Integrating Autoline Bowl Feeders to Reduce Health and Safety Issues and Reduce Costs

Customer: Sistema

Supplier: Bowl Feeder by Autoline

Integrating an Autoline bowl feeder into the production line at Sistema’s manufacturing plant, has helped the company reduce health and safety issues and save on labour costs, says Sistema senior automation engineer Craig Jones.

Sistema Plastics is a well known and loved Kiwi company that designs innovative, high-quality, durable, functional and versatile food storage containers, lunch boxes, drink bottles, microwave products and home organisation solutions.

Ten years ago, the company was looking for a way to speed up the process of putting clips onto container lids, and Autoline’s custom designed bowl feeder system helped them achieve their goal, says Craig.

“It got rid of a few health and safety issues, such as repetitive strain injury and definitely helped speed up the process and reduce labour costs,” he says.

After the success of the bowl feeder, Sistema began using Autoline’s fully customisable conveyor system rather than designing their own, to free up time for designing the more complex aspects of their processing system.

Anyone considering integrating a bowl feeder into their production line should first double check the parts are compatible with the bowl feeding equipment, Craig advises.

“Feeders do have some limitations, some parts can get married together or parts of varying sizes can cause problems.”

However, Autoline is very helpful in troubleshooting new designs, he says.

“The service is very good. Typically we send parts down to Autoline and get them to check it works well before committing.”