ONGOING INVESTMENT ALL WRAPPED UP!

As part of a dynamic investment programme, leading glass manufacturer Beatson Clark has its finished product, all wrapped up in style!

The Rotherham based manufacturer has commissioned a new pallet shrink wrapping, shrouding and strapping machine, to speed up the packing process and also become more time and energy efficient in this core part of its business.

“One of our primary considerations when sourcing the new machine was the environmental and health and safety credentials,” commented Tim Swetnam, Beatson Clark Production Manager. “This machine, manufactured by OMS (Italy) and installed by their UK agents Gordian Strapping, was especially attractive due to the reductions in time and costs it provides us with and the safety features to protect our employees.”

On entering the machine each pallet is automatically scanned and the type of wrapping it requires is ascertained. This can be tailored to individual customer requirements as appropriate. Options include strapping, fusion shrouding for standard bulk palletised products, or non-fusion shrouding for polythene brick packed products.

The end result is a better quality of shrink wrapping and a more stable pallet for transportation to the customer.

“Our machine has been well received by our employees and is performing very well,” said Tim.

The whole investment cost £410,000 and forms part of an ongoing maintenance and investment programme at Beatson Clark to maintain its position as a leading glass packaging manufacturer. The next stage of this programme includes a new piece of inspection equipment that is currently being trialled on one line. This latest generation, vision based machine inspects the side, top and base of the container, as well as dimensions. It has stress detection and a multi camera set-up to identify any cosmetic defects. Doing the job of three machines, it is efficient and will provide an even better quality of inspection. Once the trials are complete, the plan is to rollout the investment across all lines in the business.