When you have a production line handling a large volume of containers that must be sorted and organized in an efficient way, a bottle unscrambler device can prove integral. A bottle unscrambler is a machine used to feed bottles onto production lines in the bottling industries. Many designs are available, but their purpose is the same, feed bottles automatically at high speeds eliminating the expensive, inefficient manual labor of this process.
Our unscramblers are used in dozens of industries and they are widely used in:
- Pharmaceutical/Nutraceutical
- Biotechnology/Diagnostics
- Food and Beverage
- Cosmetics and Personal Care
- Chemicals and Consumer Goods
- Cannabis
Our rotary turntable is a semi-automatic bottle unscrambler for a wide range of plastic and glass bottles;
The box type bottle feeder machine is a fully automatic bottle unscrambler designed for small plastic bottles in pharmaceutical or other industries;
Our centrifugal bottle unscrambler is widely used for PE and PET bottles in food and beverage industry, with high performance and stable speed;
The linear hook type bottle unscrambler is suitable for all kinds of regular and irregular plastic bottles, with high speed and wide range of application.
What Does a Bottle Unscrambler Do?
Bottle unscramblers sort—unscramble—containers that are housed in some type of supply hopper and organize them into different groups to be used along a production line conveyor system where they are filled, decorated, and/or put into cases or pallets. They work effectively on a wide range of bottles and containers, including those used in the pharmaceutical, food and beverage, household, chemical and cosmetic industries. This includes items like dairy products, bottled water, juice, car care products, detergents, cleaners, lotions, motor oil, hair care products and many more—all of which often offer the same product but in different size bottles.
How Do Bottle Unscramblers Work?
Bottle unscramblers receive the bottles in random positions since containers are thrown randomly into a large hopper that can hold thousands of bottles. Then those bottles are handled in different ways from the hopper to other parts of the machines, so they are sorted until you get a standing bottle directly in your conveyor going to a bottle filler then to a capping machine, labeler and the rest of the filling line.
There are thousands of bottle designs, and each container needs to be analyzed for a bottle unscrambling machine to work correctly, take into consideration, among other things:
Required Speed
Since the bottle unscrambler is at the beginning of the bottling line, it needs to be the fastest machine to make sure that it can catch up with any of the other filling equipment in the line if there is a stoppage.
Container size
Container size in liquid filling machinery is critical for machine size recommendation; for example, a 25 cubic foot hopper can accommodate thousands of 2oz bottles so the machine can run for a long time without any operator, but it can only accommodate a few dozen gallons, so the unscrambler could only run for a few minutes before the hopper has to get filled again.
Design features
Each container design feature on a container can present a challenge on any part of the unscrambling process; it can be too soft, ridges that damage the container, dimensionally hard to orient (Bottle diameter and height are similar), guides on the bottle that catch the hook, among other things.
Installation location
A lot of production lines start without a bottle unscrambler, and when analyzing the possibility to add one, there is no good space to place it on a liquid filling line since these machines tend to be on the largest of the production lines. Normally it’s placed before the liquid filler or powder filling machine.
Material
Container material, the possibility of marking and scratching, fragility, quality issues are a few of the challenges we encounter getting our machines to work properly, pet bottles may require special handling to avoid scratches while getting sorted on the PET bottle unscrambler.
How Can a Bottle Unscrambler Help Your Business?
These easy-to-integrate systems are often considered to be high on efficiency and simplicity while being flexible enough to work with a number of types of containers in various sizes and shapes without having to stop the process and do a change-over. That’s a lot of benefits for a business that provides a compelling story. But, the advantages of a bottle unscrambler don’t stop here. These are often very flexible devices that can be added to filling machines, labelers, and even automatic assembly systems. This means that it can add convenience and productivity to your business without further complicating your production line or requiring a large capital expenditure. You will even be able to maintain performance quality while taking on new bottles sizes, which often happens in these industries as companies decide to retool their packaging over time. That way, you can keep costs down while not losing this business to another company that can handle the new container types. Some companies have to separate containers using a manual process, but this is cumbersome and unnecessary when a machine is readily available that can unscramble hundreds of bottles per minute and accurately. This will vastly increase productivity and reduce costly errors and labor costs, including training time.
Here are the main points to remember about bottle unscramblers:
- These machines work to separate and organize all types of containers into various sizes and shapes found in an unorganized hopper and send them onto various parts of a production line.
- This equipment has a wide use among many industries, including the pharmaceutical, food and beverage, household, chemical and cosmetic industries.
- They work to effectively speed production through accurate dispersal of containers that simplifies production and lowers costs, especially compared to a manual bottle unscramble process.
Reliable, Superior, Bottle Unscrambler Machine
Having a reliable plastic bottle or container unscrambler is essential to maximize efficiencies and assure your containers are prepared for the next step in the packaging process. Using an bottle unscrambler from VKPAK will make certain you have an unscrambler that is easy to understand, easy to operate and maintain, and will also provide years of trouble free production.
VKPAK’s line of high speed bottle unscramblers include low profile, high performance, space saving, heavy duty, and ergonomically designed models that can be easily integrated with existing or new equipment. These Unscramblers will automatically take your decorated or virgin bottles from random bulk, and place them firmly without damage on your packaging line conveyor for downstream operations.
The engineering and testing experience from VKPAK engineers are ready to discuss your project. VKPAK’s bottle unscramblers are ideal for keeping up to speed with your packaging demands. If you are not sure which bottle unscrambler is right for you, we will help you decide. Contact us to learn more about fulfilling your high-speed bottling operation.