Engineering advanced solutions

Nathan Lancaster, head of global business development at Autorema’s two-piece beverage can division, discusses the fine balance between speed, stability and safety.

Autorema designs, manufactures and installs can handling systems for three-piece and two-piece cans worldwide, utilising magnetic, vacuum and air-assisted systems, as well as generic mass conveying. Our specialism is turnkey conveying solutions, from the front to the back end of the can making process, with the use of mechanical conveying, vacuum elevators, lowerators and turnover units, as well as highspeed air conveying, gravity trackwork twists and sweeps through to palletisers. An advantage Autorema has in the industry is that we also handle all the electrical programming, installation and panel building in-house. We don’t rely on third parties, as is also true with our installation and commissioning.

Our systems can be designed for low-speed lines of 100 cans per minute to high-speed lines of 3,400 cans per minute and are suitable for all formats of cans, from slim and sleek to standard, king size and special bespoke products. Because we have such an extensive history in three-piece food cans too, this has given us the advantage of being able to adapt to all manner of shaped cans – this is a quality that will offer huge benefits to our future two-piece innovations.

Image: Autorema

With the ever-growing changes in aluminium packaging, such as weight reduction within the forming process, it is important to consider these within the handling design process. Certain qualities in a conveyor that suited a can 20 years ago may not suit it now. We are continuously looking at ways to reduce damaged cans and increase production rates. As an example, one of the ways we do this is to consider air pressures within air conveying; reduction in a can’s weight means reduction in unnecessary force during transportation, otherwise you risk damage to the heel, body and possibly even neck of the can.

Speed vs stability

Some suppliers will push limits to achieve high speed in production, but if the end result isn’t high quality, it’s pointless; it’s no good running a conveyor at 3,400 cans per minute (cpm) if you’re losing 100cpm. Autorema has systems in place where it can monitor speed versus quality, for example we designed a camera inspection conveyor capable of running 3,400cpm effectively, with the cans having accurate spacing in between so that the camera could inspect at all angles. However, when we pushed this system to 3,600cpm (merely for testing purposes), we noticed that occasionally the gap in between two cans would be slightly too short for the camera to get an accurate reading, and it would reject the cans. This is why it is important to know the capabilities of your equipment before offering them to customers.

Conveying connections are one of the key elements in a successful conveying line. Poorly set joints and deadplates can induce tipping, which as a result increases spoilage. Like other industry leaders, we are constantly looking at ways to reduce this, from deadplates to micro deadplates and by incorporating third party innovations such as Intralox’s new tight transfer belt. Motors and blowers cause issues if not carefully set up and mounted – in the past, I have seen vibration from blowers seriously affect inspection cameras.

It’s critical to know how to avoid this with the correct use of anti-vibration mounts and/or independent fan or blower mounting frames.

Safety

Autorema electrical systems all come with the relevant protection that is required within the EU as standard. We also incorporate any additional requirements that may be needed in the country the equipment is destined for.

With a background including food production, we have had to ensure that we can meet the high expectation required of equipment in a clean environment, from the basics such as stainless steel construction to ensuring there are no food/bacteria traps on our conveyors. This can include welds being cleaned a certain way, joints being fully welded so no bacteria can enter, certain materials being used in construction and designs that incorporate food safety standard requirements.

In terms of operator health and safety, our conveyors all come with guards to protect operators on the daily. For example, we assisted a customer in Europe with their bodymaker infeed trackwork after an operator fell while changing height. The company did not want operators climbing to adjust the trackwork anymore, so Autorema introduced a one-point adjustment system to the bodymakers, therefore allowing operators to safely adjust and change the height from ground level.

Innovation & future roadmap

Today, Autorema is focusing on faster changeover times for our manipulators. The faster the changeover, the faster the line is running and the higher the yearly capacity of cans made. We are always looking at ways to improve our systems and currently that involves robotics and ideas regarding AI assistance.

The most recent development of our business is our entry into the two-piece aluminium beverage can sector. Since the 1980s, Autorema has supported the threepiece food can market and adapted and evolved year-on-year. With aluminium gaining increasing popularity, we saw it only fit that we keep up with the rise. Autorema has a deep history in can making; it’s this generational experience and knowledge that continues to fuel us when creating future-proof can making solutions and positioning ourselves as a trusted supplier to customers.