When production targets are tight, it’s easy to overlook gradual wear in components like timing screws and feed screws in overall packaging line maintenance. After all, if bottles or cans are still moving down the line, things must be fine, right? Unfortunately, worn timing screws can quietly erode the efficiency, reliability, and profitability of your packaging operation long before they visibly fail.
Let’s look at the hidden costs that impact your bottom line and profitability when timing screws aren’t replaced on schedule and why using your maintenance budget proactively can save you much more in the long run. Below are five areas that indicate you are ready for replacement timing screws or replacement feed screws.
1. Product Damage and Waste
As shoppers, we subliminally do it all the time. You see a slightly damaged or off-in-appearance container on the shelf, you move it to the side and grab the product behind. This contributes to wasted product that won’t be purchased before it goes out of date.
The cause can be something that is an easy, low-cost replacement: worn timing screws on your line.
As timing screws wear, their flight edges can become rough or uneven. This might seem minor, but over time it can lead to cut plastic bottles, scratched containers, damaged labels or crushed necks and flanges.
Even small inconsistencies in container handling cause rejects to pile up, driving up material costs and rework time. Damaged product leads to brand-quality issues, especially in industries like food, beverage, and personal care where packaging appearance matters.
2. Equipment Strain and Line Downtime
A worn timing screw no longer guides containers smoothly. That increases the chance of jams, misfeeds, or inconsistent spacing, which can stress other machine components such as starwheels, belts, and sensors.
Those minor disruptions often lead to unplanned downtime. Operators may spend hours diagnosing issues that trace back to one simple cause: worn steel or plastic work in the screw. By contrast, timely replacement helps your line runs predictably and keeps OEE scores high.
3. Reduced Line Efficiency and Throughput
Timing screws are precision components. As wear increases, so does the variability in how containers are spaced and presented to downstream equipment. That can cause fillers, cappers, or labelers to need to run slower to compensate or lead to stoppages when downstream applications can’t reliably detect the next container.
In high-speed environments, this can translate into thousands of containers per shift lost to reduced throughput with simple timing errors. Investing in new timing screws restores precise container control, helping your line perform at its designed capacity.
4. Safety and Maintenance Risks
Operators often try to make it work with worn components, adding tape, adjusting guides, or applying extra force to clear jams. These workarounds increase the risk of operator injury and can introduce further wear or damage on surrounding equipment. Replacing timing screws at the first signs of wear helps prevent these unsafe conditions and keeps maintenance teams focused on proactive work instead of crisis response.
5. The Cost-Effective Solution: Planned Replacement
Replacing a timing screw might feel like a discretionary cost, but it’s actually a smart use of your maintenance budget. Routine replacement eliminates the ripple effects of wear before they escalate into downtime or product loss.
At Morrison, our timing screws are designed and machined for long-lasting precision and easy changeovers. Whether you need a replacement for an existing setup or a new design for lightweighted or redesigned containers, we can engineer solutions that help keep your line performing like new and protect the integrity of your containers.
Don’t Wait for a Failure to Happen
A worn timing screw doesn’t just wear down your equipment — it wears down your profits. Use your maintenance budget to stay ahead of wear before it impacts your operation.
Contact Morrison today to get a replacement timing screw quote and keep your line running smoothly and reliably. Make sure to ask us about our free line evaluations! Our team will come to you to audit the screws on your line and create a plan of action for replacement.
