Packaging Machinery - Samples and Testing Ensure Maximum Performance
Rinsing machines, filling equipment, capping machines and more are used across many different industries, to prepare an even greater number of different products. The packaging equipment used for all of these industries and products will differ based on product viscosity, speed, bottles and numerous other factors and components. In fact, almost no two packaging machines are alike!
To help ensure the best solution for any packaging project, Liquid Packaging Solutions always requests that actual samples be sent to the LPS plant. By using the actual product to be packaged, along with the bottles, caps and other items that will be used to prepare the product at the end users plant, LPS can ensure that the machinery, or the packaging system as a whole, works to meet the packagers needs before delivery of the equipment. This is important for a number of different reasons.
The first, and most obvious, benefit is that the packager expects the machinery to perform a certain task, in a certain way. By using the products, bottles and other components at the manufacturing plant, LPS can identify and correct issues before the equipment is put in to production. In other words, the machinery will work the way LPS expects it to work, with the customer's product and package.
Of course, the packagers expectations are even more important than those of LPS when it comes to machine performance. So not only does LPS request samples, but LPS strongly encourages a packager to watch their machinery run prior to shipment to the production facility. Termed a Factory Acceptance Test ("FAT"), this helps to ensure that the machinery will work the way the packager expects it to work. Again, using customer samples helps to ensure the FAT most closely tracks the actual packaging process in the packager's plant, but the FAT serves a few additional purposes as well.
Even though the equipment may run to the expectations of LPS at the FAT, those expectations may not always line up perfectly with what the customer envisioned. Watching the machinery run allows a customer to ask questions, request changes or add options to ensure an efficient packaging process. These changes can be made more quickly and much more easily while the equipment is still in the LPS plant. All of the necessary tools to make adjustments, modifications or additions are available at LPS, along with the technicians to make these changes, saving both LPS and the packager time and money when changes are needed or desired.
In addition to ensuring the machinery meets customer expectations and making any necessary changes, an FAT also allows a packager to get an early understanding of the equipment, changeover, operation and controls. Though training and installation are offered by Liquid Packaging Solutions, FAT's offer early training before the installation of the equipment. Both samples and the FAT are crucial to ensuring the packaging machinery built for any project will both meet the needs and the expectations of the end user, while allowing for any necessary modifications to be quickly and easily implemented.
To learn more about packaging equipment, FAT's, training, installation or any of the other services offered by LPS, simply call a Packaging Specialist at 219-393-3600 today.