WE SERVICE ANY FEEDER BOWL SYSTEM
We provide service on any parts feeding system regardless of the manufacturer. Our customers tell us that our Service Technicians are the heroes in the field when a breakdown occurs. Take a look at some of the stories behind these service calls.
In the middle of a pandemic, there was no time to fix the molds
What happens when the consumer products you are packaging are not only in high demand, but have been designated as essential to fighting a worldwide pandemic? That is exactly where a major plastics assembly plant found themselves. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, disinfecting wipes were being packaged around the clock, seven days a week. When your automated equipment is needed to be running at top efficiency, the last thing you need is a problem with the equipment that slows down production. But when the mold for the plastic caps was found to be in compliance, but producing parts that were slightly out of shape, it began to jam the machines. The production lines had to be slowed to accommodate the part. There was no time to shut down the line to fix the mold, but the slow down was causing quotas to fall short.
That’s when the manufacturer called Fortville Feeders to see if an adjustment could be made to the parts feeding system to solve the problem. Ryan Ferris received special clearance to go onto the manufacturing floor to make the modification. (The company had limited service calls due to the spread of the virus.) He was able to adjust the system to accommodate the change in the molded caps. He also altered the feed rate to speed up the cycle times. In the end, the manufacturer’s disinfectant wipe assembly lines were able to run at capacity around the clock.
Ryan helped out tremendously on the sorters; he improved the part sort speeds by about 20%; reduced our cycle time by about 2 seconds. That’s a big deal!
-David M. Kell
Plant Engineer
Berry Global
Princeton, IN
If your service technician had not responded as quickly as he did, I don’t know what we would have done. He solved our feeding problem quickly. We were up and running again within a few hours of calling Fortville Feeders. Thank you!
-David Frausto
Project Engineer at Zeller Plastics
Libertyville, Illinois
When new part caused misfeeds, four lines go down
The call came on a Tuesday morning. An integrator had purchased four Fortville Feeders vibratory parts feeding systems for a plastics manufacturer. The manufacturer had recently switched parts, which had a different weight and geometry. Their four systems were misfeeding and jamming. All four lines were down and the manufacturer was in a pickle. They called Fortville Feeders for service. Ryan Ferris drove three hours and met the integrator on the manufacturing floor. He was able to diagnose the problem and come up with a solution. Since Fortville service techs drive a fully stocked van, Ryan was able to add a blowback escapement at the location of the jams. He had one line operational before the end of the day. The other three were operating normally by the end of the week.
Fixing years-long issues in part feeding
A manufacturer had been dealing with an alignment problem with their parts feeders. They patched together temporary solutions that always seemed to end up breaking. That’s when they called Fortville Feeders. Technician Ken Mahan was able to make adjustments to their existing feeder system that fixed the alignment problem permanently.
Ken was extremely helpful in getting us realigned and taking care of some other issues that we have been fighting for years. Thank you!
Misfeeding vibratory feeder shuts down production
When a manufacturer had problems with their vibratory feeder bowl misfeeding parts, they had to shut down production. They heard that Fortville Feeders works on any feeder bowl system and called. Technician Ken Mahan quickly found the problem and repaired the feeder bowl. He had the customer up and running again in one day.
Ken (the tech) definitely knew his stuff. He knew exactly where to look to find the issue. The feeder bowl is fixed and runs beautifully. Highly recommend.