Apex^™

Apex^™ sleevers offer rugged reliability combined with the latest innovative technologies to easily and precisely adapt to your application.

• Wraparound sleeves: Ideal for sleeving single products or multi-packs with top, side or bottom closure, available with bottom glue/top gusset or top glue/bottom gusset
• Drop-through sleeves: Perfect for single pack, multi-pack and multi-tier sleeving of tapered cups and containers
• Neck-through sleeves: Show off your product while providing excellent pack containment of necked bottles and containers, available with bottom glue/top gusset or top glue/bottom gusset

Douglas offers appropriately applied technologies for infeed conveying, collating and loading solutions that increase line efficiencies for soft, semi-rigid and rigid containers. Simple balanced lane product infeeds use surge control to enhance line efficiency by increasing or decreasing machine speed to maintain pace with product delivery. Timing screws are used for surgeable, semi-rigid containers requiring grouping, spacing or separation prior to sleeve introduction. Star wheels are used for soft products requiring surge control and spacing prior to sleeve introduction. Unique live belt turning reliability for products requiring orientation prior to sleeving.

Fast, repeatable changeover feature offers multiple enhancements. Changeover time – significantly reduces time to less than 5 minutes (time of changeover is dependent on extent of changeover) Repeatability – rail positions are recipe-driven and locked in place to within +/- 1/32″ Flexibility – ability to place lanes where desired as opposed to centerline or fixed side adjustments and more customer options for generating product-specific recipes Durability – infeed rail’s holding force can withstand high product pressure Ergonomics – minimizing manual adjustments maximizes efficiency and promotes safety in the work environment

Automated changeovers offer dramatic improvements to line efficiencies and reduce operator errors.

• Sleever machine functions operate simultaneously instead of one at a time, dramatically increasing efficiencies
• Servo motors are readily programmed with excellent capability to adapt to changes and adjustments
• Fast, repeatable changeovers and simple adjustments when products or materials vary slightly
• Smooth, quiet operation reduces component wear for lower maintenance cost
• On-board diagnostics provide simple troubleshooting from the HMI

Precision sleeve blank and product control ensures consistent non-stop production for all product types.

• Magazines are intelligently designed to ensure precise blank placement and orientation.
• Sleeves are introduced from the top or bottom depending on sleeve design. Methods including sleeve flight lugs and capture rail systems maintain constant control of sleeve and product during the loading process.
• Closing and sealing are aided with a combination of static plows and live closures to minimize sleeve friction and resistance, ensuring consistently formed end products.