Bundling Wax Boxes No Longer an Issue!
Sacramento Container is an independent corrugated packaging manufacturer with plants in Sacramento and Kingsburg, CA. The company is a versatile, highly customer-focused company. While their product portfolio is broad, they have, by virtue of location, a strong presence in the agricultural markets of California’s Central Valley.
So, when General Manager Bob Bruna contacted EAM-Mosca Regional Sales Manager, Tom Casso, in early 2014 looking for a bundler to strap wax cartons, Tom wasn’t surprised. He was cautious, however. Bundling wax coated boxes has historically been a strap supplier’s nightmare. For all the benefits wax provides in shipping fresh fruit and produce, strapping the bundles of freshly waxed boxes creates problematic issues in the strapper. The fresh wax tends to build up on the conveyor bed, gets pulled into the strap feed mechanism during the strap pullback and tensioning cycles and can cause smoke and a potential fire hazard when contacting the hot blade that typically seals the straps on the bundle.
For these reasons, the industry has clung to some technology from the 1970’s and 1980’s that carries the strap around the bundle, rather than push-feeding it, and seals it with friction rather than a heater blade. So, Tom’s reluctant recommendation to Bob was to look in the used market for a couple of the old systems and expect to spend some maintenance time keeping them operating. A few months later, however, Bruna called again and applying the pressure of a customer with a large fleet of Mosca equipment in both Sacramento Container plants, he entreated that EAM-Mosca come up with a solution for him.
EAM-Mosca had little to no success in this application in the past, but fortunately had recently introduced a new system. Mosca’s new TRC-6 corrugated bundler was proving itself in the box market to be a reliable and resilient product but had never been tested in the wax application. In its favor, it uses Mosca’s DC brushless direct drive system, eliminating the usual mechanical belt and chain drives that can get fouled by wax residue. In addition, it features Mosca’s proprietary Sonixs, ultra-sonic sealing technology that eliminates the combustion risk of wax dripping onto a hot metal blade. So, the companies agreed to test the TRC-6-165-Sonixs on a trial basis in Sacramento Container’s Kingsburg plant.
The wax line at Sacramento Kingsburg exits to a counter-stacker, conveys several feet to a right angle transfer, then passes over 15-20 feet of conveyor before reaching the bundler. When the Mosca TRC-6 was installed in December 2014, it was EAM-Mosca’s fervent hope that the wax would harden enough during the conveyor travel time, that wax loss on and into the strapper would be manageable. The installation, training and startup was completed in one day, and the Kingsburg crew was charged with running production through it.
Silence. EAM-Mosca’s service department didn’t hear from the plant for a month. In late January, a Service Technician stopped by to check on its performance. The report from production and maintenance was positive. There was some wax build up on the conveyor rollers and table plates, but that was easily removed with wire brush and scraper respectively. There was minimal evidence of wax on the sealing head and the Sonixs sealing system was operating flawlessly. The system was off to a great start.
Follow-up courtesy service calls in February and April, provided further reinforcement that the Mosca TRC-6-165-Sonixs was a solid performer in the wax application. No doubt, the distance of the bundling operation from the cascader and the attention of the Sacramento Container production crew both contributed to the success. Positive environment notwithstanding, however, a new solution was born for bundling wax boxes. The positive drive of the roller conveyor, the sealed bearing construction of the TRC-6 sealing head and the Sonixs ultra-sonic seal were all pieces of an advance of the art that has been a long time coming.
In fact, as the ultimate testimonial, Bob Bruna mentioned that he recommended the TRC6-165-Sonixs to a competitor who needed a solution for his own wax box strapping problem.
If you go to the Sacramento Container website, https://www.saccontainer.biz/, you will find photos and descriptions of an impressive array of box manufacturing equipment. Nowhere are strappers mentioned. But EAM-Mosca has the satisfaction of knowing that hidden behind the flute sizes, box shapes and print colors lies a Mosca bundler that keeps the all-important wax line running. And that after all, is the Mosca mission.
EAM-Mosca Corporation provides high-performance strapping system solutions to a variety of industries, including food, graphic arts, mailing, fulfillment, logistics, corrugated, wood, and other industrial or consumer goods. We combine innovative equipment with strapping materials manufactured to maximize machine performance and customer support programs that help our customers meet their performance and productivity goals.
To learn more about any of EAM-Mosca’s other productivity enhancing strapping systems, please call us at 800-456-3420, or email us at info@eammosca.com. You can also connect with EAM-Mosca on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/EAMMoscaCorp), Twitter (www.twitter.com/EAMMoscaCorp), and Facebook and LinkedIn via the links above.