Packaging is a highly diverse and ever-evolving industry. With the rapid growth of automation possibilities and the increasing complexity of achieving efficiency, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
Sometimes, the ideal packaging machinery for your unique needs doesn’t exist yet! This is where custom container handling machinery can make the most significant impact on your production and throughput. At Morrison, we leverage over five decades of experience (52+ years to be exact) to craft tailor-made solutions for your specific challenges.
We’ve designed numerous custom machines for various applications, allowing us to blend standard concepts with innovative ideas to create the perfect machinery for virtually any situation. Beyond just timing screws, we’ve evolved into a versatile custom automation firm, ready to bring your engineered-to-order projects to life.
Aside from design experience, there are four key ways our custom engineering division brings the best equipment forward for these projects:
- Problem Identification – Our team conducts a thorough analysis of your entire process, taking into account upstream and downstream factors. We dive deep into your unique challenge, considering elements such as other equipment on the production line, the expertise and skill levels of your operators, and your budget. Based on these insights, we propose the most suitable equipment to address your specific needs.
- OEM Partnerships – We tap into our extensive network of Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) partnerships to source the right equipment for the job. This equipment is chosen to seamlessly integrate with our container handling solutions and bring optimal performance and efficiency.
- Integration – Our project team is comprised of experts in both controls and mechanical engineering. They work diligently to provide equipment and packages that align with your plant’s requirements, ensuring a cohesive and effective solution.
- Installation and Service – We have a robust service team that will not only help build your equipment in house but follow it to the plant for installation. This practice helps us seek optimal efficiency in the operational environment.
Custom equipment offers a wide array of container handling applications, allowing us to expertly manipulate and control containers for your packaging operations. Consider, for instance, the following possibilities:
- Pack Patterns and Bulk Packs: We seamlessly combine multiple operations like orienting, stacking, and inverting to craft intricate pack patterns or efficiently assemble bulk packs, meeting your specific packaging needs.
- Multi-Packs: Our capabilities extend to combining, dividing, inverting, and grouping containers into a single unit, forming versatile multi-packs. This versatile approach caters to diverse product configurations and packaging requirements.
Explore some of our customized solutions below to see how we can tailor our expertise to meet your unique packaging needs.
Corn Starch – Variety Pack Sorting and Filling System
Morrison worked with a filling company to fully integrate this solution.
The containers are indexed 4 cycles at a time during the filling process so they can be half filled, indexed again so they can be fully filled. This was implemented to reduce the fill time while also create more accuracy.
They are then metered with proper spacing for accurate measures of weight on the check weigher. After verification of proper weight, the containers are then combined again into one single lane. Learn more about this project here.
Febreze – Grouping, Collating, and Sleeving Multi-Packing System
This co-packer and CPG company came to Morrison to discuss a multipack Febreze line. Originally utilizing 32 people to hand pack the Febreze into cardboard boots at stations, the packaging process was slow, labor intensive, and didn’t present the containers in attractive packaging with the right marketing appeal.
Morrison was able to automate the entire process through our custom design team with a total grouping, collating, and sleeving solution. Learn more about this project and the design here.
COVID-19 Test Kits – Full Production Line
When COVID-19 hit the world by storm, Thermo Fisher Scientific was tasked by the United States government to get as many COVID-19 tests into the market as soon as possible. They needed to be filled, capped, and packaged quickly, to meet Consumer demand, and at the time, the company was only able to manufacture 30 to 50 tests a minute on their current 4 lines.
Each system has been engineered by Morrison’s Head of Engineering Ryan Finke to move the test kit through a variety of packaging applications. Taking the tube through unscrambling, filling, capping, and presenting for final packaging, this system can produce 120 tubes a minute, improving the originally time-consuming hand-fill production drastically. Learn more here.
Single Serve Coffee Pod – Variety Pack Sorting and Filling System
Coffee pods are sorted into four lanes and metered with timing screws. As the screws end, they are dropped into the boxes, but there much controls technology behind the scenes, allowing for adaptability in the packs.
Morrison’s customized HMI allows operators to choose how many containers from each lane will be dropped into the variety pack, allowing adaptability and versatility within the packaging line. You can learn more about this system here.
Flower Pot – Denesting, Labeling, and Renesting Turnkey Solution
Our engineers devised a dual drive assembly system to be applied within the labeling head system that would accept a backlog of nested pots, denest them by spacing the pots so there would be sufficient room to apply the label as close to the bottom as possible.
Once the pots are labeled, Morrison re-nests them and discharges them in stacks for the operator to receive. In order to get proper counts in each stack, a laser counts the pots as they are re-nested, discharging the stack after it reaches a predetermined size. You can learn more here.
