Weetabix is the UK’s leading cereal brand and is exported to over 80 countries. Kliklok has worked closely with the Weetabix Food Company over recent years, and has successfully installed a number of automatic cartoning lines at their Kettering site in Northamptonshire, to pack Alpen cereal bars and Weetabix biscuits.
For the Alpen bars, Weetabix chose a pair of Kliklok’s popular & well-proven ECT500 top load glue erectors, to run a 5-pack and 10-pack. The machines were modified to suit the particular Weetabix factory requirements – including customised electrical specification, Panelview 1000 touch screen, Nordson hot melt glue application & powered carton hopper. The ECT500’s were also designed to incorporate a SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system to automatically provide trending, diagnostic data, and management information such as scheduled maintenance procedures and logistics.
Another recent success at Weetabix was a joint project with CKF, providing two automated lines for wrapped packs of Weetabix biscuits. Each line included Kliklok’s award winning high performance Celox cartoner, running at speeds up to 200 cartons per minute, and incorporating Linx laser coders, a low level carton hopper for ease of loading, plus 2-dimensional size change capability directly from the interactive touch screen. Each Celox was integrated with a twin infeed TRACi loader, Kliklok’s automatic collating & stacking system. Both lines were configured to pack 4 different formats of Weetabix’s standard 12-biscuit wrap, namely a 24 pack, a 48 pack, a 36 pack and a 72 pack. Again Kliklok worked closely alongside Weetabix to ensure that the design of each machine system matched the specific mechanical & electrical requirements of the Weetabix factory.
Due to layout changes in one of the other packing lines at the Kettering site, Kliklok is now working on another new project for Weetabix, to automatically accept wraps of biscuits arriving “on edge” from a buffer storage unit and rotating them through 90 degrees, prior to being cartoned. To achieve this, Kliklok are designing two modified versions of their Rotary Transfer System (RTS). This is a continuous motion system that uses a series of turret arms which rotate in a cam track, the arms then lower and close a ‘pocket’ around the product to provide a gentle 90 degree transfer at speeds up to 220 products per minute. The two new RTS units are scheduled for installation over the coming months.
Rob Meachin, Head of Capital for Weetabix, says “The mutually beneficial relationship between Kliklok & Weetabix has led to a strong & trusted partnership, built on the good reputation & shared values of both companies for quality and reliability.”
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