Marden Edwards Journal

A major American pharmaceutical company has installed a number of overwrapping lines supplied by UK machinery manufacturer Marden Edwards Ltd and several of the lines are equipped with specially designed turning units, enabling them to handle both standard rectangular and fith panel cartons without any major adjustments or slowing down of the lines.

Altogether the customer uses 13 different sizes of carton for the creams and lotions it produces, all of which are wrapped in groups of six for distribution. While grouping rectangular cartons into a uniform collation ready for wrapping is a simple task for the Marden Edwards BX 125 collator/overwrappers already supplied, the fith panel cartons require extra handling.

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Marden Edwards has recently designed, manufactured and installed an automatic in line pack buffer storage system. The purpose of an in line buffer is to ensure that high line efficiencies are maintained if a downstream machine stops production. For example, if a wrapping machine requires a film reel change it will be stopped for 30 seconds to a minute whilst the new reel is loaded. Instead of switching off the upstream machine, the in line buffer absorbs the production until the film reel change is complete.

Once the wrapping machine is ready to run, the buffer store unloads the product back into the production line. This unloading operation can either take place when the upstream machine has stopped or products can be filtered back into the production line whilst the upstream machine is running. For this to happen the downstream machine requires some overcapacity so that temporary higher speed running can accept the contents of the buffer. When not operating as a buffer, the Marden Edwards system acts a simple flat bed conveyor.

The buffer itself consists of 24 separate “shelves” which, once the buffer is activated, pick up a line of the product from the conveyor and lift it vertically. Re-introduction is simply a question of re-directing the direction of travel of the shelves and the product is re-introduced back into the production line. Depending on pack size and line speed as much as 10 minutes worth of production can be held in the buffer.

The in line buffer store is one of a number of different product handling systems designed and manufactured by Marden Edwards. These systems can either be used with Marden Edwards overwrappers or with other manufacturer’s equipment.