The task was to design a punnet-dispensing machine for packaging of fruit. You will have seen fruit in punnets like these at your supermarket. Punnet machines are required to take a stack of punnets, separate them and place them one by one on a conveyor belt ready for filling with fruit.

Not so difficult you might think, yet typically these machines are very complicated with numerous motors, rotating shafts, moving fingers, bearings, pneumatic cylinders, suction cups, sensors etc, They also seem to go out of adjustment as soon as you turn your back and are a constant maintenance nightmare.

The design solution we developed used one standard motor, just 2 moving parts, required no adjustment and is totally maintenance free. The machine was compact, safe, could operate 50% faster than the specified design speed if required and was manufactured and assembled in a few hours. The design also lends itself to simple modification to accommodate changes to punnet size and shape in the future.

The total machine material and manufacturing cost was a fraction that of other typical machines and due to the absolute simplicity of the design the costs for developing the new machine were also much less than typical for bringing a new machine to market. Less complexity means less time required in the detailed design and drafting.

… And the best bit, the company made a very good profit and have a new, hair extensions uk very marketable product, and whilst the customer did raise an eyebrow at paying the originally expected price for such lack of complexity, they were happy because the machine satisfied all their requirements plus they could see added benefits in ease of operation, reliability and minimal maintenance costs.

The story is that good design and engineering coupled with innovation can lead to simplicity, lower costs, greater margins and a win, win situation for everyone.