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Delivering for dairy

Oberweis Dairy’s investment in new filling, capping, labeling, conveying, bottle-packing, and shrink-wrapping machinery begins to pay off with the introduction of single-serve milks.

Pw 16841 Orangecreme

Oberweis Dairy sees so much potential in its single-serve, plastic-bottled milk and dairy beverages that it’s invested upwards of $1 million on a new filling line at its North Aurora, IL, headquarters/

manufacturing facility.

The 100-bpm line is equipped with new filling, capping, labeling, conveying, bottle-packing, and shrink-wrapping machinery. Currently, the line runs about four to five hours, four days a week, as Oberweis rolls out the new 12-oz bottles.

Oberweis recognizes that the more frequently the new line runs, the quicker its return on investment. “We justify the investment in a number of ways,” says Mark Leonardelli, vice president of sales and marketing for the dairy. “First, we know [the ability to fill these bottles is] important to our future, whether it’s for the Looney Tunes flavored milks (see sidebar, p. 50), our own single-serve products, or other products we’re considering.”

Equipment purchase decisions were made based primarily on the package and limited plant space. “You start with knowing your line footprint,” suggests Mark Kloster, plant manager at the North Aurora facility. The line’s dimensions, he estimates, measure 20’ x 30’. “We knew there would be other machines that would work for our application, but not all of them would work in this limited space.” The new line is tightly positioned between a ½-gal glass container filling line and an ice cream filling line.

While space considerations were important, the materials played a critical role in determining what packaging machinery to purchase. “Without a doubt, the materials dictated what equipment we bought,” Kloster recalls.

“We wanted to use a particular bottle and a full-sleeve label,” he continues. “We worked with a general contractor that was very instrumental in the line layout, and the contractor recommended equipment vendors familiar with the dairy industry.”

Kloster credits that contractor, W. M. Sprinkman Corp. (Franksville, WI), with serving as the system integrator for the line. Sprinkman also recommended tabletop and cable conveyors from Concept Systems (Grand Rapids, MI).

Filling and capping

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