Stretch film packaging allows prints to no longer spread

A new stretch-wrapping system helped Dingley to secure shrink-wrapped bundles of prints on mail trays, eliminating the need for manual packaging and increasing productivity by nearly 33%.

Over the years, Dingley, a catalog printer in Lisbon, Maine, has used a print specification called RightSize, which has saved customers significant amounts of paper, ink, and postage costs. But for their factories, the past tray packaging program was inefficient, resulting in wasted time, product damage, and high labor costs.

Dingley provides nationwide business-to-business mail order catalog services. It prints more than 600 million product catalogs each year and uses postal pallets to distribute nationwide batch mailing centers (BMCs). The company's featured service is RightSize, a catalog of 8 x 101/8 inch format, which can save customers up to ten percent in paper and mailing costs compared to the standard printed 83/8 x 107/8 inch catalog. Dingley's large factory building covers an area of ​​260,000 square feet. It requires a large number of catalogues, flyers and inserts to be shipped in and out of the factory building. It requires an efficient and reliable production system.

Before May 2003, there were always serious obstacles to the terminal operation of the factory. The semi-automatic system with the finished product trays was imperfectly packed and required a lot of manpower. After extensive research, Dingley customized a two-step six-sided pallet packaging system to Orion Packaging Systems to replace the semi-automatic packaging machine, which increased the tray handling efficiency by nearly 33 percentage points.

Slow manual packaging, high cost

In the final packing department of Dingley, the bound product catalog was shrink-wrapped according to BMC's requirements and placed on the mailing tray. Before purchasing the automatic stretch packer from Orion, Dingley used two semi-automatic machines and required four operators to manually bind them. Stacked trays are sent to the stretch pack area, where the operator positions the packer arm and begins the wrapping process. In the packaging process, the tray is horizontally wrapped around the four sides. The packaged tray is removed from the machine and manually tied from the top and bottom.

Dingley’s custom-built dual-table automated packaging system for Orion was installed in June 2003.

Rex Stickley, Dingley's Binding Department Manager, explained: “We used to tie the pallets together and bind them. It was easy to stack and ready to be loaded onto the trailer. In the use of this system, we had a lot of problems. After the bundled catalogue is compacted, the binding band will loosen and the tray will fall off. We have to pick up a bundle of catalogues again."

Moreover, the process of parcels and lashings is very slow, with only 20 to 30 pallets per hour. Stickley added: "This creates a bottleneck for the entire factory's workflow system."

Pallets are packed with shrink-wrapped prints. First, the track-type stretch-wrapping machine vertically wraps these prints from the top and bottom, and then fixes the four sides of the tray through a rotating tower packing machine. The trays are then packaged and stacked. It is then transported to another area for delivery by a forklift.

About three years ago, Stickley began looking for a more effective stretch wrapping solution. At the suggestion of equipment seller Butler Brothers, Dingley approached Orion, a stretch packaging machine manufacturer based in Collierville, Tenn., to see if it was possible to customize the packaging system for handling mail trays. Although Orion previously provided such integrated packaging equipment for other industries, this is the first time it has entered the printing industry. Stickley said: "We visited Orion's manufacturing facility in Montreal. The factory is impressive, but what really made us memorable is their in-house technology."

In January 2003, Dingley customized Orion a dual-table automatic packaging system, and the system was installed in place five months later.

Six-sided wrapping is the solution

Orion believes that there are some special issues that need to be solved in the printing and graphic design industries. One of the problems is how to effectively fix the smooth and easily loose printed matter to the tray without using the tying material that damages the uppermost layer of the product. In addition, the four sides and the top of the printing paper should be kept clean and dry.

In order to meet these Dingley requirements, Orion has developed a two-machine system for six-sided packaging. The first is the Constellation orbital FAOW-OR-80, which vertically packs the pallets from the top and bottom, and then closes the four sides of the pallet by a MA-55 turret type automatic stretch packer.

In addition to the above requirements, Dingley has some special requests. According to Stickley, the system should be "unmanned." He said: "The only thing that will take care of this machine during the whole process is the forklift operator who feeds the pallets into the system and if necessary, loads the new film on the machine."

Dingley's manager of the binding department explained that with the current process, the pallet can be thrown away from the forklift and it can be picked up and continued to work. The six-sided package maintains the integrity of the tray so the tray does not spread.

The 58-foot conveyor supplied by Orion receives the pallet from the forklift operator on one end, the pallet passes through the entire system, and the packaged pallet exits the system from the other end. The Allen-Bradley programmable controller drives AC motors to control motion.

Reliability is another point that Dingley is most concerned about. Stickley said: "The system must work 24 hours." The double roll configuration of the orbital ring packing machine improves the reliability of the system. Each bundle is packed in two rolls of plastic. He explained: “There is a film roll of the same size on each side of the ring, which plays a balancing role. Other similar systems use a single roll, so to complete the production, the ring must be run faster. With a double roll structure, you can Reduce the speed of the ring, reduce the wear on the machine. In the case of the need to increase production, you can also make adjustments to make the ring run faster. If necessary, the speed can be packaged 70 to 75 trays per hour."

Under normal operating conditions, Dingley runs a dual-stage packer at 60 to 65 trays per hour. Finally, flexibility is also a big issue. The system is designed to accommodate trays 12 inches to 4 feet high, as well as a variety of mailing tray structures. According to Stickley, the mailing tray uses small "foot" sizes that can be changed at the bottom. "They (American postal service) can change the foot arrangement pattern by half an inch or three quarters of an inch, so Orion designed the roll system to be flexible and adaptable to a variety of sizes. As we do a lot of mail processing, we can never know it. What kind of pallets are taken from the post office, so we need to make sure that we cover the full range of foot arrangements so that pallets of all sizes can pass through the system without any obstacles.”

After almost a year in the installation of the Orion stretch-wrapping system, Stickley commented, “It's really great, as expected.” In addition to increasing the packing speed of Dingley from 20 trays per hour to 60 trays per hour, Having completely broken the production bottleneck of the factory, the system has also saved considerable costs in terms of labor and materials. Dingley no longer needs to tie the tray vertically, saving the cost of lashing materials. The packaged pallets have better integrity, and the printer can reduce the thickness of the cardboard used as packaging sheets to save more money.

The stability of the tray has also been greatly improved. Stickley said: "Six-sided packaging can maintain the integrity of the tray, so it will not spread. Now you can even throw the tray from the forklift and pick it up to continue working."