Case study 9. VP2 in line for concrete slab manufacture
Polyester Strapping On Concrete Products
The Strap Poka strapping machine is difficult to spot on this photograph because its folded flat and is above the pack – see the black and yellow chevrons. Another part of the strapping machine installation is a bridge mounted over the conveyor on which coilholders for the steel strap are placed, and under which the completed packs exit the packing station. Finally, two strap grippers are placed at the input end of the conveyor.
Operation of the strapping machine is simple:
Operator pulls two straps Steel or Polyester, from the overhead Strap Poka and ‘swipes’ them into the automatic strap grippers. The pack is then assembled on top of the straps. The operator pulls/auto releases the straps from the lower grippers – the top gantry of the Poka pneumatically powers forward to bring the other side of the strap towards the operator to enable him feed it into a friction weld tool/sealess tool, and tension/seal the strap in the normal way.
The Strapping Machine cost approx 10% of what an automatic strapper would have cost and has none of the associated cost and maintenance problems. Cycle time for strapping each pack (2 straps) is 30-40 seconds.
