Lanfranchi has developed and produced this machine specifically for bottling lines with frequent and continuous change-over operations and bottles with unusual and unstable geometry, that can only be conveyed in special containers called “pucks”.
The puck-feeder can be in mechanical block with a Lanfranchi unscrambler (duo-block solution) or be in block with a Lanfranchi unscrambler-orientator (super-block solution), if it is necessary to orientate the bottles before they are conveyed to the puck.
The pucks are introduced in the machine by means of a special wormscrew-feeder, that lets the puck enter only if there are bottles present (1).
Thanks to this solution, it is not necessary to have recycling system for empty pucks (no bottle no puck). The bottles are conveyed to the unscrambler by means of a vacuum star-wheel, complete with a control device and a reject system that prevent possible overturned bottles to reach the puck-feeder. The bottles are then conveyed from the vacuum star-wheel by pneumatic pincers (3) that allow the bottles to be precisely inserted inside the pucks (2, 4). Once the bottles are in the pucks, they are conveyed up to the discharge section of the machine (5).
At the exit there is a control system that detects the position of the bottles and rejects all the misplaced bottles.
One of the main advantages of this solution is that the bottles are always in a positive handling mode, so it is very easy to control the insertion of the bottles in the pucks.
The puck insertion system is so precise that pucks can be made with little clearance, facilitating the process of filling, capping and labelling, as the bottle is always in a secure position in the puck.
The Puck-Feeder system can work from an output of 2.000 pucks/hour
up to 30.000 pucks/hour for bottles from 100 ml to 1000 ml.
