Food Service Tub Lidder

Challenge 

Nestle NZ came to us in late 2017 with a pure engineering challenge. When filled with Maggi Mix, soups and gravy powder their large injection moulded polypropylene food service tubs were becoming slightly misshapen. This was preventing the lids from snaping on perfectly. Add to this a need for significantly higher speeds and an old pneumatic machine which couldn’t be adapted, and it was clear that things had to change.   

Solution 

First, we designed a rigid lid applicator which straightened up the plastic sides of the tubs. Then we introduced a 3-servo motor pluck and lid system for greater repeatability, and which could cope with size changes in less than 5 minutes via an HMI setting.  

To improve the line efficiency, we created in a ’non-lid’ and reject system.