Design and Construction of an Automated Adjustable-can foil Sealing Machine

Adizue U. L, Agbadah S. E, Ibeagha D. C, Falade Y. O

Finishing and Packaging has been a major activity for every production Industry in recent times, as proper finishing and packaging helps keep a business green. In Nigeria today, there has been an increasing demand for canned products such as engine oils, fruit juice, greases and oil treatments etc. which require foil seal before capping or without capping as the case maybe. In some of our small scale and growing industries, sealing of canned products is being carried out by the use of locally fabricated manual type sealing machines whose draw backs includes man labor intensive, machine multiplicity and bottlenecks. While the imported equipment worth millions of naira for small and medium scale industries to afford. This work centered on the design and construction of a portable automated adjustable-can foil sealing machine which is a final unit operation for finishing and packaging department of some can-product industries. The equipment works within temperature range of 0-200oC, it accommodate can weights of 3.3kg to 10kg, heights from 82mm – 314mm, lengths from 54mm – 233mm and widths from 43mm – 106mm and was found to have an efficiency of 78%, which compares favorably with 90% efficiency derivable from the imported type and at a more cheaper and affordable cost.