If you work in packaging, you’re more than likely familiar with packaging pucks. Pucks can come in all shapes, sizes and even different materials. Today, we will discuss 6 advantages of using packaging pucks.
We will go over the basics of what is a puck, the advantages of using packaging pucks, and what you should know about when and how best to use pucks in your packaging process.
In simple terms, a puck is a device that is used to stabilize odd shaped containers or bottles, so they can move down a conveyor line. They are typically round or cylindrical and can hold the commodity in a variety of ways. Pucks correctly position the container for filling, capping, and labeling and prevent the container from tipping over.
There are many different kinds of packaging pucks out there being used for all sorts of different products and applications. There are soft-centered pucks, labeling pucks, dual-product pucks, aerosol pucks, transports pucks, machined pucks, tube-filling pucks and more. There are even pucks that have RFID (radio frequency identification) chips in them now.
1. Pucks stabilize containers and bottles
The most basic advantage to using pucks is to stabilize odd shaped containers and bottles so they can move down a conveyor line. This way they can be filled, capped, and/or labeled without tipping over.
2. Reduced tooling costs and faster changeovers
Pucks can reduce equipment and tooling costs. You do not have to make as many tooling adjustments and changeovers when working with a large variety of bottles.
A leader in liquid filling, capping and labeling systems, FILAMATIC designed a system for a cosmetic manufacturer that was able to fill 104 different types of fragrance bottles (colognes and perfumes). Utilizing a potpourri of 10 differently sized pucks, FILAMATIC’s system was able to use the same tooling setup over and over again. The cosmetics manufacturer was moving an entire fragrance line into a major big box retailer. They needed the capacity and flexibility with a filling system to handle all the different bottles.
Even with so many containers, the design made tooling changeovers simple, quick and easy. It took a minimal amount of steps – within 4 different changeovers the manufacturer was able to address 104 different fragrance containers – nothing short of amazing!
3. Protect the label and bottle
Another pro is that the puck can protect the label and bottle as it moves down the conveyor and throughout the entire packaging process. This is important for final finish and market presentation.
4. Fill height consistency and timing
Pucks will also aid in the effort to properly space containers which can assist in timing and consistency of fill volumes. This is an important benefit as you may have similar fill volumes for different container heights; therefore, you can mitigate the need for excessive tooling and changeovers.
5. Production speeds
Using pucks for those challenging containers that pose issues moving throughout the packaging process will allow you to increase rate. Pucks will give you the performance, stability and overall security to run at higher production speeds.
6. Materials
One of the advantages of custom designed packaging pucks is that you can use any type of material for your puck. There are many different types of materials used in pucks, but some are anodized aluminum, plexiglass, and different types of plastic. The possibilities of materials are endless which is necessary for the wide-range of liquid products, containers and overall applications.
We hope sharing our insights into the advantages of packaging pucks was informative for you. Pucks are just one domain of packaging where it is useful to work with industry experts with years of experience. For more information on liquid filling, capping and labeling solutions, please call 866.258.1914 or email info@filamatic.com. If you would like to discuss an application that may require the use of pucks, please call 866.258.1914 or email info@filamatic.com.