"Sometimes we innovate on our own, sometimes it comes from collaboration"
The science of filling tubes
By Judi Lembke , editor at Scandinavian Traveler
With hundreds of patents over the years, the list of Norden innovations is long, but there are notable standouts. In the old days, tubes were sealed by “hot jaws” – two heated metal plates that squeezed the tube to seal it. But this resulted in a bad seal, low speed and didn’t allow for special shapes. Norden changed that, by introducing the hot air sealing system, a much faster and more reliable process that resulted in better seal quality. It also opened the door to Design-a-Seal, which allows customers to have specially shaped seals, such as a wave shape or toothpaste for kids in the shape of a teddy bear or a mouse.
“Sometimes we innovate on our own, sometimes it comes from collaboration” says Lars Hammarstedt, Norden Sales Director. “When one of our customers came to us wanting to have multi-colored fillings, such as toothpaste that has both gel and paste, we worked with them to develop a machine that made it possible, thereby changing the industry.”
While Norden is still servicing machines that were sold in the 1960s, the machines of today fill 1,000 tubes per minute, 24/7. The lines move so fast that it would be impossible for an operator to manually monitor production, so Norden developed systems such as Integrated Check Weighing and In-Line Leak Testing, thereby increasing productivity and cutting waste.
Speed and Automation
Speed and automation are the innovations of today. Tomorrow, it's about how "connected machines" will help customers achieve high output and faster service. "Having our machines connected means we can offer better and faster customer support," Hammarstedt says. "We have a new product based on augmented reality, that allows customers to use goggles or a tablet or smartphone to film where there's a problem with the machine. With this system we can instantly, virtually guide the customer through repairs, showing them which button to push or something else that needs to be done. This is the future of support and it goes to the core of what we do -making the lives of our clients easier through innovation."