Hartz Mountain Opens New Production Line With SOMIC Wraparound Case Packer System

One of the oldest and most respected companies in the pet industry has completed installation of one of the newest retail ready, secondary packaging machines in North America. The Hartz Mountain Corporation began running a new production line in mid-December to handle pet care products at its production facility in Pleasant Plain, Ohio, with a versatile SOMIC America 424 case packing system.

“We chose the SOMIC machine due to the flexibility of the case format and the design. We worked with three additional companies on the packaging solution before deciding on SOMIC,” said Jake Wojtkiewicz, engineering manager, Hartz. “From the time we uncrated the machine to entering production, it took about seven days until we were able to run full production.”

Overall, seven different bottle formats and two case styles – standard wraps and Shelf Ready Package (SRP) trays with corrugated covers – are run on the SOMIC 424. A total of 65,000 bottles are processed in one shift, five days a week. Depending on the product, the company either does 5,400 12-pack cases or 13,000 SRP cases bundled as a 5-pack.

“The design of the machine is novel. I’m used to conventional case packers that use a lug bucket chain for the case transport with rotary tucking and folding tooling. The design eliminates that and replaces it with contrast folding tooling and a simple vacuum belt,” he added. “This makes maintenance of the machine significantly easier. It also reduces the noise level of the equipment while in operation and the overall footprint.”

For more information, visit https://somic.us.