The purchase of packaging equipment is often the make-or-break point for many companies, but many companies are finding new ways to harness the technology to drive growth.
Equipment purchases set to increase
An overwhelming part of the equipment market comes from the success or failure of the products it's meant to work with. Luckily, Plastics News reported that there should be a prime market for further advances in the near future. Recent surveys of gross domestic product in the United States saw real GDP expand by 4 percent in the second quarter, which is considerably faster than most analysts predicted.
Equipment purchase continues to expandThis news, along with predictions for GDP to remain high (above 3 percent) through the end of 2015, is bolstering confidence in the overall equipment market. With this added confidence in the market, companies can move forward with capital expenditures with ease. Surveys indicate that about 70% of equipment purchases are made within the last quarter of the year.
This trend is often defined by three scenarios:
- An allocated budget may be in place for the equipment but because capital purchases can sometimes be a daunting task, the purchase is delayed.
- Companies sometimes find themselves approaching the year end still having “use it or lose it” funds in their budget, which leads to the last scenario.
- Companies delay capital expenditures until Q4 to leverage the tax incentives contained in Section 179 of the IRS Tax Code, allowing up to a $500,000 deduction on new and used equipment purchased in the year. These tax incentives are only made available until December 31st; please click here for more information.
It is becoming easier than ever for many companies to make new purchases and upgrades knowing that they'll likely be a part of the groundswell expected in the next several years.
Equipment adjustments lead to increased productivity
Smaller companies are taking opportunities to adjust their equipment when possible. Dairy Reporter found that Milchhof Sterzing, located in Italy, is working to modernize its dairy equipment. Already containing two packaging lines complete with erectors, palletizers and cup filling and sealing machines, the company commissioned a glass-filling line complete with fillers, erectors, packers and palletizers.
Milchhof Sterzing's managing director said it has 11 machines now and has doubled productivity in the process.
"Thanks to the modular machinery concept, both systems are equipped with a filling system in front and a palletizer in the back," said Dr. Gunther Seidner to the news source. "Now we cover the entire packaging process in a single line. The functionality and construction of the [equipment] gave us more packaging flexibility in a very small space so it provides significant cost advantages."
70% of equipment purchases are made within the last quarter of the year.
High precision for simple product changeovers
Food Processing noted an obstacle frequently experienced in manufacturing comes from precision changeover. This obstacle occurs when product variation in the packing process requires a new element resulting in the shutting down and refitting the machine itself. Getting the equipment back to its former production quality standards can be just as difficult, making the necessity of the changeover itself a frustrating prospect.
However the news source found that there are new ways that companies are working to change this process. In most cases, center-line programs work to remove some of the difficulty of the practice, but even then there are still issues with recalibration and readjustment of the machinery. Instead, a new solution called COT2, or changeover tool-second generation, has the potential to drastically change expectations. This tool is made of three pieces of hardware - a mobile PC tablet, a wireless sensor with an attached microprocessor, and nonmagnetic brackets and hooks attached to the machine itself.
All that operators will need to operate the equipment is to mount it on a bracket and run a string to a hook on the machine itself. After that, operators can guide the replacement part into the machine with an accuracy rating within 0.7 millimeters of a given setting.
It has been noted that not only has COT2 been able to reduce changeover times by as much as 50 percent in some areas, but it's even more impressive when it changes vertical startups. Normal time frames would extend as far as four hours before a line could reach efficiency - with COT2, that figure drops to an impressive five minutes.
New equipment arrivals
World Cement reported that Haver Filling Systems recently announced the release of a new machine, adding to its current lineup of automated bagging and liquid filling machines. Their new fully automated bag palletizing machines, which are manufactured by Newtec Bag Palletizing, are the latest bulk material packaging equipment on the market.
These palletizers have the ability to precisely stack bags made from various materials, filled with an assortment of dry bulk products. The capabilities of these palletizers gives manufacturers the ability to create stable, compact loads. Most of the companies to use this type of machinery will be in the food, pet food, building materials and chemical industries.
All in all, the quest for capital expenditures at year end lends itself to many new products and technical enhancements each working together toward one goal: increased productivity, accuracy and efficiency.
