How does OMNI make projects cost effective with improvements to the functionality and durability of your equipment? In one example, powder filling equipment using expensive, long turnaround stainless steel sleeves provided OMNI the right opportunity to enhance equipment for multiple ROI gains.

The application is for a Volumetric Filler used to fill abrasive cleaner in cardboard tubes. Our customer’s equipment filled this style package at high speed and used a stainless steel sleeve that the packaging tubes would merge with via a cam design. The cleaner would be dropped into the stainless fill tube and then the package would separate from the fill tube via cam and next to have the lid attached.

First and foremost, the stainless sleeves had to function in an abrasive product environment, causing extreme wear to the sleeves in no time at all (insert timeframe if we have it). To maintain production, management dedicated resources like labor, schedule availability for the planned part changeovers, as well as open orders on the high-priced sleeves as an on-going effort. Not to mention, when the market required new product package sizes a new expense was introduced into managing the production scheme.

The solution, OMNI supplied a molded polyurethane sleeve to replace the stainless version at a fraction of the cost. The polyurethane material provided durability against the abrasive powder, extending part life, therefore greatly decreasing the frequency of sleeve orders. To further maximize the customer’s investment, OMNI included significant savings on the tooling costs by designing an interchangeable mold. The mold was designed to make the longest of the sleeves but has inserts that can be installed to make the shorter of the tubes, no matter the market size demand.

Some of the several different length sleeves are shown below, how can your equipment designs benefit from OMNI’s material and molding applications?