When you’re looking to reduce costs of manufacturing foam, roll packaging produces one of the greatest cost savings for a foam manufacturing facility. Foam blocks are big, heavy, and full of air. They take up a lot of space both on your manufacturing floor and on a truck.
That air ends up costing manufacturers a lot of money. Whether it’s taking up space on your floor or you’re shipping it around the country, you’re wasting resources. This is why a block compression machine is an ideal way to save on overhead.
Watch the video to learn more about the advancements of our newest component on the block compression machine. With the variable roll cage, you can now package more in the same machine while taking advantage of full automation.
Without compression, foamers end up shipping a lot of air. The blocks’ size and shape mean they take up a lot of volume in the truck but reach only 1/8th of its total weight limit before the truck is full. Compression packaging removes that air, meaning each individual product takes up less volume. This packaging method is so effective, you could fill a truck to weight-capacity and still have room for approximately 7-times more roll-packed blocks. What before would have taken eight trucks to ship now fits into one with room to spare. This reduces the shipping cost by up to $200… per package!
Variable Cage Protects Budgets and Products
You can see that investing in a block compression machine will pay for itself quickly in saved shipping costs. Our BC2496 takes that investment to the next level, though, by accommodating variability in packaging options and ensuring the product is protected. Rolled packages can range from 16-24 inches, and our system can even skip the rolling stage and simply flat-pack blocks as well. Regardless of the packaging method your block requires, you can be certain it will recover once the package is opened.
How Do We Know the Product is Safe?
We shared with you previously how the press in our compression machines is smart. The press is designed to monitor feedback that keeps it fast, reactive, balanced, and strong, consistently applying the right pressure – no more, no less. The BC2496 Block Compression Machine takes this intelligence to another level, both at the infeed and in the variable roll cage sections. Thanks to a variety of sensors and measuring devices, operators now input far less information.
At the infeed, the sensors determine the weight, height, length, and density of the block. If you recall from pages 2-3 of our brochure, those are all the measurements we use in our roll cage calculator to determine the smallest safe dimensions of the final package. Previously, an operator would need to input these details into the HMI as a recipe. If the block was not of the exact same dimensions as the recipe, the roll cage would still create the same final package. In many cases with small variances, this is fine, but it does leave open the possibility that an out-of-spec block could end up over-compressed or even damage the roll cage.
Now with our variable roll cage, the machine takes those measurements from the infeed and press and communicates them directly to the roll cage – no operator inputs necessary. The cage rolls the product to the appropriate diameter based on those measurements. Say you have two blocks of equal density; one is 80 x 60 x 48 and 267 lbs, the other is 80 x 60 x 50 and 278 lbs. The roll cage knows the first can be packaged at a 22 ¼ in diameter, and the second can be packaged at a 22 ¾ in diameter without risking compression set. Each and every product is packaged to it’s smallest possible diameter without risking over-compression. You could run these products back-to-back and be certain they would be packaged correctly, with no changes needed on the HMI.
Whether you’re interested in upgrading or purchasing a C³ Block Compression Machine, it’s hard to ignore the benefits of this new technology. With the undeniable shipping cost savings, enhanced product variability potential, and nearly full automation designed to protect your product and your investment, our new Variable Roll Cage technology is sure to help you achieve your operational goals.
You can read more about it in Issue 3 of our Eng*nuity magazine (subscribe here), or contact us today to learn more about how a block compression variable roll cage can help you reduce operator injuries and errors while improving throughput and cost savings.