April’s machine of the month is a labelling system built for a leading toiletry manufacturer. The solution was designed to apply front and back labels onto shaped toiletry bottles with a high level of accuracy and uniformity. It was installed directly into the customer’s filling line and capable of labelling more than 60 bottles per minute.
The machine was based on an ALline E front and back labeller, configured for elliptical bottles and equipped with a scroll gapping unit and a twin gripper orientation unit. It’s designed to accurately align each bottle via a dynamic puck capture system (using a sophisticated motion controller) and release it perfectly orientated, to then be securely held under the top hold down mechanism. The label application is then performed by two ALritma label heads, automatically synchronised with the conveyor speed and results in a very accurate and uniform labelling result beyond that which can be achieved by a more conventional chain orientation unit or similar.
Watch the machine in action
View a 3D animation of the machine