The Challenge

A pharmaceutical company approached Wrabacon looking to open a line for a new product, where packets of product would need to be stood up and stacked in a tray. Without an automated solution, the new line’s demand would require multiple workers to tediously count and stand product packets — by hand — constantly throughout the workday. To maximize efficiency, the company required a solution that produced a neat, consistently numbered product stack, each and every time.

The Solution

Wrabacon custom designed and manufactured a collating system that receives product packets at the rate of up to 120 per minute. The system stands the packets up on end, collates them, and presents a group of 60 to an operator for manual packing.

The product transfers from an existing X-ray machine to a short, inclined conveyor lying down with the wide side of the packet leading. The packets accumulate in a pocket on an indexing conveyor until 12 have been stacked, then the machine indexes, which stands up the stack. Once 12 more have accumulated in the first pocket, the machine indexes again, and pushes the first stack out of the pocket and then pushes it again 90 degrees where stacks will accumulate together. After five stacks have been pushed together this way, the combined stack of 60 is then pushed 90 degrees to the operator, to be manually packed on a tray.