The Thermatool Automatic Packaging System provides rapid automatic bundling and strapping of tubular products within a small footprint, minimizing the use of valuable shop space.  A number of tube entry and take away options make the equipment compatible with nearly any plant layout.  The machinery will accept tubes from 1” to 3” inches in diameter and 10’ to 20’ in length and package them at a rate of up to 45 pieces per minute regardless of diameter. The equipment will accept square, oval and rectangular tube, which can be bundled into rectangular packages; round tubes are bundled into hexagonal or rectangular packages.  The machinery is specifically designed not to mar the finish of the tubes.

The system’s operation is controlled by a PLC, and an operator’s console is provided.  Each tube is deposited upon a powered roll conveyor by the existing mill’s dump table, or the optional accelerator and double dump table.  An entire layer of tubes is collected on the two asynchronous layer-building conveyors.

The layer transfer mechanism uses non-marring fingers to deposit each layer into the bundle-packaging fixture, which indexes down after each layer is deposited.  When the bundle is complete, the arms of the transfer wagon move the bundle to the strapping position while the packaging fixture returns to home position to accept the first layer of the next bundle.  The transfer wagon indexes the bundle into the automatic or manual strapper while the bundle exit conveyor accepts it as each band is applied.  When the bundle is strapped the transfer wagon returns to its home position to accept the next bundle while the lift and transfer mechanism moves the strapped bundle onto the bundle storage conveyors for pick-up.