of the company's total sales. Bottled water - including spring water, distilled water and purified water - constitutes another 25%.

Tyler Mountain has three fruit-beverage production lines; Rainbow, the company’s largest-selling product, and Tamboco and Hawaiian Punch, two companies that are authorized to produce. Products are shipped to chain supermarkets and other retail stores across the country, most of which are in the Midwest. The company employs 140 people and hires about 60 other temporary workers during the summer sales season.

$Page breaks The quality of the products in this factory is really the goal of everyone's concerted efforts. Here we are referring to including any employee.

According to the statistics of the American Beverage Association, in the United States, fruit drinks account for 14% of the 93 billion US dollar non-alcoholic beverage market, bottled water accounts for about 13%, and carbonated soft drinks account for 73%.
The hot melt dispensing device automatically maintains the hot melt temperature at 200 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure maximum operation of the uncarbonized operation and new hoses, nozzles, and modules that are co-located with the unit.

“This is a very competitive market. We have to compete not only with local companies but also with large, international filling companies such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi,” said Sandy Thomas, production manager at Tyler Mountain. “The competitive approach we take is to produce high-quality beverages at low cost. We can do this because we have employees who are fully committed to work and our partners with reliable, highly-qualified suppliers. Relationships.” For Tyler Mountain, becoming a high-production, low-cost producer requires internalizing production as much as possible, including blow molding of all its own bottles, mixing different flavors of concentrated juices, bottling and packaging, and shipping products. . Filling several beverages with different flavors at the same time is an indispensable factor. Tyler Mountain has filling equipment that can fill four flavors at the same time, and the packaging of the products can also be ever-changing.

"Production consistency is the key to our success," said Stuart Fotheringham, Maintenance Manager. “This includes the consistency of the bottle, the consistency of the adhesive, the consistency of the packaging, and the consistency of the worker's labor. Combining those aspects needs to be done with our partners, from adhesive suppliers to cardboard suppliers. To the packaging supplier, to bottle raw material suppliers, working together as a team. They are all working together to produce a good product."

Adhesives play an important role in maintaining consistency in product production, according to Tappa, including in labeling and palletizing operations, as well as carton carton seals. "Adhesives are a key aspect for us, and the performance of those adhesives is extremely important to our success and efficiency," he said. In fact, Tyler Mountain was so attached to the adhesive that it was later in 2005 that the company abandoned the adhesive and adhesive application systems in carton cartoning operations on nine packaging lines that had been in use for many years. A considerable number of repetitive issues in distribution equipment, including carbonization and nozzle blockages, have caused the company an “unsustainable situation,” Tappa said.

“We change the nozzles every day; sometimes there are several times a day. It may be that at least once an hour on average, the line stops working because of adhesive problems. This is totally out of control,” Tappa said.

　 $Page Breaker $ The new package-seal system has been installed in all Tyler Mountain's nine carton and carton production lines, including the authorized production of Tampico and Hawaiian Punchball products and the company's largest private label product Rainbow.

Every day, these adhesive-related problems cause a major production line to be shut down for almost an hour. There are as many as 12 glue nozzles that have to be replaced every day.

In contrast to the simple replacement of current packaging adhesives, Tyler Mountain decided to start a clean and trouble-free history, turning to a package called the EASY-PAC(TM) packaging sealing solution provided by National Adhesives(). New all-in-one package sealing system. The EASY-PAC system includes a hot melt dispensing device that incorporates an auto-filled vacuum feeder, a non-carbonized carton carton sealing hot melt adhesive, and new nozzles and modules. The system also includes an easy-to-use hot melt adhesive storage tank for use with feeders. The system has a 3-year warranty and replacement parts guarantee.

The use of the EASY-PAC packaging-sealing system has brought Tyler Mountain a 90 to 95% reduction in production stoppages, a 10% increase in production efficiency, and a reduction in the number of nozzles produced each year due to the replacement of hundreds of nozzles. Fees, according to Thomas. "I think that since the switch to EASY-PAC, the biggest progress," Thomas said, "is that we don't have to waste so much energy on the glue problem. These problems have gradually disappeared, and now we are more devoted to product quality. , improve efficiency and better packaging, and away from the small problems of glue problems. This is the real us. They are only minor problems, but they will have a big impact."

The new hot-melt adhesive system not only improves productivity by significantly reducing downtime, it is also a clean system, according to Fotheringham. "You fill the box with glue at once and it will continue to deliver it on your own. You don't have to put someone to watch it all day long before that device."

The new hoses, nozzles, modules, and spare parts included in the system are all attractive to Tappa. "One of the most attractive aspects of the system is that it does not generate costs associated with spare parts," Tappa said. “This is one of the most important promises given by National, and of course, it comes from the excellent performance and high quality of the glue system and the confidence of the adhesive itself. The conditions provided by National Adhesives Company make us feel very good, and we have to continue to cooperate. Willingness."

　 Page Break $ The carton tray is shrink-wrapped and stored in a Tyler Mountain warehouse located at the 334,000-square-foot production facility in Paducah, Kentucky. In 2005, Tyler Mountain produced seven million boxes, or 320 million bottles.

For Thomas, standardization is one of the main reasons for adopting this system. “We abandoned all our old systems and only used one common system to avoid the use of a large number of different parts. We can minimize the inventory of spare parts and we can train our maintenance technicians only with one type. The device to deal with," she said.

Using 200 degrees Fahrenheit hot melt adhesive for packaging production instead of Tyler's 250 degree hot melt adhesive previously used eliminates the appearance of charring and reduces the possibility of injury from burns. "You can touch these glues. But you won't burn them," Fotheringham said. “When using our previous adhesives, I saw people who had burned their hands with hot melt adhesives. This system is excellent in many ways. You don’t have to use and actually glue the carton together. You don't need the same amount of glue needed for the squeeze force. Compared to the systems we used to use in the past, this product is far better than them."

Tyler Mountain sees suppliers such as National Adhesives as business partners, and the composition of partners is critical to solving problems and ultimately achieving success. “Some of the qualities that we rely on suppliers are customer service, quality of materials, delivery on time, and of course the performance of its products. It's all these things that make up our partnership with suppliers.” Tappa said .

The new hot melt system not only improves production efficiency, it is also a cleaner system.

Tyler Mountain and most of its suppliers work closely together to solve technical problems and problems, even in the development of different packaging materials and packaging forms. “We like to work with our suppliers because we are only an end user, and those suppliers of different materials—whether you have corrugated boxes or adhesives—are in their materials compared to us. All of them are more professional, so we are willing to listen to any ideas from suppliers, which will probably make us both save money and increase productivity,” Tappa said.

Strong partnerships provide them with a very competitive advantage in the market. According to Thomas, he also explained that the partnership has made the process of raw materials entering the factory simpler and more efficient, improved delivery on time, and the flow of cash. Faster and less inventory.

“We strive to build strong partnerships with our suppliers; not just relationships, but real cooperation,” Thomas said. "In the past years, we have discovered that the quality of the materials you receive after establishing a genuine partnership with suppliers will be exceptionally good, so that the cost we spend in market competition will be lower."

For Fotheringham, National Adhesives provided Tyler Mountain with an all-in-one pack-and-seal system, but behind it 100% exemplifies the best partnership in business cooperation. "I got a supplier who wanted to work with us," he said. “This is basically just a partnership. We previously had a glue supplier, a supplier of equipment, and other partners who supplied nozzles and hoses. If one of them had problems, then no one could take this initiative. Responsibility: Now that I have a supplier who can control all of this, it is a great asset for me. Now we are starting to reduce the amount of glue used, so we can save costs and save costs for all of us. The reason for being here."

While cost savings are key to Tyler Mountain's business strategy, motivating the creation of a work environment is another necessary tool that can generate significant productivity. Because of this, motivation is a fundamental principle in Tyler Mountain's philosophical system and it is widely extended.