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 By Maria A. Ferrante November/December 2007 INCREASED PRODUCT DEMAND, THE NEED TO INCREASE WORKER SAFETY
AND IMPROVE THE LOOK OF THE PACKAGE DROVE SWISHER INTERNATIONAL
INC. TO AUTOMATE THEIR MAIL POUCH TOBACCO LINE. One of the largest manufacturers of cigars and smokeless tobacco
in the world, Swisher has been in business for over 141 years. The
company manufactures cigar brands such as King Edward, Swisher Sweets
and Optimo, handmade and imported cigars such as Bering, Siglo 21
and Macbeth; and a smokeless tobacco line that includes Silver Creek,
Redwood and Kayak moist snuff and loose chewing tobacco brands such
as Lancaster, Mail Pouch and Chattanooga Chew. Swisher’s Mail Pouch tobacco line was traditionally a manual
operation. The product was packed into 12-count cartons, regardless
of whether 12-count, two-count or three- count was needed for the
retail channel. When the two-count and three-count was required,
the 12-count cartons would be manually opened, pouches repacked
(with tape) into two- and three-counts and reloaded into the opened
cartons. This was all done with temporary help, as the demand for
these new products was low. This process resulted in tape covering
the entire label to be sold on the shelves of convenience stores.
Consumers liked the pricing of the two for one packages and three
for two packages but did not like having the product taped together.
Over the next few years the demand for this product grew to almost
50 percent of the business. Spurred by a successful project in 2004
to automatically produce the same type of deals in their snuff can
tobacco category, Swisher International embarked on automating the
Mail Pouch production. “Swisher wanted to create a system that could easily run and changeover from the new two and three count designs to the existing 12-count cartons,” says Rocco Fucetola, northeast regional sales manager for BluePrint Automation, and the lead project manager for the new line. “The challenge was to size the two- and three-count cartons so that the finished tray would be the same size as the existing 12-count carton. The entire automated line needed to be just as efficient as the manual packing operation to meet Swisher’s standard production numbers. And since the manual packaging operation was 100 percent efficient, our challenge was to design a line that met these numbers.” The initial goal was to have all three cartons packed into the
same size case, for ease of shipping, distribution, etc. Both BluePrint
and Swisher International worked together to develop a tray that
the two and three count cartons would be placed into. The tray size
would be similar to the 12-count carton size. Therefore, six, two-count
cartons or four, three-count cartons would be loaded into the tray.
The tray would then be overwrapped before being case packed. “Rex Corporation had prior experience working with Swisher and supplying materials for their products. Their immediate response time during the carton and tray design enabled the project to continually move forward,” Fucetola says. THE SYSTEM BluePrint’s experience in handling pouches, from the Bartelt pouch form/fill/sealers to the carton loaders was instrumental in keeping 240 pouches per minute under control. Each Bartelt produces 60 ppm. The design was to have two Bartelts feed one BluePrint carton loader. Each in-feed had to use a merge table allowing two random inputs of pouches at 60 ppm each, with a net out-feed of 120 ppm. The overall system uses four gantry pick and place machines from
BluePrint (two carton loaders, one tray loader and one case packer).
The machines are similar in design, with common components that
can be shared for each operation. “The line uses one common
platform for all loading machines,” Fucetola says. These pouches are then picked flat and placed flat into the waiting
cartons. Every layer is rotated 90 degrees in the opposite direction
to nest the pouches, making as small a carton as possible. When
packing the 12-count cartons, the outside leg of the in-feed is
used to place the pouches into the flights, but over the sprocket
end of the conveyor. As the Smart-Trak conveyor indexes forward
(the rest of the way around the sprocket) the pouches naturally
stand up. Once twelve are collated, the pattern is also picked and
top loaded into the waiting carton. Therefore, upon opening the
cartons, the two- and three-count pouches lay flat in the carton
while the 12-count pouches stand-up.
The filled cartons exit the BluePrint carton loaders and proceed to the Kliklok Vari-Right top closers. These closers are designed with a Charlotte transfer system to make the process of sealing the end flaps very easy. “With respect to the Vari-Right carton closers, our variable flight technology ensured positive carton control and easy integration to a variable carton supply from the BluePrint robotic loading solution,” Long says. Once filled and sealed, the finished cartons have one of two places to go. For the two- and three-count cartons, the cartons stand up on their edge and are accumulated into the BluePrint tray loader. The tray loader either picks six, two- count cartons, or four, three-count cartons and top loads them directly into a similar sized tray. After filling, the cartons pass through a Model MW-16 checkweigher
from Alpha Checkweighers based in Exton, Pa. The checkweigher detects
missing pouches, and kicks any cartons off the line that do not
have the correct number of pouches per carton. “The checkweigher
was added as an extra quality check after the line was up and running.
The simplicity of our checkweighers allowed the customer to set
up the equipment without incurring the cost of having us send a
service technician to do the installation and set-up,” says
Jack Jones, vice president, sales, Alpha Checkweighers. The filled trays exit the BluePrint tray loader to be overwrapped and heat-sealed in a Shanklin Triumph L-Barsealer and T7LX tunnel. The initial challenge was that the packages were getting “dog eared,” according to Kristina Rossiter, SPD territory manager, Sealed Air Corporation headquartered in Riverfront, N.J. “We went in and did an audit and found that the bag length was too long. We made a minor adjustment and the package looked great. We also made three or four additional adjustments to make the wrapper run smoothly. We set these new adjustments up as recipes in the system so they are easy to access,” Rossiter says. The new equipment brought Swisher up to speed. “The Triumph
allowed Swisher to obtain speeds of up to 35 packs per minute,”
Rossiter says. In addition to upgrading the equipment, Rossiter
and her team suggested a change to single wound (SW) film, D955
60 gauge, instead of the center fold (CF) product they were using
to reduce the number of roll changes needed. A Wexxar glue case erector and Belcor top glue case closer were
used for the erecting and closing of the shipper cases. Swisher needed the ability to smoothly handle their products throughout the line with minimal changeover time. “We provided a high quality custom conveyance and diversion system that not only performs its function, but also leaves the room in case the market dictates changes in the line,” says Ben Garvey, engineering manager, Garvey Corporation headquartered in Blue Anchor, N.J. Over 300 feet of Garvey stainless steel conveyors from their 9600 Series can run anywhere from 15 to 80 feet per minute, depending on function and line conditions. “Swisher needed to be able to divert pouches between numerous filling and packing lines. The diversion system we designed gently moves pouches from one line to another without damaging the package and provides 100 percent changeover repeatability,” Garvey says. “Accessibility was also an issue in some areas, requiring conveyors to run over top of machines and each other. Taking good dimensions and planning up front always pays off in the end.” COMMUNICATE SUCCESS This was a lot of equipment to visualize on a piece of paper. Swisher visited BluePrint Automation to gain a closer understanding of certain details. This visit not only made the formal introduction between the companies, but also gave BluePrint the chance to provide assurances through some prototyping done in advance. The trip also included a visit to Kliklok to see a test of the cartons being formed and closed. In July of 2005 Swisher International selected BluePrint Automation to provide the overall system. Once the project began, a project book was created, with copies for each major contributor to the system – Swisher, BluePrint, Kliklok, Garvey and Rex. In addition to the normal purchase order item and terms and conditions, this project book also included speed/performance guarantees, carton/tray/case specification, overall project layout, testing and installation phase drawings and a matrix of each piece of machinery (size, weight, utilities). This project book became the bible for the project. Weekly update meetings were held on Wednesday mornings. Each meeting reviewed designs, schedules and any other issues related to a project of this size. The meeting minutes, updated schedules and continually revised layouts were posted on a secure website. The website was password protected to allow only the involved parties access. The weekly project management meetings and engineering staff at BluePrint resulted in a relatively flawless execution of the project. Every milestone for schedule was met. Preliminary trips were made to both Garvey and Kliklok to review the equipment before it was shipped to BluePrint for acceptance testing assembly. Each phase of the system was set up entirely at BluePrint for acceptance testing and de-bug and each section (three total) left BluePrint on, or ahead of, schedule. The first two phases installed were designed in such a way to allow Swisher to keep running normal production during the install. The most complicated portions of the system were able to run a month before the line was to be running production. As the installation was completed and production started, there were some obvious hurdles. The Swisher and BluePrint personnel worked side by side for a few weeks to iron out just about every bug and have the system perform at the rate and efficiency Swisher needed to keep up with demand. “This is an example of a highly integrated system, which is only as successful as the weakest link. On that premise, BluePrint sourced the leading suppliers of the basic equipment to ensure the highest possible level of success,” Kliklok’s Long says. “And I would say that, acting as an integrator of best-in-class packaging machines, BluePrint demonstrated the value of an autonomous integrator as opposed to single companies which try and fit their own machinery solutions to specialized applications.” The system has been running since the summer of 2006. The demand for the new two and three count cartons is soaring. This business is now more than 60 percent of the overall demand. The overall demand has increased to the point that a third leg (carton form/load/close) has been placed on order to bring the total pouches per minute up to 360. The tray forming/loading/wrapping and case erecting/packing sealing portions of the system were initially designed with the ability to increase the overall speed by 50 percent, one of the key details that came out of one of the weekly meetings. The Swisher Mail Pouch packaging line shows that moving from a manual packaging operation to full automation can be done successfully with the right team in place, the right technology for the application and clear lines of communication. As the demand for the Swisher Mail Pouch products continues to increase, Swisher and BluePrint are currently working on adding two additional lines to the operation, bringing the total number of packaging lines to six.
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Evaluation and automation Spinnickie notes, “Floor space in the plant was at a premium, but after a few iterations, BluePrint provided various options to maximize the limited floor space and present an orderly production flow.” He notes, “The first two case-packing units were delivered
four months after the order was placed. We began operating these
units within two weeks of delivery and installation. BluePrint personnel
were active participants in the installation, start-up, and operator
training. On-site electrical, mechanical, and programming assistance
was conducted by Blueprint field service engineers.” How the casing system works Product enters the Rotary Gate Packer on a conveyor belt. For slow
speed operations and single bag drops, product is transferred directly
to the rotary gate. For higher speeds with multiple bags per drop,
an indexing gate forms groups of Goya bags. The gates then rotate,
dropping the row/layer of product directly into the case. High-speed
shifting for multiple row patterns was provided to accommodate Goya’s
various pack pattern requirements. Wise investment He adds,”BluePrint Automation personnel were very responsive
to our concerns and helped us meet all the challenges throughout
the design, installation, start-up, and commissioning stages for
our case-packing upgrade. In the near future, we will be installing
two more case-packing lines in Secaucus, as well as three at our
Miami, FL, plant.” (Packaging World, August 2006, p. 64) Guided with Vision 
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CONVEY/COUNT.
Filled, sealed bags are conveyed 
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