Fast-growing company avoids a sticky situation

Two Roads Brewery is one of the fastest-growing microbreweries in the Northeast. Since beginning operations in 2012, the brewery has increased production from 30,000 to 120,000 barrels per year. Amid rapid growth, the company identified problems with its aging glue equipment used to seal cardboard packaging. A new tank-free hot melt system has reduced downtime and helped achieve production goals.

Soon after they began operations, managers found production line growth hampered by frequent plugging of the tank-based hot melt delivery equipment they were using to glue boxes together. As Doug Concialdi, Two Roads’ packaging manager, explains, the used equipment took nearly an hour to heat up and often produced char, which is by far the biggest problem in any hot melt application system. The system was also subject to human error. Operators frequently had to ask, “did someone turn on (or turn off) the glue machine?”

The company was also in the habit of keeping plenty of nozzles on hand and stopped the line three times a week to change one of the four nozzles. If a nozzle is plugged just once a week and takes 15 minutes to fix, the downtime is equivalent to an hour a month at a cost of $3,000 dollars an hour or $36,000 per year.

The installer agreed to demonstrate the equipment on site and replace it with the old system at no cost if Two Roads was not pleased. They practiced with the 10-minute startup time of the new glue machine (Graco, invisipac.com) and the process control technology that provides remote system analytics. They kept the first system and added another unit within less than a year. The system has reduced char and completely eliminated the need to replace nozzles while reducing material waste and the number of boxes that had to be repacked or resealed.

Concialdi says personnel no longer need to be assigned to check and maintain glue levels. He adds that the automated aspects of the new equipment protect the production line from human error. For example, if the unit does not dispense glue within an hour, it automatically shuts off. Before, there were instances where the unit could be running at high temperatures over the weekend.