Heuft: Gently But Firmly

20 Jan 2014 --- Whether premium glass packaging filled with high–quality spirits or empty, unstable PET bottles for soft drinks: the HEUFT XY rejecting and sorting system handles all types of containers particularly carefully.

It is not only the quality of the contents that matters when filling mature whisky, exquisite cognac or top class gin. Packaging with a noble design and a high recognition value radiating exclusivity is just as important.  Individually designed glass bottles are first choice in this case – often with elaborate embossing that is decorative imprints such as brand names and logos.  Such premium packaging places the highest demands on the equipment of a filling line.  They have to be transported extremely gently along the line so that they are not scratched or chipped at all.  Glass–glass contact, collisions at transition points or hard impacts when distributing the containers must be avoided as far as possible.  A reliable upright rejection of non–brand packaging is particularly in demand during the sorting of empty bottles along returnable PET lines.  The HEUFT XY solves both tasks with style!

It´s all in the name of this perfected laning, sorting and rejecting system:  whilst its servo–controlled rejection table moves in the x direction exactly synchronously with the conveyor, the bottles are pushed onto the required lane, gently but firmly, in the y direction by means of several rejection segments.  This keeps the lateral acceleration of the bottles at an extremely low level.  They are precisely guided and not pushed at any stage.  Oval, rectangular or square containers are distributed or rejected without changing their alignment.
Upright distributing, sorting and rejecting

The HEUFT XY can be configured differently depending on the task on site using a user friendly colour touchscreen.

On the one hand it can be used as an independently operating laning system which distributes the bottles into two, three or even four lanes.  Their number per laning cycle is completely freely selectable.  Consequently a single–lane container transport can be distributed into two lanes without a problem e.g. to supply downstream packaging machines with a steady flow.  This occurs so carefully that glass packaging does not tip over or collide.  Even individual premium bottles for high–quality spirits keep their perfect appearance as a result.  The second typical application is as a sorting system:  in this case the HEUFT XY ensures that non–brand packaging is removed from the production flow reliably and upright in conjunction with an upstream inspection system such as the HEUFT SX bottle sorting unit.  This is achieved even in the case of extremely light and unstable empty PET bottles.

This makes the HEUFT XY a real all–rounder due to its servo–controlled rejection curve for distributing and rejecting containers extremely gently which makes it a must for spirit lines and soft drinks lines.