by Michelle | Aug 30, 2023 | Press Release
Pineberry Manufacturing Inc.’s erect carton serialization systems with modular vacuum conveyor can be added to any end of line process for efficient traceability printing and coding.
Toronto, ON, June 29, 2017 – Pineberry Manufacturing Inc. will be exhibiting PACK EXPO Las Vegas with a CartonTrac EC – Erect Caron Serialization System. The CartonTrac EC produces superior print quality and verifies the print with a tamper proof in-line reader. Cartons are controlled throughout the print window guided for the various print technologies to print with pristine accuracy. The vacuum transport utilizes a fan-based technology dramatically reducing noise level of a single pump or blower. The serialization solution integrates to any production line for further processing within facilities. The serialization and track & trace solution aims to help fight the immense market of counterfeit products and to enhance consumer safety in accordance with legislations, such as the Drug Quality & Security Act (DQSA) and the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA).
“This is an inline, robust solution with a small footprint that can be added to any end of line pharmaceutical process,” states David McCharles, President of Pineberry Manufacturing Inc. “Our erect carton serialization system can print in either laser or inkjet marking making it the most flexible solution on the market,” continues Mr. McCharles. “The system is perfect to automate the serialization and track and trace of packages and pharmaceutical packaging, ensuring 100% accuracy,” concludes Mr. McCharles.
Serialization requires a comprehensive system to track & trace the passage of prescription drugs and pharmaceutical products through the entire supply chain. Serialization is able to identify every product’s serial number, origin, shelf life and batch number; tracing the products life cycle from production, through distribution, to patient. With a reliable 1D and/or 2D barcode reader, pharmaceutical products can be verified to ensure 100% accuracy. Pineberry manufactured its pharmaceutical erect carton serialization machinery system with modular vacuum conveyor so it can be installed efficiently to any end of line process. This saves customer’s time with installing a proficient serialization and track and trace pharmaceutical machine that meets the requirements of the Drug Quality & Security Act (DQSA) and the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA).
About PACK EXPO
PACK EXPO International is the largest processing and packaging trade show in the world. Co-located with Healthcare Packaging EXPO, the event features a marketplace of 2,000+ exhibitors displaying processing and packaging equipment and technologies for virtually every vertical market, drawing 30,000+ attendees and offering free educational presentations in several venues on the show floor. Attendees include corporate managers, engineers, sales managers, plant managers, logistics and supply chain managers, manufacturers and production supervisors, brand and marketing managers, quality controllers, purchasers, research/development and package designers from a wide variety of consumer packaged goods companies (CPGs).
About Pineberry Manufacturing Inc.
Since 1984, Pineberry Manufacturing Inc. has been developing high-quality friction feeding, printing, packaging and custom automation solutions for the plastic card, packaging, distribution, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, graphic arts, and mailing and fulfillment industries. Additionally, Pineberry specializes in integration, working with OEM’s and providing customized solutions for the most demanding environments. Whether it is a standardized leaflet feeder, feeding and labeling bags, feeding cookies or an integrated custom solution, Pineberry has the expertise to provide exceptional products to make your project a success.
# # #
If you would like more information on these or other versatile innovations, please contact Chris Pereira at (905) 829-0016 or email chris@pineberryinc.com.
by Michelle | Aug 29, 2023 | Press Release
New to the Pineberry line of packaging products, the CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System builds a parent-child relationship as products move through the packaging stages of the pharmaceutical supply chain with full automated product track and trace abilities.
Toronto, ON, January 13, 2017 – Pineberry Manufacturing Inc. introduces the CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System to their line of packaging and pharmaceutical serialization and track and trace products. Aggregation impacts serialization projects on the packaging lines throughout manufacturers operations and the overall supply chain. Aggregation provides any company involved in pharmaceutical packing with the ability to serialize, which will lend itself to ease-of-mind for pharmaceutical companies. The biggest reason for companies to possess proper serialization is to prevent the influx of counterfeit drugs into the legitimate community. In partnership with Adents Pharma Suite, the Pineberry CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System automatically serializes and combines individual serialized cartons and takes a picture of all the fixed and variable serialized track and trace data. Using robotics to band and case batches together, the CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System prints and applies a label to the band/case with a serial number. As the cartons are combined, the serial number of the aggregated unit (parent) is associated with the multiple serial numbers of the individual cartons (child) contained within it, thus builds a parent-child relationship as products move through the packaging stages of the pharmaceutical supply chain. The high-speed gantry system on the CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System can move at speeds of up to eight meters per second, making it fast, steady and accurate, with the flexibility to modify the stacking patterns as required, all while maintaining an overall small footprint.
“New to Pineberry Manufacturing Inc., we’re thrilled to introduce the CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System to the pharmaceutical industry and packing supply chain markets,” states David McCharles, President of Pineberry Manufacturing Inc.
“Using a DryLin SLW Cross Slide, we are able to precisely position the Videojet Wolke printhead to the product height, printhead distance and product distance to allow for a clean, high-quality print on pharmaceutical cartons and packaging. A Cognex vision system scans each carton to verify all the required printed data has been placed, applied correctly, and is easily readable,” explains Mr. McCharles. “We have a pneumatic reject system in place that will blow any poorly packed cartons right off the production line,” continues Mr. McCharles. “Each carton is tracked via an encoder and a Schneider Electric PLC (programmable logic controller) monitoring all of its movements. Once individual serialization is achieved, the individual cartons move to the front of a gantry robot that gently grabs cartons with its EOAT (end-of-arm-tool) gripper and stacks them creating tidy bundles. The high-speed gantry system can move at speeds of up to eight meters per second. The servo motors help the robotic system not only be very fast, but steady and very accurate, with the flexibility to modify the stacking patterns as required,” says Mr. McCharles. “After the cartons have been stacked, the bundle of serialized products is transferred through an automatic Bandall system which swiftly bundles the cartons into a single batch bound by a breadth of clear plastic wrap. Another Cognex vision system takes a picture of the batch, recording all individual serialization pack codes applied previously. The newly-formed pack then has an additional label blown onto the clear plastic banding wrap with the label containing a single QR code that combines all of the data from each of the individual packs of product. The pack then exits the Pineberry CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System to await further packing into a master carton where another label is added containing data of all its contents. Further downstream, when the master carton is palletized with other such cartons, another label can be added for complete identification of what it contains,” continues Mr. McCharles.
“It’s a full track-and-trace solution that leverages aggregation and helps to improve the customer’s inventory management performance,” states Mr. McCharles. “For example, if you need to determine a batches contents but do not want to open the case, you can now scan the QR code on the outside of the case to get the serial number, and then using the aggregation parent-child relationship, you can determine the identity of all the contents. This is one of the reasons that aggregation can ease the material handling aspects of serialized projects in a warehouse environment, while maintaining the safety of consumers and ease-of-mind for pharmaceutical companies,” continues Mr. McCharles.
Manufacturers, wholesale distributors, repackagers and pharmaceutical supply chains inherit the most benefits facing significant packaging line upgrades to meet the current and emerging regulations compliant with the USA FDA Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) and the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD). Putting aggregation in place offers operational benefits, like inventory management, and prevents the invasion of counterfeit drugs into many global communities. With serialization, wholesalers are able to identify inventory down to a specific unit and track it internally. With aggregation, they could do that for both opened and sealed cases as well. It greatly simplifies cycle counting, which wholesalers periodically do to check their physical inventory against what their system thinks they have. Aggregation allows them to scan just the sealed case and instantly know the identities of all the individual units. The CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System provides a practical and cost-effective way for pharmaceutical companies to ensure their products conform to current and upcoming global track and trace efforts.
About Pineberry Manufacturing Inc.
Since 1984, Pineberry Manufacturing Inc. has been developing high-quality friction feeding, printing, packaging and custom automation solutions for the plastic card, packaging, distribution, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, graphic arts, and mailing and fulfillment industries. Additionally, Pineberry specializes in integration, working with OEM’s and providing customized solutions for the most demanding environments. Whether it is a standardized leaflet feeder, feeding and labeling bags, feeding cookies or an integrated custom solution, Pineberry has the expertise to provide exceptional products to make your project a success.
# # #
If you would like more information on these or other versatile innovations, please contact Chris Pereira at (905) 829-0016 or email chris@pineberryinc.com.
by Michelle | Aug 26, 2023 | Press Release
Aggregation System builds a parent-child relationship as products move through the packaging stages of the pharmaceutical supply chain with full automated product track and trace abilities.
Toronto, ON, September 18, 2018 – A large international pharmaceutical company contacted Pineberry Manufacturing Inc. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Pharmaceutical company desperately needed to serialize its products, support traceability throughout its supply chain and aggregate erect cartons, all to comply with the USA FDA Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD), and other market requirements worldwide. The problem: Limited space necessitated a compact system to print and verify traceability serialized codes on erect cartons and aggregate them into batches of 12.
Aggregation impacts serialization projects on the packaging lines throughout manufacturers operations and the overall supply chain. Aggregation provides any company involved in pharmaceutical packing with the ability to serialize, which will lend itself to ease-of-mind for pharmaceutical companies. The biggest reason for companies to possess proper serialization is to prevent the influx of counterfeit drugs into the legitimate community.
A few weeks later, the CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System was introduced to the pharmaceutical industry and packing supply chain markets. As erect cartons come down the customer’s conveyor line and onto the Pineberry CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System high-quality print serialization is applied to each of the pharmaceutical cartons. A camera vision system scans each carton to verify all the required printed data has been placed, applied correctly, and is easily readable. If there’s a print issue, the pneumatic reject system blows any poorly packed cartons off the production line.
Once individual serialization is achieved, the individual cartons move to the front of a gantry robot that gently grabs cartons with its EOAT (end-of-arm-tool) gripper and stacks them creating tidy bundles, three rows of four. The high-speed gantry system can move at speeds of up to eight meters per second. The servo motors help the robotic system not only be very fast, but steady and very accurate, with the flexibility to modify the stacking patterns as required. After the cartons have been stacked, the bundle of serialized products is transferred through an automatic banding system which swiftly bundles the cartons into a single batch bound by a breadth of clear plastic wrap. A second camera vision system takes a picture of the batch, recording all individual serialization pack codes applied previously. The newly-formed pack then has an additional label blown onto the clear plastic banding wrap with the label containing a single QR code that combines all of the data from each of the individual packs of product. The pack then exits the Pineberry CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System to await further packing into a master carton where another label is added containing data of all its contents. Further downstream, when the master carton is palletized with other such cartons, another label can be added for complete identification of what it contains.
“As the cartons are combined, the serial number of the aggregated unit (parent) is associated with the multiple serial numbers of the individual cartons (child) contained within it, thus builds a parent-child relationship as products move through the packaging stages of the pharmaceutical supply chain. It’s a full track-and-trace solution that leverages aggregation and helps to improve the customer’s inventory management performance,” states Mr. McCharles. “For example, if you need to determine a batches contents but do not want to open the case, you can now scan the QR code on the outside of the case to get the serial number, and then using the aggregation parent-child relationship, you can determine the identity of all the contents. This is one of the reasons that aggregation can ease the material handling aspects of serialized projects in a warehouse environment, while maintaining the safety of consumers and ease-of-mind for pharmaceutical companies,” continues Mr. McCharles.
Manufacturers, wholesale distributors, repackagers and pharmaceutical supply chains inherit the most benefits facing significant packaging line upgrades to meet the current and emerging regulations compliant with the USA FDA Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) and the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD). Putting aggregation in place offers operational benefits, like inventory management, and prevents the invasion of counterfeit drugs into many global communities. With serialization, wholesalers are able to identify inventory down to a specific unit and track it internally. With aggregation, they could do that for both opened and sealed cases as well. It greatly simplifies cycle counting, which wholesalers periodically do to check their physical inventory against what their system thinks they have. Aggregation allows them to scan just the sealed case and instantly know the identities of all the individual units. The CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System provides a practical and cost-effective way for pharmaceutical companies to ensure their products conform to current and upcoming global track and trace efforts.
About Pineberry Manufacturing Inc.
Since 1984, Pineberry Manufacturing Inc. has been developing high-quality friction feeding, printing, packaging and custom automation solutions for the plastic card, packaging, distribution, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, graphic arts, and mailing and fulfillment industries. Additionally, Pineberry specializes in integration, working with OEM’s and providing customized solutions for the most demanding environments. Whether it is a standardized leaflet feeder, feeding and labeling bags, feeding cookies or an integrated custom solution, Pineberry has the expertise to provide exceptional products to make your project a success.
# # #
If you would like more information on these or other versatile innovations, please contact Chris Pereira at (905) 829-0016 or email chris@pineberryinc.com.
by Michelle | Aug 26, 2023 | Blog
Canadian machine-builder leverages cutting-edge automation technologies to develop an effective solution in ongoing global war against counterfeit drugs.
While the so-called fake news may have been grabbing a lot of media attention lately, there is nothing remotely fictitious about the real and present danger to modern society stemming from rapid global proliferation of fake drugs and medicines.
Blamed for an estimated 700,000 deaths each year by the World Health Organization(WHO), counterfeit pharmaceutical products account for an estimated 30 per cent of all medications in circulation within developing and emerging countries.
In the European pharmaceutical industry alone, counterfeit drugs are estimated to represent a $15 billion illegal industry, according to WHO research.
To safeguard domestic consumers, Canada mandates widespread use of the DIN (Drug Identification Number)—a randomly assigned computer-generated eight-digit number assigned by Health Canada to a drug product prior to it being marketed in Canada.
The main idea is to reassure the Canadian public that the pharmaceutical product has undergone and passed a review of its formulation, labeling and even its instructions for use.
Providing a unique identification for all drug products sold in dosage form in Canada—both prescriptions and OTC (over-the-counter) meds, the DIN must identify the manufacturer; product name; active ingredient(s); strength(s) of active ingredient(s); pharmaceutical form; and route of administration.
For all that, counterfeit drugs are still making their way into Canada, as evidenced by the nation’s current opioid crisis.
Which is why Canada has joined over 40 other nations in a collaborative effort to crack down on counterfeit drugs with new track-and-trace laws and standards to thoroughly regulate pharmaceutical products as they pass through the supply chain with strict new serialization, aggregation and coding requirements, alongside other information technology solutions.
“The current global pharmaceutical landscape is changing, and we believe our company can help affect that change,” Pineberry Manufacturing Inc. president and chief executive officer David McCharles told Canadian Packaging during a recent visit to the company headquarters.
Located in Oakville, about a 20-minute drive west of Toronto, Pineberry’s busy, yet tidy 12,500-squarefoot facility manufacturers dispensing and feeding equipment such as friction feeders, tray denesters and custom automation for the food and direct mailing markets, but recently expanded its scope to include providing a small footprint solution for the global pharmaceutical industry.
While the company achieved a lot of its earlier growth through its plastic card solutions for affixing, verifying, inspecting, counting, decorating, punching and other security applications, McCharles says it was important for Pineberry not to be a one-trick-pony.
“That is why we are now becoming more actively involved in designing and manufacturing small footprint serialization and aggregation systems specific to the pharmaceutical industry,” says McCharles, citing the company’s latest mechanical marvel simply called the CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System because, as he aptly puts it, “That’s exactly what it does.”
As McCharles explains, “Our CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System will provide any company involved in pharmaceutical packing with that ability to serialize, which will lend itself to ease-of-mind for pharmaceutical companies.
“The biggest reason for companies to possess proper serialization is to prevent the influx of counterfeit drugs into the legitimate community,” says McCharles, noting by the end of next year every legitimate pharmaceutical company around the world is going to require a serialization number on each pharmaceutical product.
“There are a lot of people getting sick from these fake drugs,” he asserts, “and that’s just not acceptable.”
McCharles says that most counterfeit drugs are fraught with health risks by either containing too much of the correct medicinal ingredients, not enough of them, or simply containing anything except for a fake pharmaceutical corporate trademark or logo.
According to McCharles, the CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System offers an effective solution for stemming the influx of counterfeit drugs from other countries to Canada.
“We have already been quite involved in packaging and pharmaceutical machinery serialization products for some time,” he notes, “but this new system marries aggregation (clustering or gathering) to provide an additional layer of traceability for the consumer of the product.”
In essence, the new Pineberry system provides a more reliable means to gather product in a quick and efficient manner after the product packages have been filled, while maintaining full real-time tracking and traceability for the customer.
In operation, each filled pack travels through an igus alignment section that maneuvers it so that it travels straight through the Videojet Wolke inkjet printhead that applies individual coding data onto each package.
“The igus company supplies us with their DryLin SLW Cross Slide and their Slide Carriage products,” mentions McCharles. “Using the DryLin Slide Carriage, we have integrated a handcrank with dial indicator for precise product guide positioning.”
Unlike recirculating ball bearing systems, the corrosion resistant DryLin linear guides are oil-free and have been designed to run dry, without the need for wet, messy lubricants or costly maintenance.
The igus DryLin SLW linear systems are based on the company’s DryLin W linear construction kit.
According to igus, the DryLin SLW products are a low-cost solution for manual adjustments, but can also be fitted with a motor for electrical adjustments.
“Using the DryLin SLW Cross Slide, we are able to precisely position the printhead to product height, and the printhead distance and product distance to allow for a clean, high-quality print,” he continues, adding that the hand crank easily allows vertical and horizontal adjustments.”
Once done, a Cognex vision system scans each pack to verify that all the required printed data has been placed, applied correctly, and is easily readable.
“We have a pneumatic reject system in place that will blow any poorly packed product right off the production line,” says McCharles.
Each product pack is tracked via an encoder and a Schneider Electric PLC (programmable logic controller) monitoring all of its movements.
Once individual serialization is achieved, the individual packs move to the front of a Schneider Electric-designed gantry robot that gently grabs four of the packs at a time with its EOAT (end-of-arm-tool) gripper and stacks them three levels high—creating tidy blocks of 12 packs apiece.
Driven by several integrated Schneider Electric servomotors, the high-speed gantry system can move at speeds of up to eight meters per second, according to McCharles.
“These servo motors help the robotic system not only be very fast, but steady and very accurate, with the flexibility to modify the stacking patterns as required,” McCharles notes.
“Using anything from Schneider Electric goes a long with our customers, and I can tell you that our pharmaceutical customers definitely appreciate us using such a high-quality entity in the electrical field and energy sector that manufactures controllers, servomotors, and robotics,” McCharles states.
“We have been working with Schneider Electric for eight years now,” he adds, “and we have never been disappointed.
“They supply all of our PLCs, motors and HMI (human-machine interfaces) terminals,” McCharles points out, “and now some of the robotics they have built for use within our projects—like this new custom-built robotic gantry system that enabled us to develop the compact-footprint design offered by the CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System.
“We are very impressed with their gantry robotic system.”
After the cartons have been stacked, the 12-pack blocks are transferred through an automatic Bandall system—distributed by Orangeville, Ont.’s Banding Systems, Inc.—which swiftly bundles the units into a single 12-pack bound by a breadth of clear plastic wrap.
“At this point,” explains McCharles, “another Cognex vision system takes a look at the 12-pack, recording all 12 of the individual pack codes applied previously.
The newly-formed 12-pack then has an additional label blown onto the clear plastic banding wrap by a Weber model 4300 Pro-Apply labeling system, with the label containing a single QR code that combines all of the data from each of the one dozen individual packs of product.
The 12-pack then exits the Pineberry CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System to await further packing into a master carton where another label is added containing data of all its contents. Further downstream, when the master carton is palletized with other such cartons, another label can be added for complete identification of what it contains.
“It’s a full track-and-trace solution that leverages aggregation and helps to improve the customer’s inventory management performance,” says McCharles.
“For example, if you need to determine a case’s contents but do not want to open up the case, you can now scan the QR code on the outside of the case to get the serial number, and then using the aggregation relationship, you can determine the identity of all the contents.”
The key end-user benefit, McCharles says, is that the system removes the need for customers to open up the case and scan all of the individual products just to determine if the one pack you are looking for is there.
“Manufacturers, wholesale distributors, repackers and pharmaceutical supply chains would all benefit from utilizing our CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System,” notes McCharles.
“And that Schneider Electric robotic gantry arm is pretty amazing too,” says McCharles, while also reserving special praise for Pineberry’s software technology partner Adents, a leading French software developer with North American operations in New Jersey.
“Adents developed the whole serialization software suite through a partnership with Microsoft to create a very nice software program—the best we have seen on the market,” McCharles proclaims.
“It helps bring together, or integrate if you will, all of the different elements and components of our CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System into a highly effective system solution,” says McCharles, underlying the importance of finding the right automation partners for developing new Pineberry equipment.
“With our name on the line,” he states, “having confidence in our partners, both new and old, is exceptionally important for us.
“Not only do we like to work with hard-working, robust equipment that we know won’t let the customer down, but we also enjoy working with good people,” McCharles adds, “such as those we know through Schneider Electric.
“For us, being a small business, it amazes me sometimes at how well they treat us,” he states, complimenting Schneider Electric’s efficient product distribution network. “I know that if there’s a part I need right away, I can make a call and get it delivered the next day. It’s the same with their global network, an important element considering so many of our projects are literally installed around the world.”
Having acquired Pineberry in 2009 after joining it five years earlier, McCharles says he is pleased with the company’s accelerated growth in recent years, along with development of high-quality friction feeding, printing and custom automation solutions for the packaging, pharmaceutical, e-commerce, distribution, food and beverage, plastic card, graphic arts, and mailing and fulfillment industries.
“We have gone from being a local Canadian company to more of a global one, with installations around the world, including South America, Europe and Australia, with a lot of our new business derived from customers in the U.S.,” says McCharles, saying he expects a warm market reception for the company’s CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System solution.
“Companies can start getting serious about new track-and-trace requirements now or they can start later,” he says, “but obviously becoming more familiar with the technology as soon as possible can only be an advantage to any company.
“Our CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System provides a practical and cost-effective way for pharmaceutical companies to ensure their products conform to current and even upcoming global track-and trace-efforts.”
As McCharles sums up, “Our primary goal has always been to help our customers be more efficient and thus more profitable.
“To do so, we design and build our systems by working closely with our customers throughout the automation process to ensure they receive an automation solution that is specific to their needs.”
Please see the video of Pineberry Manufacturing’s new CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System, incorporating Schneider Electric’s gantry robot and other technologies, in full-action mode HERE.
For more information, visit www.pineberryinc.com.
by Michelle | Aug 26, 2023 | Blog
Simple, durable, cost efficient and innovative automatic feeding solutions and systems.
Huddled away in an industrial hub in Oakville, Ontario, lies one of Canada’s best manufacturing and automation solutions provider, Pineberry Manufacturing Inc. Manufacturing robust equipment and automation solutions for the packaging, pharmaceutical, food, mailing & order fulfillment, printing and plastic card industries.
Since 1984, Pineberry Manufacturing Inc. has enjoyed a solid reputation for its daring problem-solving equipment and high-quality friction feeders. Owned by David McCharles, Pineberry Manufacturing has seen tremendous growth year over year. The engineering team has and continues to provide system solutions to customers with unique and demanding applications, exploring project scopes and requirements of all kinds.
“What sets us apart from others is that we are not afraid to take on a project, no matter how small, big, or challenging,” states McCharles. “Pineberry Manufacturing won’t just provide a solution. We will key that solution specific to what the customer wants and needs right now and for the future.”
Packaging Strategies: Tell us what you do and the areas Pineberry excels in?
McCharles: Pineberry Manufacturing has been manufacturing robust automation equipment for the packaging, pharmaceutical, printing, e-Commerce, distribution, food and beverage, plastic card, graphic arts, and mailing and fulfillment industries since 1984. We specialize in simple, durable, cost efficient and innovative automation solutions, which include friction feeders, tray denesters, packaging, serialization and custom automation systems/packaging machinery.
PS: What don’t most people realize about your company?
McCharles: Most people do not realize that Pineberry Manufacturing has been around for more than 30 years providing packaging machinery for many industries world-wide. We ship our products globally from Canada and the U.S. to Brazil, Europe, Dubai and Australia.
PS: Are there any new automation solutions you’re releasing within the next 12 months?
McCharles: We recently released our Rotary Pick and Place System at PACK EXPO this year. The Rotary Pick and Place System is designed for high speed picking and placing of products using robotic suction cup arms. Products enter the Rotary Pick and Place System through being loaded or picked from a hopper. Using a custom end of arm tool, the products are picked and placed by the robot at the desired location. The Rotary Pick and Place System provides high-speed output, increasing productivity and reducing costs, and is ideal for multiple products or operation lines with limited space constraints.
We’re also releasing the CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System to go with our Serialization and Track & Trace pharmaceutical packaging product line. In partnership with Adents Pharma Suite, the Pineberry CartonTrac Serialization and Aggregation System has a very small footprint to automatically combine individual serialized cartons and takes a picture of all the fixed and variable serialized track and trace data. Using robotics to band and case batches together, the system prints and applies a label to the band/case with a serial number. As the cartons are combined, the serial number of the aggregated unit (parent) is associated with the multiple serial numbers of the individual cartons (child) contained within it, thus builds a parent-child relationship as products move through the packaging stages of the supply chain.
For more information, visit www.pineberryinc.com.
