Precision in Motion: Unleashing the Power of Timing Screw Drive Units

Timing Screw Drive Units are known for enhancing precision and speed when it comes to your container handling. You’ll likely see them on many areas of your line, often ahead of key parts of the packaging process.

Timing Screw Drive Units [also called feed screw drive units] are simple applications that bring accuracy to operation, which enhances efficiency, minimize wasted product, and increases production throughput. There are various applications they can be integrated based on issues or needs in your production.

1. Improve the Inline Filling Process

This system is designed to accept round glass containers from a backlog and index them under a 4 head inline filler before the capper.

Inline fillers need accurate placement of the containers in order to appropriate fill them. If not, you’re left with a sticky mess of wasted product that can not only destroy your profit margins but also slow your production down.

Wasted product can get into the conveyor chain and other elements of your equipment, creating a maintenance nightmare of downtime. And if your fills are quite fulling making it into the bottle, you’re not only wasting your precious product but the containers you place it in.

Timing Screw Drive Units can automatically index the appropriate number of containers under your filler in order to improve this process. And since the timing screw is the root of the technology, pitch of containers will be what is needed for precise placement under your fill heads.

2. Create Accurate Label Placement

Our customer had never packaged products but wanted to begin manufacturing hand sanitizer due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our engineers decided a timing screw would be the first part of their solution, given the customer had not previously installed or utilized timing screws in their business. They also chose to go with a slave driven system to make it the most cost-effective solution for their customer as possible. This design allowed for the customer to use our products with their existing filling system. The custom slave driven system designed feeds the bottles into the timing screw via backlog, before discharging the empty bottles with consistent spacing to move into the customers filling system. The integration of Morrison’s system with the customers existing parts allowed for them to begin manufacturing hand sanitizer as soon as possible.

We know you’ve done it – seen a product with a poor label placement, made the association it is “defective” and bought a competitor product or a different product behind it. There is a good chance a Timing Screw Drive Unit could have made simple corrections to avoid labeling mishaps all together.

Protect your brand by using screw technology to meter containers in position with your labeler for accurate and consistent label placement that helps keep your labels in alignment and boost your shelf appeal.

3. Position Containers for Simplified Labeling or Sleeving

Containers needed to be rotated 90 degrees prior to a sleever. We designed a timing screw drive unit that accepts the full, capped containers that are narrow side leading and turn them 90 degrees so they are wide side leading into a sleever. This system can be reused with new screws for different container sizes, making it adaptable and practical.

If you’re still utilize manual labor to turn containers 90, 180, or 270 degrees for label placement and sleeving, you’re wasting throughput potential and labor needs. Timing Screw Drive Units automate the turning process for round/oval, square, rectangle, or scround containers by using screws to rotate the containers based on the unique features of it.

4. Automate Pack Patterns

Morrison Container Handling Solutions timing screw drive assemblies are custom designed for the applications you need. In this video, you see our timing screws (also known as feed screws) turning and grouping deodorant containers for packaging purposes ahead of a sleever. Making sure there was no gap between containers is of the most importance, and Morrison focuses in on this by positively handling the containers through our screws to eliminate container damage and present them perfectly to the sleever.

Many simple multi-pack patterns can be automated through the use of a standard Timing Screw Drive Unit. These solutions can utilize screws to group containers into multi-packs and then discharge them at pitch for the bander, sleever, or other packaging application to take over.

5. Endless Possibilities Await

But wait, there’s more! Timing Screw Drive Units have a myriad of other applications that can revolutionize your production line. Need to combine or divide lanes? Stack containers? Ionized air rinsing? Look no further. They can tackle any challenge and provide innovative solutions to improve your throughput and make your packaging process a breeze.