Alston's furnished with wrapper
August 1st 2006

A meeting at the PPMA show between Aetna UK and Alston's Furniture has led to the installation of four Robopac 506 PFS machines at the furniture manufacturer's Ipswich factory over a 12 month period.

Previously items were wrapped by hand using a spinning turntable where the operator had to stand by the item to supervise operations. This meant that he was unable to prepare the next item for wrapping, which limited productivity.

In the first instance, Aetna installed a trial Robopac 506PFS semi automatic machine with optional puriball feature.

This adds protective film wrap to various items of furniture, using stretch film only or a combination of bubble-wrap and stretch film. Products travel to the wrapping station from the production area via three motorised conveyors, feeding product at an average of 30 items per hour. The items are then loaded by hand from the conveyor on to a turntable and the wrap cycle begins. The end result is a securely wrapped product that is fully protected in storage or transit.

Alston's say that the Robopac 506 machines have been readily adopted by the line operators who appreciate the genuinely operator friendly interface, robust construction and high levels of after sales service.

More articles from AETNA UK LTD: