Beer Wholesaler Improves Throughput & Reduces Breakage w. ORION MA LoPro Stretch Wrap System

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Hi I’m with Orion and in this presentation we are going to take a look at how one beer distributor reached out to Orion for help in improving the pace and efficiency of their beer distribution operation.
This distributor annually supplied over 16 million cases of beer, wine, and non-alcoholic beverages to locations in the Phoenix area.
When designing a new distribution center, the company wanted a stretch wrapping & conveyor solution that provided rapid throughput of unstable and random mixed loads, and minimize downtime caused by breakage.
The distributor was using pallet jacks to move pallets onto a roller conveyor, but they experienced problems since the movement of roller feed conveyors is not smooth, particularly as the rollers accumulate debris,

the pallets can shift and even fall off, causing machine jams and, the equipment has to be shut down while the area is being cleaned. Which is difficult and time consuming

Orion looked at the company’s specific load size, throughput needs and other criteria and engineered the LoPro,

a 7,500-pound capacity low-profile floor mounted chain conveyor, which has three rails, housing a triple strand chain. The unique low-chain profile conveyor has glides so that the pallets move forward smoothly, overcoming the challenges inherent with roller conveyors, but also creating a system capable of handling 60 pallets per hour.
This was combined with our MA deluxe high-speed rotary tower stretch wrapper. The MA uses an Allen-Bradley MicroLogix 1400 PLC, variable frequency drives and color touch screen HMI for operator access.
The combination of the MA automatic stretch wrapper and LoPro chain conveyor was much more efficient and provided significant benefits.
First, using Orion’s high-performance film carriages achieved maximum film stretch, helping the distributor realize a 30 percent reduction in overall material costs.
Another dramatic difference was the reduction in breakage by 40 to 50 percent because of the LoPro's smooth conveyance. This led to one of the company’s biggest savings - reduced machine downtime and lost product.
Further improvements to throughput resulted from the systems ability to separate and re-consolidate up to three pallets at a time. no matter what comes in on the front of the machine, it always waits to receive three pallets before moving them to the collection area on the other end of the wrap zone. This resulted in a 20 percent reduction in trips to the loading dock.
The speed of the LoPro conveyor and the high RPM of the MA helped improve throughput, with each order selector at this facility is now moving 300 cases per hour,
enabling the distribution center to process 25,000 cases in an eight-hour shift. The return on investment (ROI) in this case was about 18 months, based on labor savings, speed, efficiency, and reduced stretch wrap needs.


This is just one of the distribution centers that are using the MA LoPro and seeing significant improvement. And, now we have the MA which incorporates as second 30” film carriage and rotary arm for even faster paced operation.

(Machine in video previously referred to as MA-DX)

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