What Is a Collator for Packaging Automation?

A collating system is designed to collect, dispense, and arrange products into groups according to preset quantities and patterns, preparing them for the next stage of the packaging process. It normally includes a buffering conveyor, an accelerating conveyor, a collator, and a side pusher. 

The key component of the collator is a recirculating conveyor with primarily upright dividing plates, which receives products from an accelerating conveyor. Collator is called 集积器 in Chinese, Коллатор in Russian, Sammler in German, 콜레이터 in Korean and 集積機 in Japanese. 

When the leading dividers reach the dispensing station, the side pusher pushes the preset quantity of products onto a transfer station. Rows and layers are accumulated at the transfer station if each group contains more than one row or layer. For products such as small pouches, the collator is equipped with a partition cardboard placer that places a cardboard sheet between each layer to stabilize the stack during accumulation. The completed groups are then pushed onto the loading station once collated.

A collator is a crucial component for a multi-pack bundling or case packing system, as it considers your packing pattern and quantity. As a leading manufacturer of packaging machines in China, Calmus Machinery has developed and manufactured many collators for different products like stand-up pouches (doypacks), instant ramen noodle packets, sanitary napkins and diapers.

Collator for stand-up pouches to be packed upright into cartons:

Collator for stand-up pouches to be packed flat into cartons:

Collator for instant noodle packets before bundling with flow wrap:

Collator for instant ramen packets before tray packing:

Collator for sanitary napkins or pads before multi-pack bundling with flow wrap:

Collator for baby/adult diapers before multi-pack bundling with premade bags:

Collator for period pants before multi-pack bundling with premade bags:

Products must be in the same orientation, in a single row with consistent spacing on the conveyor before entering the buffer conveyor of the collating system. If not, they need to be unscrambled by a dedicated machine upstream. For stand-up pouches, Calmus Machinery has the unscrambler which arranges pouches on conveyance into a single file, spaces out consecutive pouches, orients all pouch heads consistently with the help of a vision system, and turns them face-up when required.

A collator is a component of packaging automation, and Calmus Machinery can provide the complete multi-pack bundling and case packing system.

Case Packer for Spouted Stand-Up Pouches | Complete Line

Calmus Machinery just built a from-unscrambling-to-palletizing complete case packing line for spouted stand-up pouches (doypacks), tailored for a large baby food manufacturer abroad. The packing line consists of two pouch unscramblers, a wrap-around case packer with two pouch collators, a palletizer, and connecting conveyors. The case packing speed is 15 cartons per minute, with each carton holding 10 or 12 pouches in a single row. It receives disordered pouches from upstream, unscrambles them into two separate piles with consistent face-up and head orientation, collates and packs the pouches into cartons, and finally palletizes the cartons.

Pouch Unscrambler

This automatic pouch unscrambler is designed for organizing disordered spouted stand-up pouches to meet the feeding requirements of the collator for doypack case packing. It collects spouted pouches from the upstream packaging line, arranges them into a single file, spaces out consecutive pouches, orients all pouch heads consistently with the help of a vision system, turns them face-up, and flattens the pouches. This flattening step prevents folded pouches from causing jams during case packing.

Wrap-Around Case Packer

A wrap-around case packer is a machine that forms a corrugated cardboard case directly around a group of products, rather than inserting products into a pre-formed box. For automation, it normally folds pre-creased cardboards into a U-shape first, then loads the grouped products, and finally folds and seals the sides and tops with hot-melt adhesive. This results in a compact, secure case with superior structural strength and lower material costs compared to pre-formed cartons.

This wrap-around case packer is a form-load-seal 3-in-1 monoblock cartoning machine, which integrates case forming, pouch loading, and case sealing into a single compact and efficient unit. It picks one-piece pre-creased cardboards from the magazine, folds them into a U-shape, and conveys the folded blanks to the pouch loading station. The case packer is combined with two pouch collators. The collators collect pouches into two separate rows, push them alternately into the central pick-up station, where a pick-and-place unit picks the pouches by their spouts and loads them into the formed cartons. Finally, the loaded cartons are conveyed to the next stations to be closed at the top and sealed at the minor flaps with hot melt adhesive.

Palletizer

We originally planned to use our rotating joint palletizer BJP32 for this project, but we found that the cobot palletizer CP30 offers greater flexibility for different palletizing patterns, so we switched to the CP30.

Although the maximum payload of the CP30 is only 30 kg, it is sufficient for this stand-up pouch case packing project, as each box weighs less than 3 kg. The overall efficiency meets the target speed. More importantly, the cobot palletizer can handle all palletizing patterns with just one gripper.