First, market background
In recent years, China's pharmaceutical industry has made considerable progress. The market scale has continued to expand and new products have emerged in an endless stream. Although, for a long time, the prices of medicines have remained high, many related industries have benefited a lot from it. However, as the state increases its supervision of drug prices, its profit margin will gradually shrink, which will inevitably lead many pharmaceutical companies to control costs. attention.
Improving the efficiency of pharmaceuticals and reducing the cost of packaging is an inevitable choice for companies. Many pharmaceutical companies began to pay attention to automated packaging production lines and introduced automated cartoning machines. On the one hand, they can increase packaging efficiency and reduce the labor cost of packaging. On the other hand, they can also improve the level of hygiene. The use of such automated cartoning machines also has a direct impact on the technological requirements of the packaging carton.
As a paper packaging company for printing boxes, this change in the pharmaceutical industry can directly affect the market prospects of packaging manufacturers in the next 3 to 5 years. Therefore, companies with keen eyes in the industry have started to study the process of machine automatic packaging carton-machine box products.
Second, machine box equipment and principle
To study the process of bag-box products, we must first understand the operating principle of the automatic cartoning machine. First of all, the normal automatic cartoning machine can realize that the medicine bottle, the medicine board, the ointment, etc. and the manual are automatically loaded into the folding carton, and the cover box action is completed. Some automatic cartoning machines with more complete functions also have a sealer. Labels or additional functions such as heat shrink wraps.
Second, the automatic cartoner feed is generally divided into three inlets: manual inlets, vial inlets and baghouse inlets. The entire process from bag box feeding to final package molding can be roughly divided into four stages: lower box, opening, filling and closing. The lower box action is usually a suction cup draws a carton from the carton feeding port, descends to the main line of the cartoning, fixes the carton by one guide rail and opens the carton with a push plate, and there are two The forward moving card seat rises from below, catches the side of the carton from front to back, opens the box at a right angle and advances into the loading area. After the filling area is filled, the mechanism of the machine folds the ears into the left and right guide rails and then closes the cover.
The front cover mechanism will first bend the tongue of the carton, and then there will be a push plate to push the cover to bend so that the tongue will be inserted into the box and the buckle will be fastened. The cover action is a key action. The quality of the finish is closely related to the structure of the carton and the accuracy of the machine adjustment.
In addition, the equipment provided by different carton suppliers will have different working principles and mechanism actions, so the structure of the package box should match.
Usually, when the cartoning machine supplier provides equipment to the pharmaceutical company, it will provide the structural drawing of the machine bag box according to the specification size of the product. This drawing is the important process basis for the production of the machine bag box product.
Third, the main factors affecting the machine box machine effect
1. The structure of the carton
From the structural point of view, the box can be divided into two types based on the location of the lid: the same insertion and reverse insertion. Different box types require different movement directions for the lid, and the corresponding boxing machine structure is naturally different. The structure of the carton has a lot to do with the production level of the diecut. The precision of the die-cut size, the type of knife line, and the effect of loading all contribute to the difference in the structure of the carton, affecting the effect of the carton more or less, so picking the right die-cut supplier is crucial .
2. The stiffness of the carton
The stiffness of the paper box mainly affects the box type effect when the paper box is opened, such as whether the molding is square. Forming squares will affect the forward movement and loading process of the cassette, resulting in a card machine.
Stiffness of the carton is mainly due to the stiffness of the paper and its surface treatment process. Overwater oil products usually reduce the stiffness of the carton; the film and full version of the UV products have a higher stiffness than the original; the oiled products have better stiffness, but the paper is more brittle. Fiber is easy to break.
In addition, the moisture-proof storage of the carton is also important. Paper absorbs moisture easily in the natural air, and its moisture content increases in the same direction as the humidity and exposure time of the air. The moisture content of the paper is one of the key factors that affect the stiffness of the paper, so the paper needs moisture protection.
3. Carton opening performance
What is the opening performance of the tray? That is, the degree of difficulty in molding the carton using the relevant mechanism on the automatic cartoning machine.
Different cartoning machines have different actions for opening the box. Some devices have an auxiliary opening mechanism and can prefold the carton so as to reduce the mechanical force required to open the box and prevent the transitional extrusion from deforming the box. If the cartoning machine does not have such a mechanism, a pre-folding process is required during the production of the carton.
In addition, the amount of glue in the sticky box must be appropriate, too little will cause the box to be fake and sticky, and too much will cause inner stickiness.
Cartoning machine
The operation of the cartoning machine is usually carried out by the personnel of the pharmaceutical factory. Their ability to adjust the movement of the mechanism according to the carton structure is relatively limited, which often causes the card machine problem during the operation of the cartoning machine. The final analysis is due to the mechanism running and the carton. The structure does not match. For packaging manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies are God. When we can't ask others to cooperate with us, only we can adapt to them. We can adjust the structure of the carton according to the sample test machine conditions so as to adapt to the movement of the machine and solve the problem. Of course, if there are equipment experts involved in the prototype test machine, it may be recommended that the adjustment master is also a good way to make the necessary adjustments.
Fourth, the conclusion
In order to successfully complete the package movement on the cartoning machine, the die-cutting supplier and the cartoning machine supplier need to participate in the design and processing of the carton. Only by working together can we create a “win-win†situation for pharmaceutical companies, packaging manufacturers, and cartoner suppliers.