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Wet Wipes - Capability Class

In this Capability Class focuses on some of our handling and application expertise as it pertains to wet wipe manufacturing. We discuss our sanitary conveyor designs and how we can handle wet and dry wipes safely while ensuring product freshness and integrity. No matter if the wipes are wrapped, unwrapped or in a canister, we can handle wipes through a variety of handling operations such as high-speed laning, accumulation, merging and rotating.

Welcome to Shuttleworth's Capability Class, the quick-hit video series teaching you about Shuttleworth's industry and application capabilities. Today we will be talking about the wet wipe industry and the automation solutions that Shuttleworth has come up with.

The wet wipe industry is projected to reach over 5 billion by 2020. The overall ease of use, hygiene effectiveness, and convenience are the main factors driving the increased demand we see for this type of product. Shuttleworth has developed both aluminum and stainless steel conveyor applications for a variety of wet wipe products, from unwrapped and wrapped stacks to canisters and tubs.

The unique Slip-Torque surface allows us to gently handle the stacks, especially when unwrapped, maintaining their integrity and ensuring product freshness. Additionally, our easily cleanable stainless steel frames offer a sanitary, contamination-free solution. Our experience with wet wipes includes accumulating, single-rowing, diverting, transporting, rejecting, positioning, stacking, merging, and combining.

Next, we will see some of the applications Shuttleworth has done in the past with wrapped and unwrapped wet wipes.

Here we have a very innovative diverter that handles unwrapped wet wipe stacks at over 500 products per minute from one lane to five to feed downstream packaging equipment. This continuous motion telescoping diverter walks along with the product and guides it towards a new lane. Here we can also observe our integration capabilities where our diverter operates atop a matte top surface.

Another example of a diverter is this belt-to-belt diverter. It uses pivoting belts that shift in conjunction to divert products from one to two lanes. We can see here how the shifting of the lanes does not affect the integrity of the stack, ensuring very smooth and gentle handling of the product, allowing us to manipulate the product without damaging it.

On the other hand, here you can see a more traditional style of diverter, the slat diverter, which is also part of our portfolio.

What about accumulating unwrapped stacks? You got it! Here you can see how products come with a gap and reach the Slip-Torque surface where they are accumulated back-to-back, closing the gap between products. This allows the stacks to accumulate without damaging them, and once released back into the line, the gap is then created again.

Now we will look at wrapped wet wipes and the belt-to-belt diverter. It kicks off by showing its versatility and capability to gently handle different products, in this case wrapped wet wipe stacks, and achieving the same application, which is from one lane to two lanes. Here you can see a combining application where we combine two lanes into one. You can also appreciate the advantage of the Slip-Torque surface that allows us to hold back products and release whatever lane and quantity necessary to combine the lanes smoothly into one.

This video shows the same application but with two different SKUs on the same line, demonstrating how we can keep each batch separate and accumulate it on the same conveyor frame while also achieving the combining application.

Here's an example of a different wet wipe package that we are able to accumulate from a mass to a single row, with our Slip-Torque surface showing its advantage again.

Here we have tubs of wet wipes, and we can see how our servo star wheel rotates the product 90 degrees and conveys it in a different orientation downstream. In this case, we can see the same application but at higher speeds and with a different type of package.

Finally, Benchmark, our sister company, has an outstanding solution especially for unwrapped stacks of wet wipes. This in-flight FT loader consists of multiple reciprocating belts and correcting belts that receive products at random spacing and correct the spacing to deliver products at the perfect pitch needed for the downstream equipment, which is in most cases a wrapper.

If you have any questions regarding your current manufacturing process or if you would like to review more Shuttleworth capabilities and solutions, please visit our website at Shuttleworth.com.