Screw jacks slash downtime at canning plant

Competing in the global market means tackling the human resource challenge and improving efficiencies across the manufacturing process. One canning company in the South of England has achieved efficiencies in both these areas by cost-effectively updating its can washing facility.

At Rexam Beverage Can UK's plant in Milton Keynes there are three aluminium can production lines. Each line can cater for all the differing sizes of cans, including 44, 50 and 56.8cl. Rexam recently reviewed its manufacturing practice and decided, with the assistance of the Power Jacks application engineer, to invest in screw jack systems for the can washing area of the production. The company has since reported huge improvements, including saving man-hours and lowering the down time, which is crucial for increasing output, Rexam is extremely pleased with the financial benefits.

An international leader when it comes to the manufacture of cans for the soft drinks, beers and lagers markets, Rexam has 16 plants scattered across Europe and Asia supplying the drinks industry with 22billion cans every year, yet the company continues to seek ways to increase production levels.

Four hours cut to 20 minutes

The plant at Milton Keynes is no different to many other facilities around the world. Traditionally the washing facility was altered manually for each different can size, so changing the facility was a labour-intensive task taking an average of six people four hours per production line. This has now been cut to one individual working on it for 20 minutes. A major part of this transformation is down to the addition of screw jack systems from Power Jacks.

Prior to the upgrade, when the can washer area on each line required to be changed to accommodate a run of different sized cans (taller or shorter) the conversion would be completed manually. This process would be costly to the organisation. Converting the line meant men with spanners climbing the machine framework, running nuts up or down threaded studs and, once positioned, locking them off with a second nut. All in all, this was a very time-consuming, labour-intensive and costly activity in terms of lost production time.

Rexam realised that if the can size conversion process could be automated, then this would bring about positive improvements in up time and line utilisation. The cans travel through a six-stage process by conveyor. Stages 1 and 2 are wash tanks, which contain a solution of hydrofluoric acid used to effectively etch the cans surface to provide a good clean keying surface for the print process. The remaining stages in tanks 3 to 6 finish the process by washing and finally blow-drying the cans.

System components

The automated system for height adjustment of tanks 3 to 6 uses 28 screw jacks, each rated at 10kN load capacity, manufactured and supplied by Power Jacks Ltd. Model TE2500 inverted translating screw jacks were selected from Power Jacks' standard range of E-Series Metric Machine Screw Jacks with some small customisation. Stainless steel components were used to suit the mildly corrosive application environment.

Also included within the scope of supply were bevel gearboxes, drive shafts and couplings to ensure consistent, repeatable and synchronised movement over the length and span of this washer line. Jim Brownrigg, Conversion Manager at the plant, comments: "The improvement was dramatic. The process now takes one person a mere 20 minutes!" Needless to say, five hours and 40 minutes is a huge saving in any production environment. This success is thanks to some clear thinking from the Rexam plant engineers, the system integrator and Power Jacks Group engineers.

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