Packaging with corrugated materials comes with a lot of variables that can impact your success. As production speed increases, the impact of these variables are even more evident, including issues outside your control that can cause dams or downtime.
Slowdowns and wasted material from a jam quickly add up to a huge cost for your packaging line. These stoppages on a case former are often caused by issues with the glue joint on the corrugate running through the machine. When a manufacturer assembles a corrugated case or box, the final step is to crease and glue material so it’s ready to be fed into a magazine. Unfortunately, glue is not an easy substance to control, and leaks both out of and into the joint can happen.
Both circumstances can lead to machine jams, but Wexxar Bel believes you should not have to sacrifice speed to protect yourself from stoppages.
Outside
As the glue joint is sealed, excess adhesive can leak out onto the surface of the case blanks. This quickly becomes an issue as the case is stacked with others and the excess glue forms a bond between the stacked boxes.
When these joined corrugates arrive at the case forming machine, suction cups will attempt to pick up one box but end up with two or even more. Of course, the machine is not equipped to form two cases at once, so this will result in a jam.
The WF20 and WF30 fully automatic case forming machines come with primary case separation features built to stop this from happening. Once a case is in position on the magazine, these machines mechanically separate it off the bundle behind it, breaking any bond formed with other cases before the case arrives in the forming section of the machine. This keeps the cases going one at a time and stops the machine from jamming.
Inside
While not as common as leaks outside the case, glue bleeds inside the corrugate can cause jams just as easily by adhering the box to itself. When suction cups attempt to form a case, the flat case will likely slip out of the cups or fold into itself, either of which can stop the line.
The WF20 and WF30 machines also come equipped to tackle this kind of separation. Wexxar’s patented “Pin & Dome” Case Forming System makes a mechanical connection with both the major and minor flaps of the box to break any seal that may have formed between them so that you would never even know that the cases were sealed together.
All Around
These features are major contributors to Wexxar Bel’s highest guaranteed run times in the industry and serve as a time-efficient way to assure that your line is best protected against expensive stops.
To avoid jams with your corrugate, The Offspring said it best in the 1990s, “you got to keep ‘em separated!”
Robert Jefferies is the Southwest Territory Manager for Wexxar Bel (https://www.wexxar.com/). He can be reached at Robert.jefferies@promachbuilt.com.