System integration boosts cheese plant's production capacity
Finding the room for needed packaging automation equipment was only one obstacle faced by Berner Cheese Corp., a custom packer in Dakota, Ill. Another was the need for interconnectivity between machines operating in a job-shop environment.
Berner packs glass jars, aerosol cans and squeezable plastic containers. The company wanted to boost line speeds by 33 percent to150 percent, depending on container type. To meet that objective, Berner retained Centerline Systems Inc. (CSI), the Batavia, Ill., representative of AMBEC Inc., to integrate equipment in a production area of less than 8,000 square feet. Berner also asked AMBEC to provide a tabletop conveyor and pressureless combiner.