Baumer unveils new generation of hot melt glue guns
GLUING SPECIALIST Baumer has been actively promoting its range of hot melt guns that offer an all-around insulation, now with the capacity to be retrofitted. A reduced surface area cuts back on required energy. By minimising radiation the guns need less than 50 percent of former energy requirement without affecting gluing quality.
The tank, hose, melting mode and the fast intermittent performance of Xmelt guns, for example, can conserve adhesive, energy and expenditure. With insulated guns on-the-job safety is improved. An operator can touch the heated hot melt gun. Moreover it means reduced energy consumption, less electrical power, a cooler machine and up to 50 percent time saving in heating phase, claims Baumer.
The company has also designed the HP-500-C coating head for the application of hot melt.
The coating head is based on HP-500 guns. Thanks to their integrated pneumatic valves they can switch extremely quickly. Even at maximum machine speed an operator can apply intermittent adhesives as well as continuous coating with highest accuracy in glue distribution and dosage.
The coating heads are supported by solid precision brackets and can be positioned exactly where required on the material. This is crucial for optimum coating results and ensures simple set-up with reproducible application. When the product is temperature sensitive, the gun can be removed at the machine stop. There are brackets for almost any position within a machine.
Camera verification
Quality assurance systems and camera verification systems are frequently requested given today’s difficult economic conditions and this is where a sensor or camera to improve product control and quality assurance comes into its own.
With the addition of two different camera systems to an existing gluer, one of Baumer’s customers has added even more modularity features to an existing machine. Since all of them fit in the Xtend series, the range of options such as hot melt and liquid glue application, code reading, glue inspection, flap control and camera detection are now integrated into a central touch screen user interface with ejector and one protocol.
An example of improving the flexibility of an existing gluer that was installed in 2007 comes from another Baumer customer who equipped their existing gluer with an additional camera system to handle the production of bottle carriers for the beverage industry. The variety of products made on this machine now includes baskets, fully enclosed packs and wraps for bottles and cans as well as special solutions. For example, the handles of a drinking carton can now be made of carton board, with the use of no plastic materials. A tiny camera, placed just behind the folding section for the handle compares the image of a perfect product with that of each subsequent product passing at full speed. The Baumer Verisens camera makes sure that for each and every passing product, the flaps of the handle are correctly folded — otherwise the carton is ejected.
Glue gun control
For the production of bottle carriers, many glue lines are needed. In fact, one Baumer customer operates a gluer that includes 24 cold glue guns
(P-500) with dynamic high pressure pump. Their glue application is precise and reliable when re-starting after a machine stop.
End user customers still require glue line monitoring – even single adhesive dots in forbidden areas can cause automated carton erector jams resulting in expensive machine stops at the customer’s production line. To solve these issues for a specific customer, Baumer provided 18 ULT-sensors that can detect single glue lines and can even decide if this line still has the ability to tack.
For complex bottle carriers, yet another customer has added two cameras to a gluing line that monitors a set glue pattern on each carton. The Baumer Gluevision Pix system can see multiple glue lines simultaneously, and at the same time determine the lateral or horizontal position of the product itself, skew or if windows are properly cut.
As with other parts of the Xtend system, this results in ejection of faulty products and a combined production protocol. The advantage of a camera vision system is real time interpretation and the possibility to save pictures of good and faulty products for later analysis.
At another Baumer customer, a typical job for bottle carriers runs for up to 20 hours. “Our lines run at high speed with great consistency on long runs, sixteen hours a day, six days a week. It is this matching of speed and consistency that gives us the production levels we need,” says the head of the gluing department. “With the integration of camera systems, operators at the end of the line are not involved in inspection any more and can concentrate on other tasks.”
Hot melt for instant tack
For instant tack between small flaps of the bottle carrier with high tension, some customers have added a Baumer Xmelt hot melt system with HP-series application guns. It supports the cold glue bonding while curing. The advantage of an integrated system is not only that it can manipulate all guns, (hot or cold glue) from one screen — and can also control all functions of the melter from one screen or switch the system to ‘economy mode’.
An increasing number of cartons include barcodes. Even in beverage packages there is a need for detection to make sure that the right code has been applied on every carton that travels through the gluer. To avoid mix-ups, customers have added Baumer EAN-code sensors to their gluer. Shown on the large user touch screen, the co-demand product length check from the same sensor is one more link in a long failsafe quality chain. If any one of those inspection devices finds the product faulty, it results in ejection or a machine stop.
There is also a solution for glue inspection by a glue wheel in the Baumer Xtend product line. Both the carton and the applied glue are analysed by another advanced sensor while at the same time checking the whole length of the glue flap. Glued cartons pass through the sensor while microwave sensors check the glue quantity within a predefined range. Simultaneously, integrated light barriers precisely measure the length. Investment in cameras and sensors always results in savings and improved quality assurance, Baumer believes, whilst allowing most customers to virtually eliminate shipment return. It’s this type of efficiency that helps carton makers remain competitive in a highly aggressive market. Such investment also opens up a number of new markets and allows carton makers to accept new business that we would have otherwise been turned away.
Corrugated box gluing with camera verification
Baumer has designed a system for integrated 100 percent inspection of corrugated boxes.
The problem, according to Baumer, might be that the blank is perfect, the optic impression good but still things can go wrong in processing of corrugated boxes: There is a diagonally fed blank. Or fragments of the blank cover the glue flap. Or the whole adhesive bond opens up with first use.
Optical check instruments can avoid any kind of trouble. Customer complaints are annoying and usually expensive. The customer may never come back when there is no goodwill gesture after complaints. And goodwill usually means a significant reduction in price or second production without charge. In case the customer faces further damage caused by your fault, for example when deadlines are not met, it may get hard for the business. Last but not least, for this reason many customers – especially big brands – demand quality measures starting at the placing of an order.
The biggest risk is a
t the end of the chain: in gluing and folding the box. Samples that may be adequate elsewhere must be replaced by systematic verification. Baumer systems combine application of glue with glue monitoring and other verifications to a system with central administration.
These systems are equipped with a two-step fault warning system: The first step is an optical alarm for erroneous products as required combined with ejection or marking at the end of the station. In case there are consecutive errors, the system can also stop the feeder. At the end of the process the operator can produce PDF protocols that can be forwarded from box maker to brand manufacturers together with the products.
New bag melter
Baumer has recently unveiled a newly developed bag melter for PUR adhesives from 20kg packages. Applications in wood and furniture industries for PUR adhesives range from edge gluing to production of pre-finished hardwood floor and inlay production. Wherever great strength and resistance of the adhesive to heat, frost and humidity are required.
Effective and resource-saving work with PUR adhesives requires a continuous production process without interruptions, minimum cleaning time and long-term maintenance intervals.
Features of the all-new XBM bag are a full discharge and a long shelf life of the opened foil. The content of the bag is used up entirely and expensive residues do not remain. The airtight sealing of the atmospheric air in connection with special pressing cycles prevents premature hardening of the polyurethane adhesive and oxidation. It is easy to clean the bag melter, says Baumer. The non-stick coating of adhesive-carrying parts of the bag melter ensures quick and easy cleaning. The tank cap can be removed without tools; all parts to be cleaned are reached by the operator without difficulty. The short easy cleaning cycle increases the productivity of the machine. The bag can be changed during the current production.
BAUMER:
T: +49 2151 4402419