ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS FOR THE CANNING AND BOTTLING INDUSTRY

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Startec Plus Ltd design and manufacture Feed Screws. With our design staff having many years of experience in Feed Screw design you can be assured of the quality and serviceability of our product.

Feed Screws, also referred to as Feed Worms, Feed Scrolls, Timing Screws or Timing Scrolls are widely used within the canning and bottling Industries.  Their functions are numerous including, timing bottles into infeed stars, line control, merging, singularising, orientation and synchronising to name the basics.

Potentially any good engineering workshop with a 4 axis machining centre or cnc mill can produce a Feed Screw, however, the lack of application understanding often leads to less than 50% success rate of Screws manufactured.   There are very few who fully understand the requirements and limitations of Feed Screws.  By far the most common Feed Screw applications are synchronising bottle entry into a Starwheel and singularising (spacing bottles). Even though these applications are most basic the influence of the conveyor running below them can cause bottle instability. Typically a conveyor speed differential would cause the bottles to lean forward or backward. It would therefore be beneficial for the conveyor speed to be synchronised to the speed of the Feed Screw.  From this simple example we can see that design is most important, not only should the Feed Screw be designed correctly but also, it’s application scrutinised to both optimise the bottle flow and reduce the possibility of jams.

Dual Feed Screws are often employed for tall bottles stacking two Feed Screws one on top of the other for stability.  Spacing and orientation of a bottle typically for labelling will require two opposing Feed Screws to ensure symmetrical placement of labels. Feed Screws used for rectangular or flask shaped bottles are particularly challenging and require thorough understanding of Feed Screw design to produce a viable Screw. Rectangular bottles can easily jam at the infeed to the Screw and special consideration needs to be taken of all external influences acting upon the Feed Screw.  Rectangular bottles MUST operate with a full line feed; intermittent feed will cause bottle damage and jams.

Startec can also offer a retro fit Feed Screw drive unit that will fit directly onto an existing infeed conveyor.  These can be supplied with AC or DC Variable speed drive motors or can be driven from your machine. These units are fabricated in stainless steel manufactured to your desired length and are fully adjustable, vertically and horizontally. These units have a quick change, (no tools)  Feed Screw system making it operator friendly.

If you have a Feed Screw requirement or a problem with existing Feed Screws please, do not hesitate to contact us.

Key Benefits

• Eliminates Jams

• Can be designed for intermittent delivery

• Low Friction materials

Feed Screw Uses

• Infeed Star Timing

• Singularising or spacing product

• Merging product Lines

• Bottle Orientation

• Line Flow Control

• Momentary pausing for sleeving

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Send mail to Paul@startec.co.nz with questions or comments about this web site.
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