Why A Compact Unscrambler Part I

I wrote the following article quite a few years ago, but the information is still valid today:

In early fall of 2000 I was invited to attend a Focus Group sponsored by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI). The purpose of the meeting was to research how the packaging machinery industry had changed and was changing. Its most specific goal was to determine how PMMI could better serve its members. During the course of the three-hour meeting all of the participants were asked to define what they felt or believed their customers wanted in packaging machinery. The group unanimously agreed that their customers were looking for better, faster, and cheaper (less expensive) packaging machinery. Defining faster and cheaper was fairly simple, but defining what each customer thought was “better” was quite elusive to the group. As the discussion lengthened on the subject, everyone had varying ideas on what constituted “better”. There was, however, one idea that somewhat integrated the terms better and cheaper (less expensive). That idea was – smaller. If the packaging machinery were smaller, and saved valuable floor space in a plant, then that would definitely be “better”. It would be less expensive for the company because floor space costs money and the company would save money by utilizing less space to accomplish the same tasks. The problem then arises as to how to achieve faster and smaller.

For unscrambling, the answer is a compact unscrambler. Necessity has caused the development of the most cost effective, smallest layout space solution available, for plastic bottle unscrambling called the Compact Unscrambler. These plastic bottle unscramblers offer the smallest footprint in the entire packaging industry. This design was pioneered because of the increased value of real estate on production floors and the lack of available floor space. As the demand grew for companies to produce more and more products at higher volumes with the same plant they have had all along, the need was developed for more compact packaging solutions. Hence, the design and introduction of this revolutionary, one-of-a-kind concept, incorporating two machines into the space of one was developed. The standard, widely used and highly accepted plastic bottle unscrambler was taken and integrated into it is a uniquely designed internal hopper/elevator placed within the unscrambler’s unused airspace.

When comparing the footprint to those unscramblers already in use in today's facilities, it becomes clearly evident the amount of valuable real estate that can be saved by using a Compact Unscrambler. The compact unscramblers are now offered in sizes that start with a 36” “mini” and range up to 72", easily handling containers from small pharmaceutical bottles to large beverage and industrial bottles.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.