The Customer
They are a North American manufacturer of household consumer and personal care products, managing multiple international brands.
This production line is based in the UK, producing dry hair shampoo. The customer had previously worked with Secomak two years prior and trusted us to provide urgent support at short notice.
The Challenge
The product is dry hair shampoo packaged in aerosol canisters. To maintain high safety and product quality standards, every can is completely submerged in a water bath to detect any leaking cans and dispose of them.
As the aerosol cans exit the water bath, every crevice must be completely dried from top to bottom. This ensures they can be printed or sleeved, coded, packaged, and shipped without delay.
A line upgrade was planned, but this needed to be brought forward at short notice due to an unscheduled line outage. To minimise disruption, installation had to be completed outside of peak hours, leaving minimal time to install and test the new equipment. This put the spotlight on the Secomak Installation Team, who needed to complete the work quickly whilst maintaining their typical high standards. Secomak’s engineers prioritised the work at the first opportunity, ensuring existing work schedules were not impacted by the late change in plans.
The Solution
The Secomak PowerGuide was selected to remove water from the entire surface of the aerosol canisters. As time was of the essence for this project, its modular design made installation simple, helping achieve full setup in a matter of hours. This line was operating at 18,000 cans p/hr and served by a single drying module; well within the 125,000 cans p/hr drying capabilities of the PowerGuide.
The PowerGuide utilises Secomak’s revolutionary DryGuide™ Technology, which removes all moisture from the surface of the can quickly and efficiently. Due to the design of the aerosol canisters, the top section includes multiple crevices which retain water and require extra attention to guarantee complete can drying. Installing additional drying fixtures for the top of the cans resolved this issue, whilst adjusting them to optimum angle made sure that maximum water removal was achieved.
The PowerGuide was already installed on their other production line, so the customer was already familiar with the design and benefits of the drying machine, such as quick and easy format changes.
For this line, the container sizes are as follows:
- 200 ml
- 400 ml
Supplying multinational organisations around the world, Secomak has equipped brands such as ABInBev, Coca-Cola, Carlsberg, Heineken, Pepsi and Magners with drying solutions for over 40 years. This expertise has driven development of the PowerGuide Drying Machine.
The Benefits
Working methodically and taking advantage of the PowerGuide’s adaptable design, Secomak’s engineers completed the expedited installation in 1.5 days, half a day ahead of schedule, including testing. Secomak’s technical support was of major benefit to the customer, who could continue to operate the line at full capacity without further unscheduled downtime, saving considerably on costs from lost production.
Secomak’s innovative DryGuide™ Technology is installed in the PowerGuide. The drying fixture is integrated into the guidance system, permanently fixing it into the optimum position for unrivalled performance and efficiency. The PowerGuide’s drying module boasts set positions and quick changes between bottle sizes, with no tools required, eliminating operator error and minimising disruption to the production line during product changeover. The additional drying fixture for the top of the canisters provided additional drying capability to guarantee complete moisture removal from every crevice.
Capable of servicing production lines running up to 125,000 cans p/hour, the PowerGuide provided significant headroom for growth. This piece of mind allows production speeds to increase seven-fold in future – without the need to purchase an additional machine!
Powered by efficient and reliable centrifugal blower technology, the PowerGuide requires minimal maintenance. When it does, the space-saving gullwing doors aid access and bestow it compact footprint, giving more options for install location, or even a shorter production line if required. Engineered for low noise levels, the PowerGuide’s acoustic properties make sure the machine is straightforward and safe for staff to operate comfortably for hours at a time.
Ask us to find out how the Secomak PowerGuide and our team of expert engineers can help with your washing or drying application for cans, bottles or jars.