PACKAGING
EASY ON THE OPEN
AMARAY
NEW AMARAY PACKAGING LINE HAS
STACKS OF POTENTIAL
With more than 320 packaging patents to
its name, applying ingenuity to enhance
the customer experience continues to
define Amaray’s success. Most recently, the
Corby-based injection moulding facility in
partnership with Sumitomo (SHI) Demag,
Waldorf Technik and Roth Werkzeugbau
unveiled a pioneering, fully automated
In Mould Labelling (IML) production line
that’s repeatedly manufacturing, stacking
and wrapping over 7,500 easy open, fully
decorated rigid wipe lids per hour.
The push button lids, cleverly designed for
a major blue chip personal care client, have
proven to be a feat of functional engineering
several years in the making. Yet, the project
may not have got off the ground or have been
quite so cutting-edge or financially viable
without the cooperation of such forward-
thinking machinery and equipment supply
partners, claims Rick Ormerod, Head of
Technical at Amaray.
Believed to be Europe’s first ever installation
of a 12+12 stack packaging mould, and quite
possibly the most sophisticated packaging
production line in the world today, Rick credits
the dedication of the entire team to delivering
such a pioneering project.
Taking centre stage on the line is Sumitomo
(SHI) Demag’s ultra-high speed 580-tonne
El-Exis SP, fitted with a multi-cavity 12+12
stack mould. An integrated high speed IML
Waldorf Technik robot places each label into
the mould, and then removes and closes
each of the 24-hinged lids as soon as they
are extracted from the mould. This has to
be done swiftly while the polypropylene is
still malleable. Each lid is then placed on the
conveyor where they are each quality checked
by a camera. A robot then creates stacks of
lids, passing to a bander, at which point the
stacks collated and fed into an automated
wrapper to create a brick of lids for loading
onto a pallet.
Amaray considered its selection of partners
for this new production line long and hard,
emphasises Rick. “We intentionally chose
suppliers that could bring fresh thinking
and were leaders in their respective fields.
This was our first UK Sumitomo (SHI) Demag
installation to join our fleet of 38 injection
moulding machines. The team proved to
be a driving force in scoping out the exact
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Partnering with Sumitomo (SHI) Demag, Waldorf Technik, Roth Werkzeugbau and Mevisco, Amaray
believes it to be the most sophisticated packaging production line in the world today, integrating
injection stack moulding, IML, robotics and vision
machinery specifications needed in order
to create a fully automated, streamlined
packaging production line.
“Through an open dialogue we were able
to arrive at a cohesive direction together
that would enable Amaray to achieve the
best design, in the most productive and cost
effective way possible,” adds Rick.
PUSHING THE DESIGN ENVELOPE
The wipe lid builds upon Amaray’s media
market domination. “It ties in very closely
with manufacturing hinged casings to
protect DVDs, computer games and videos,”
comments Rick, who has extensive personal
experience in moulding and IML. “All of this
expertise melded together very well,” he
highlights.