Custom Machinery Solutions that Save Time & Money

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Custom Machinery Solutions that Save Time & Money

February 2, 2021 Posted by Alexis Washington Blog

Packaging equipment will always need to evolve its functionality abilities in order to keep up with the ever-changing needs of a production line. So when customers come to us with unique requests, we don’t panic; we get creative with our one of a kind customizations. And because Dartronics is a manufacturing solutions-based company, creating custom machinery solutions is one of the many services we offer.

“If you build it, they will come” is more than just a movie slogan to us at Dartronics. Our talented team of engineers jumps at any chance to come up with creative solutions that save our clients both money and time! And because we partner with top of the line vendors, our customizations don’t always have to be created from scratch. Below are three examples of personalized projects we completed for customers who needed a little something extra to optimize their packaging lines:

#1 VFS-1000 Vertical Feeding System, Feeding Shopping Bags:

This VFS-1000 System (Vertical Feeding System) video shows us feeding shopping bags on a system that traditionally run bags from right to left. Based on a customer’s request, we build a machine that can run bags from left to right. The bags are being fed from a hopper onto the customer’s existing printing system conveyor. And because the customer was located in another state, all interactions took place remotely via phone and email. After we built the system in-house, we shipped it over to the customer, and they were able to install it themselves. The system is simple, cost-effective, delivered quickly, and easy to integrate.

If it were not for our system, the customer would have had to purchase both a robot and conveyorized feeding system, which would have been more expensive. This project saved the customer time and money with an added bonus of also reducing their company’s carbon footprint.

The VFS-1000 Vertical Feeding System is perfect for feeding shopping bags with or without handles. If you are trying to inkjet print or label shopping bags, this is the feeding system for you. Feeding paper, plastic, or colored bags, this machine can feed them all. The handles on the shopping bags are not a problem.

#2 Dartronics Box Tilt and Label System:

This video shows our unique and compact system to tilt, label, and print heavy 25 – 50 lbs bags: Bag in a Box style package. Dartronics provided a custom solution to flip cases 90 degrees in-line on a roller conveyor. The Paragon Labeler prints and applies labels to the trailing panel. Further downstream is a DartJet inkjet printer to print on the top of the box.

All the components used to build the system are standard industry-wide, easily available components. We prefer to keep the system design simple and serviceability in mind, so the end-user does not incur any downtime at all. By sourcing standard components, we built the system very quickly! The tilt mechanism is air powered and gradually tilts the heavy cases without causing any cosmetic damages to the package.

The print and apply labeler used in the system runs the customers existing label design software and eliminates the need to print labels offline – we are printing and applying on the fly!

#3 Adco Compact 4, AlTech ALcode Labeler and Dartronics Integration System:

This system was a custom project created to allow one operator to increase the number of cartons they can load during a shift. Before our improvement, the customers’ operators were manually erecting the carton and tucking all the minor and major flaps closed with their fingers; that kind of repetitive work could lead to ergonomic issues. The system in the video is a single operator station where all the operator has to do is to insert the product into the carton erected by the system. The vertical cartoner tucks the flaps closed and discharges them out from the machine into a print, and apply a labeling system wherein a single pass. We apply two labels to the carton on the fly.

The system is versatile and accommodates different carton sizes with easy changeovers. At the discharge end of the system, we could integrate a robot to case pack the cartons if needed by a customer.

For more info on the above projects, or if you have one in mind, contact us today! Our expert team is here to help make your line simpler to operate, with faster speeds that will increase your ROI.