Dairy Fresh Foods

Dairy Foods, Oct, 1994

New corrugated container and packaging operation improves efficiency, safety

Dairy Fresh Foods, Woodbury, Minn., has totally reorganized its corrugated operation. This changed involved redesigning a corrugated shipper to accommodate multiple sizes simultaneously; installing a new casepacker, palletizer and stretch wrapper; and revising conveyor systems for eartons and pallets.

In addition to dramatically improving efficiency, this reorganization has also improved operator safety by eliminating two positions that required strenuous lifting.

* The corrugated shipper was redesigned to accommodate both quart and 8-oz. gabletop cartons, enabling Dairy Fresh to run both size containers on one line. The new carton has a new high-performance paperboard liner that provides greater strength in vertical edge crush resistance, while simultaneously allowing use of a lower board weight without compromising performance. The new ease weighs 20% less than the older cases it replaced, resulting in a corresponding reduction in solid waste. The new case also is better designed for palletizing because it does not extend over the edge of the pallet where it could be damaged.

* A new corrugated casepacker was installed on an adjacent line that packs both plastic and paper half-gallon milk containers. Containers are delivered on two conveyors to both sides of the packer, where grippers lower six bottles from each side into the shipper, reducing damage and increasing the speed capabilities of the operation.

* A series of elevators was installed to raise cases of product from liquid packaging lines to an overhead conveyor that transported them to the palletizing area. Cases from each line are accumulated until a full load is ready for palletizing. The overhead conveyor allows use of a 30% shorter, more efficient conveying system, and has also freed space on the floor for plant use.

* A top-loading automatic palletizer and a stretch wrapper eliminate manual handling. The operator sets the product codes on the PLC-based palletizer for the proper pallet patterns. The palletizer will sense a pallet-load of product on the accumulating conveyor and automatically admit it for palletizing. The unit now runs the quart/8-oz. and half-gallon cases, and the plant is planning to add cases of 5-gal. bags, which are now hand-palletized.

Pallets of product are automatically conveyed to the stretch wrapper, where an arm moves around the pallet to apply the plastic wrapping. Wrapped pallets discharge onto a conveyor that will accumulate up to four pallets to await pickup by fork trucks.