Since the 1800s, canning has been the best way to preserve foods. Nicolas Appert patented the first tin cans in 1810, and the process soon took off as a commercial enterprise. Fast forward to today. Canning is still a mainstay in food packaging and preservation, though the process looks a bit different.
Silgan Containers of Edison, New Jersey, is a manufacturer of steel cans. With their technologically advanced systems and processes, Silgan makes over 4-million food cans per day. Silgan also pioneered the drawn and ironed (D&I) manufacturing method, which employs rapid production speeds, efficient metal utilization and a one-piece can bottom.
Once cans are formed and filled at a food packaging plant, they are sealed with can tops.
“Silgan makes two kinds of tops,” said Dave McCarren, Plant Engineer-Manufacturing for Silgan Containers. “There is a traditional end that you open with a can opener, and an easy-open end that you pop open. More companies are going with the easy-open variety as a value-added convenience for the end user.”
Because the cans are steel, many of them can be conveyed with magnetism. However, one step of the process requires vacuum positioning.
“We have 22 machines involved in the trimming process,” McCarren said. “Vacuum pressure sucks each can tightly onto a holder so it can be trimmed with rotating carbide knives that spin around the top of the can at high speed to slice it off. It has to be perfect all the way around with no slivers, and vacuum pressure helps ensure that happens.”
Silgan originally used two 100 horsepower fixed speed vacuum pumps to produce the required 22 inches of vacuum. But when an Atlas Copco representative introduced McCarren to the GHS VSD+ after one of the fixed speed pumps failed, and the rest is history. Silgan quickly installed three GHS 900 VSD+ pumps and immediately saw benefits.
The variable speed drive helped Silgan meet demand without wasting energy and automatically lock in required vacuum levels.
It also helped them save money. Because they were using less energy, their monthly bill decreased. Their water bill decreased, too. The Atlas Copco vacuum pumps are air cooled, so Silgan no longer needs to cool with water like the did with the old fixed-speed pumps.
After installation, Silgan decided to increase their Atlas Copco ownership.
“We typically shut down one line every six weeks for maintenance,” McCarren said. “Because we’re a high speed, low margin business, unplanned downtime is unacceptable. I’m working with Atlas Copco on acquiring a fourth vacuum pump so we always have dedicated backup.”
The relationship between Silgan and Atlas Copco stretches back almost a decade, and that’s just the beginning.
“We got our first Atlas Copco compressor about ten years ago and still use both the GA 315 and GA 315 VSD,” McCarren said. “The variable speed drive vacuum is working well for us, and we go with what works.”
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