Equipment | Packaging Materials | Environment | The Business of Packaging | Technical Service and Support | Plant Performance | Investment
New Packaging Equipment Compared to Old Equipment, is it time to give yours the boot?
Packaging Equipment is ever-changing. With the thinner and more sustainable materials, the carbon footprint is becoming more and more a hot topic. Operations managers are looking to lower energy consumption and the equipment available today is light years better.
We love packaging equipment for so many reasons, and each of us has a unique take on the topic. I went around our company and asked some of the sales team and senior management why they love newer equipment. With the history of some of our team here, we've seen the change in technology in the field.
Here are SOME of the responses I got from my mini interviews:
State-Of-The-Art Technology
With Servomotors allowing several package sizes to run at once, the ease of packaging products is light years from the equipment of yesterday. All you have to do is enter the speed with which you are looking to package, the temperature needed to seal, the width and the length of the product and you just let the machine go. Punch in a code next time for the specific product and you are on your way.
Energy Efficiency
Everything is using much less power, heat and producing less emissions by the year. There are some things that you could do with your current equipment to ease the efficiency and reduce energy use, but the new equipment takes the extra work out for you. This in turn helps the environment as well as your pocket! Reducing GHGs (greenhouse gases) is a major component to keeping our industry sustainable. Manufacturers of new equipment take this into account creating better machines that last a longer amount of time!
Reliability
This is not to say that you will not encounter technical issues with your brand new packaging equipment. We can say that the issues that arise will be fewer and farther between than the machines of yesterday though! There is a warranty on every new piece of equipment. That is always a great fallback on top of having that shiny new equipment that you can show off to visitors to your facility. >
I asked our trusty technical service manager why she loves new equipment too. Her immediate response was, "finding parts for new equipment and having them readily available!" Some older pieces have long waits on finding parts if they can even be found.
Downtime Reduction
There is the fact that these newer machines also produce with less downtime and can handle the newer products to package with! You can count on reduced maintenance costs, that's for sure. There is "surprise downtime" reduction which keeps you far more productive. There is also less rework as a result of better technologies with new equipment. Most new machines handle the newer, sustainable, thinner materials that are reducing costs even more. Old machines can't take the new materials due to heat issues, especially when it comes to machines that were originally made to use with PVC.
These are just some of the many reasons that new equipment on the market today is keeping us and our customers happy. Those newer production powerhouses also keep a smile on your worker's faces, reducing stress in the workplace! The shiny new equipment inspires your employees on the packaging lines to treat the equipment better too, stopping them dead in their tracks from transferring the gum they werent supposed to be chewing snugly underneath the lip of the conveyor. look into automating your lines!
