A Quick Case Study - Chemical Packaging

Browsing our website allows customers to become familiar with the various products offered by Liquid Packaging Solutions. Visitors to our page also likely become quickly aware of the many different industries we serve. What may not be quite so obvious are many packaging machine options that will work for even a single product. This quick case study of a recent LPS project with a chemical company helps to show the process of finding the ideal solution for any company, industry or product.

The chemical company contacted LPS about a complete turnkey packaging solution that would include power conveyors, a liquid filling machine, capping equipment and a labeling machine. The chemical itself was a free-flowing liquid, meaning in general terms that several different fillers could be used to complete the fill version of the packaging. However, the chemical being packaged by this particular company was also corrosive, which meant that the typical stainless steel machinery might present some problems when trying to move this chemical. In the end, an HDPE gravity filling machine was used after looking at production needs, space and the budget of the company. Other filling types, such as overflow or pump, were still feasible, but expense also became an issue, and the gravity filler easily met the production demands with room left over for growth while also fitting into the planned budget.

Also due to the corrosive nature of the product, LPS designed a custom conveyor system using HDPE as the construction material. The production floor at this particular company was wide, but not deep, so that the design included a horseshoe shape, allowing bottles to be loaded and unloaded at the front of the building, loaded on the left and unloaded on the right. In addition to placing curved sections into the system to allow for this fit, the HDPE allowed for a longer useful life for the conveyor system for the same reason that HDPE was used on the filler. Spills, drips, splashes or other transfers of the product onto the conveyor system would not have the negative effect on the HDPE that they would have had on the stainless steel.

LPS designed the filling machine with not only machine guarding, but also with an enclosed frame. Enclosing the fill area allowed the product and fumes to be contained (and the system also included a system for ridding the area of fumes as well). For this reason, neither the capping machine nor the labeling equipment were manufactured much differently than they would be for a non-corrosive product. Standing outside of the enclosed fill area, the potential for splashes, spills or drips at the capping machine was lowered to almost zero. The company used a screw-on type cap and the machinery was designed with components to ensure the filled bottles were stabilized as they moved through the capping phase of packaging. Once sealed, the potential for product leakage dropped even more, and the wrap label was easily applied to the round gallon bottles.

As a side note, the entire conveyor system was manufactured using HDPE simply because the belt itself would move through the entire system. Minute amounts of product dripping on the conveyor belt can be transferred along the entire system. Constructing all of the power conveyors from HDPE again simply extends the useful life of the system. These machines provided an complete solution for this particular packager, who wanted to keep manual labor on hand for loading the power conveyors as well as for unloading and packging the finished product. The set up of the system allowed operators to monitor the line from the front of the building while also assisting with loading and unloading bottles. The chemical packager could have added a loading turntable or a bottle unscrambler to the front of the system, or could have included a case erector, case packer and/or pallet wrapper to the end of the line.

Again, each packager, each product, each industry, have multiple solutions to choose from to complete their packaging process. It is an analysis of the combination of both the needs and the wants of the individual packager that will lead to the best possible packaging solution. For help identifying the best solution for your own project, contact an LPS packaging specialist today.