Cremer, a leading supplier of product counting machines in the U.S. for a wide array of applications, has broadened its offerings of multi-counter machine systems for food & beverage product assortments and variety packs. The fully-customizable systems utilize several of the company’s HQ Series counters – a line of compact counting and packaging machines – to provide fast, reliable and cost-efficient counting ideal for the efficient production of assortments such as mixed chocolates, candies and coffee pods. 

The multi-counter machine systems exemplify the types of hyper-customized and fully integrated configurations Cremer can provide, opening the door for a broad variety of product assortments. For a manufacturer’s mix or variety line, Cremer provides a dedicated HQ counter for each flavor/type. The desired count for each is dispensed into a bucket conveyor under the counter. When the preset quantity of each flavor is reached, the bucket conveyor dispenses the total amount of product into an integrated packaging machine – typically a cartoner and/or bagger.  

Product can be dispensed into infeed hoppers manually by operators or automatically from the upstream primary packaging system. The system is fully customizable per assorted product ranges; for example, four flavors would utilize four counters, and likewise for six, eight or more. 

Additionally, depending on required line speed, more than one counter can be dedicated per flavor/type. For instance, if a chocolate assortment requires more milk chocolate than other flavors, Cremer’s system would dedicate two counters to milk chocolate, one for dark chocolate and one for caramel.

“For manufacturers of food industry product assortments, packaging can be a complex task to ensure mix composition is 100 percent accurate and consistent for necessary quality control,” said Brian Pomponio, Business Development Manager of Cremer North America. “Our fully customizable and integrated multi-counter systems offer tailored, turnkey solutions to meet the most demanding requirements, ensuring maximum quality, efficiency and reliability.”  

The HQ Series of counters are scalable for varying production levels depending on product type and output. Typical output is up to 5,500 individual pieces or 175 units(discharges)/minute. The machines can work over an indexing conveyor for filling boxes, cartons, tubs, bottles, jars or tins. 

Compatible with all industrial packaging and cartoning machines, the HQ Series features a compact footprint, FDA-compliant product parts for processing both food and non-food products and streamlined tool-free disassembly for easy operation and cleaning. Other features include silent operation with no compressed air required and a product detection unit with 100 percent accuracy. Vibratory plates for product transport and separation and a timing hopper for discharging product counts are also built-in.