Welcome back! This is part five of our running series on Graco’s new InvisiPac hot melt dispensing system – a next-generation technology that is revolutionizing packaging in a number of different industries, but especially in breweries. Previously, we covered the big announcement of our distribution partnership with Graco, our comprehensive guide to how the tankless InvisiPac distribution system works, the features and benefits of the built-in LineSite , a powerful business tool for data collection/analysis and real-time operations monitoring, and the many money-saving perks of the Pattern Control System, which can be used with the InvisiPac system or independently with your existing hot melt distribution equipment.
In today’s post, we want to talk a little bit about beer – specifically, the way it’s packaged – and how the Graco InvisiPac system is helping breweries save both time and money. In fact, the InvisiPac system was first rolled out in the Summit Brewery in St. Paul, Minnesota, so the folks at Graco are no strangers to the problems that brewers face with packaging on a day-to-day basis.
Saving Time
With traditional hot melt tank systems, there are constant delays that cost your boxing operation valuable time and productivity. The morning shift employees forgot to turn on the crockpots? There goes almost an hour waiting for them to heat up. Yet another clog in the sprayer nozzle? Fifteen more minutes where your workers are standing around with nothing better to do while it’s fixed. All those little delays can add up over weeks and months into a nasty hit to your bottom line.
Here is where the genius of the InvisiPac system really shines: It’s a tankless hot melt distribution system, which means there are no huge crockpots to heat up. And because it uses a vacuum system to feed just a few pellets of glue into the heater at a time, it only takes five minutes to get the amount of melted adhesive you need, without ever clogging your equipment.
The InvisiPac also greatly reduces the amount of char buildup in the system, meaning workers spend less time cleaning, maintenance personnel spend less time fixing broken-down equipment and you spend less money on expensive replacement nozzles and modules.
Saving on Bulk Hot Melt
The InvisiPac system also allows for hot melt stitching, a technique that can cut your bulk adhesive costs in half. Essentially, the system puts out a series of smaller hot melt beads in a stitch-like pattern, replacing the larger, continuous solid beads that most machines create today. This means you need a lot less adhesive to achieve the same level of hold.
You can also say goodbye to paying for premium, low-char hot melt. Since the InvisiPac produces a fraction of the char that other systems do, you can buy much cheaper adhesive and still maintain your quality standards.
Oh, Yeah – It Smells Better, Too
Well, maybe this doesn’t save time or money, but one of the best things about going tankless means saying goodbye to the horrible crockpot smell – which will have everyone in the boxing area breathing a deep, refreshing sigh of relief.
From Invisipac’s humble beginnings, cutting its teeth at the Summit Brewery, to the present day, where it is used in thousands of packaging operations across the nation, this system is changing the way that breweries box their bottles. Here at Hotmelt.com, we want to help you upgrade to the next generation of packaging technology. Contact our expert team of glue nerds today, either online or by phone at (877) 933-3343.