Four Types of Case & Tray Packers

Horizontal load, top load, bottom load and tray packing are four types of case and tray packers built at Douglas. Within these four types are multiple styles of case and tray packers designed to provide packaging solutions for a variety of applications. Each style of case and tray packer offers different advantages that can solve unique packaging automation opportunities. At Douglas Machine, we create custom-built case and tray packers for a wide range of market segments. Although no two packers are exactly the same, the machines we produce belong to broad groupings. Whether you are in need of a packer to increase production, or your old packer is in desperate need of replacement, we can design the perfect packer for your application. This post will provide you with an overview of the types of case and tray packers that we build here at Douglas.

1. Horizontal Load

For mid to high speed case and tray packing applications, horizontal load solutions provide a high level of efficiency and speed. Douglas horizontal load case and tray packers include:

Intermittent Motion Packers

Intermittent motion packers are great for applications that call for variant speeds and multi-step packaging. Some of the advantages of Douglas intermittent motion packers include:
  • Improved utilization through precise and repeatable changeovers.
  • Case forming and sealing systems engineered to produce quality packaging.
  • Engineered for outstanding product handling, collation and loading.
  • Built for industry leading speed, control, efficiency and technology.
Douglas intermittent motion case and tray packer offerings include the Axiom® IM and the Invex® IM.

Continuous Motion Packers

For applications that require increased speed and production, continuous motion packers are a more efficient solution. Some of the advantages of Douglas continuous motion packers include:
  • Great flexibility for high-speed food and beverage applications.
  • Customizable for automatic partition insertions for bottle applications.
  • High-speed product handling.
  • Continuous case forming, compression and sealing.
Douglas continuous motion case and tray packer offerings include the Axiom® ARC and the Axiom® DL.

2. Top Load

Our top loading and product collation technologies provide manufacturers with optimum interaction between product, packaging materials and machinery to create the most effective solutions for your application.

TriVex® RL & RLi

Advantages of Douglas’ TriVex RL & RLi top loaders include:
  • Ideal collating systems for bags, pouches, cartons, trays, cups, cans, bottles and more.
  • Features cartesian and vision guided Delta robot configurations for optimal loading.
  • Flat and vertical pack casing for high impact retail ready displays.
  • Case erecting, loading, sealing and lidding in one compact machine.

TriVex® SL & SLi

Advantages of Douglas’ TriVex SL & SLi top loaders include:
  • Vertical pack configurations produce retail ready display cases with one or two product facings. With a quick and simple changeover, it packs pouches and flat bottom bags laying flat in the case with two or three products per layer.
  • Suitable for doy, pillow, flat bottom bags and pouches.
  • Compact footprint leads to less hardware and offers manufacturers unparalleled machine accessibility.

TriVex® CLi

Advantages of Douglas’ TriVex CLi top loaders include:
  • Ideal for Individual Quick Frozen (IQF) products such as non-free flowing frozen potatoes and vegetables, as well as pillow and gusseted bag product applications requiring flat and vertical bag orientations.
  • The integrated case erector, upright and flat pack flexibility and large size range meet market demand for case packing both retail and food service bags.
  • The convertible cassette pivots to easily reposition to horizontal or vertical mode which reduces parts and changeover time.

3. Bottom Load

Douglas’ primary bottom loader, the Ascend™, allows for an automation alternative when top loading is not a suitable solution.

Ascend™

Advantages of Douglas’ Ascend bottom loader include:
  • Provides an ideal solution for heavy products that are a challenge to pick and place during loading. Capable of loading hard to pack items such as tubs, jugs, bottles and cartons.
  • Features a gentle handling process, which is great for products that are fragile and require delicate handling.
  • Servo motions with active case flap folding.

4. Tray Packing

Douglas’ Contour™ tray packers provide product collating and tray packing solutions. Ideal for applications without shrink wrapping or where stand-alone machines are preferred.

Contour™

Advantages of Douglas’ Contour Tray Packers include:
  • Speeds from 30 cycles up to 150 cycles per minute.
  • Versatility and exceptional performance.
  • Available as stand alone continuous motion tray packers or can be integrated with a Contour shrink wrapper.

Working with Douglas Machine Inc.

Through technology, innovation and dedication, Douglas strives to enrich lives by providing differentiated packaging automation and services. Part of this service is to be the industry leader in the service and support that our employee owners provide to our customers. Throughout every facet of our company, we approach our work through the foundation of our core principles of unwavering integrity, continuous innovation and improvement, ownership spirit and servant’s heart. By doing so, our customers receive the peace-of-mind that no matter who they are working with in our organization, they are receiving dedicated and inspired service and support. By choosing Douglas Machine to build your case and tray packer, you’re getting much more than a top-of-the-line product. You’re also receiving a complete customer-driven experience to guide you throughout the process! Contact us today to discuss your application needs and to learn how our case and tray packers can provide the right solution.