Star Electric Application

Medical Packaging & Product Transfer

Opportunity
To assist a high-speed contract packaging company in Greenville, SC in transferring medical ointment from 55 gallon drums to individual packets.

Problem
The ointment is a very thick material that has to be heated to around 150°F for transfer through their pumping system. The material is kept at temperature with the use of drum heaters, but was losing its temperature in the transfer lines & manifold.

Solution
We were able to design a hot transfer system using a variety of our vendors. First, we replaced the transfer lines with type 212 heated hoses from Technical Heaters. They have built in thermocouples and an independent control system, so they were easily incorporated into their process. Second, we used Thinband nozzle heaters from Watlow to heat the actual manifold to keep the product at temperature for dispersing into the individual packets. Last, we insulated the manifold with a custom insulation jacket from Firwin.

Results
The customer won a new contract with their ability to out produce all of their competition. We have since begun a plant wide update to our controls, and a very successful partnership.