Anyone who wants to operate successfully in competition with international rivals has to supply customer-oriented, flexible and trend-setting concepts. Groninger & Co. GmbH is a company that regularly manages to meet exactly these requirements. In this particular case by delivering a fully automatic filling and closing line for nail varnish to a well-known French cosmetic manufacturer. High flexibility in product changeover operations is one of the outstanding features of the line that has been supplied. The filling machine is, for example, equipped with eight pumps, including filling needles. Only four of the eight pumps are, however, used for the production process. The remaining pumps, including the filling needles, are cleaned in the line while production is still going on - automatically and independently of the production process (CIP cleaning). This gives the customer high flexibility when changing to different products or pack sizes.

The customer's request for easy line access and cleaning was met here by opting for an open, linear filling and closing machine design.

Numerous control stations

The processing line is equipped with a variety of different checking stations in order to be able to guarantee high-quality results in the production process. These control stations are located directly after the relevant production stations in each case. When they are activated, the bad objects are ejected. The following control stations are integrated in the line: bottle presence check - bottle mouth check - mixing ball presence check and a torque check on the closing station.

As an optional extra, it is possible for the line to be equipped with a level extraction unit too, the purpose of which is to compensate for the different filling levels caused by bottle tolerances. The insertion station for brushes, which is provided with a cam -controlled alignment hopper, is another feature that helps to guarantee production reliability. Synchronisation of the filling machine with the closing machine leads to a dependable production process as well as to smooth and continuous operation even at high speeds. The capacity of the line amounts to an output of 180 products per minute.

The DFK / KVK-series processing line for nail varnish has a compact structure. It is precisely this compact design that keeps the necessary explosion-proof section to a minimum and therefore helps to reduce costs. The customer's request for short distances between the filling and closing operations was fulfilled in this way too.