ProCore® Conveyor Systems: How a new way of “Always Moving” came to life.
September 12, 2018
Long before Henry Ford made a name for conveyor systems when he introduced the first assembly line, leather and wooden hand-cranked conveyor belts were used to move farming produce and mining materials. Fast forward a few hundred years and conveyor systems are used throughout the manufacturing industry, as well as in stores (unless you’re the self-checkout kind).
When a company launches a new product, re-vamps a package or changes a plant configuration, they often seek out a custom conveyor solution—one that’s designed just for the specifications and handling needs of their new product or process. But custom solutions can be expensive due to their “one-of-a-kind” engineering design. Additionally, the longer lead time needed to build them can delay implementation and even lead to reduced testing time, which can cause bumps down the road.
Years of Custom Experience Leads to Innovative New Solution
With years of experience building custom conveyor systems, Nercon’s team of engineers sought to mitigate the downsides of custom projects and capitalize on the learnings and components that are foundational to all conveyor systems. Our engineers set out to build a more universal conveyor solution that would fit 80 percent of the conveyor system needs in the industry. Once built, they tested and re-tested for years, optimizing functionality, tweaking problem areas and ensuring that this innovative solution could be installed quickly and run reliably for a wide array of conveying needs. When the ProCore® line of conveyor systems launched, we were able to provide manufacturers with a more budget-friendly, faster-to-market and highly reliable solution.
“We saw an opportunity to pair our strong history in the manufacturing industry with our deep bench of engineering experience to come up with a new solution,” said Mike Weickert, Nercon vice president of research and development. “Plus, by using our in-house manufacturing facility, we were able to allow the engineers to build, tear down, test and re-test to perfect the ProCore® conveyor systems before launching them with confidence to our customers.”
The ProCore® Conveyor Solutions
The ProCore® line features 13 different types of conveyor systems, from Activity Roller Belt™ (ARB™) Conveyors to Re-Flow and Rotary Accumulation Tables to Gripper Elevators and more. Each of these have been manufactured in-house at our facility in Wisconsin for fast delivery and installation onto factory floors, and extensively tested for increased up-time performance—all at a fraction of the cost of a from-scratch solution. All 13 ProCore® models are built with a standard base of equipment that allows it to be modified for customer preferences, making it a hybrid between standard “one-size-fits-all” and a custom product—truly the best of both worlds.
A ProCore®Trial Leads to a Beauty-ful Win
A maker of beauty care products and long-time client of Nercon’s custom conveyor solutions came to us with a hefty request: build a new, custom conveyor based on their exacting specifications so they could update an existing product line—all on a tight timeline.
Despite our significant experience and reputation for original solutions, the short schedule wasn’t enough for a custom option, so we encouraged them to give our ProCore® line a shot. Within approximately seven weeks, their new ProCore® equipment was fabricated, installed and up and running better than they had ever expected! It worked so well, in fact—saving them both time and money—they now ask what is available through ProCore® before looking at custom solutions.
Featured ProCore® System: Re-Flow Accumulation Table
The ProCore® Re-Flow Accumulation Table is a great example of a flexible solution that can work with a wide variety of products in different shapes and sizes. Much like log drivers guiding the flow of timber down the river, the ProCore® Re-Flow Accumulation Table utilizes our proprietary recirculation design to relieve pressure from the combining area and re-circulate bottles and packages so they can move on in single file to their next destination.
“The ProCore® Re-Flow Accumulation Table works very well for packaged foods, beverages, dairy foods, household cleaning products, and health and beauty products,” said Dan Bickel, operations manager. “Using a solution from our ProCore® line, consumer packaged goods companies can really avoid the need to build a custom conveyor solution since ProCore® provides a universal solution for so many different kinds of products and conveying needs.”
Want to see our other ProCore® conveyor solutions? Check them out here, or come see some in action at Booth S-1730 at the upcoming PACK Expo in Chicago on October 14-17, 2018. For a more personalized look at the ProCore® line, schedule a booth visit with Tom Luft before the Expo.
