BluePrint Automation was founded in 1980 with the purpose of providing
automatic case packers for flexible bags. Since then, the company
says, it has grown into a multinational packaging automation business
with full-service manufacturing facilities in Virginia and the Netherlands.
Today, the company supplies fully
integrated turnkey systems for applications that involve the loading
of flexible bags and hard-to-handle packages into secondary containers
such as cases, trays, cartons, crates and masterbags.
According to John French, director of sales, the company does 95
percent of its business in the food industry. It is a competitive,
growing market, he explains.
“About seven years ago, there were three major players –
now there are close to 15,” French says.
We’ve been involved for a long time. We’re also the
largest. We focus on flexible packages – almost anything that’s
in a bag.”
When BluePrint begins working with a customer – a large food
company, for instance – it first looks at the production line
to see how It can apply technology there to improve speed, reduce
labor, increase profits or improve the overall quality of the product
as it goes out the door to a store, French explains.
The constant quest for exciting packaging often leaves BluePrint
Automation with the dilemma of how to get products to their destination
without damage.
“Displayability is a major factor for customers because everyone
wants to do something different to catch the consumer’s interest,”
French says.
“Everyone also wants to do things faster and faster in production,”
he adds.
“They want good displayability, but they also want containers
that are both inexpensive and easy to display. That’s where
most of our headaches come from and where most of our innovations
are leading.”
One customer came to BluePrint with an idea to save money by reusing
the cases it uses to ship products. As French explains, the company
developed a case and a machine to handle reusable cases, which was
the first in the industry.
“It wasn’t market driven,” French emphasizes.
“It was cost-savings driven. They wanted to get the product
out the door less expensively. Since then, we’ve allowed roughly
six other snack food customers to utilize the same technology and
realize the same savings.”
BluePrint’s solutions typically involve robotic case packing
technology, although it also offers vision-guided robotics, mechanical
case packing and case erecting.
“We offer a total system that takes control of the package
as soon as it leaves the form, fill and seal operation and takes
it all the way through palletizing; from the filler to the truck,”
the company says.
Guided Expansion
BluePrint currently has two manufacturing facilities – one
at its headquarters in Colonial Heights, Va., and one near Amsterdam,
Netherlands. It operates a robotics division in Boulder, Colo.,
and R&D facilities in Reno, Nev.
The Colorado location was a recent expansion to house the new robotics
division, French says. “We are continually receiving projects
and interest in this division,” he notes.
Vision-guided robotics, he explains, uses camera to look at products
on a conveyer belt and grab defective products. This is all done
at very high speeds, he says.
“The machine wraps a biscuit or food product into the plastic
wrap that you take off before putting (it) into the microwave,”
French explains.
“This is a field that, before, was very manual and required
a lot of labor. This technology takes a lot of the labor out of
the process by using delicate cameras.
“The cameras look at the product as it comes out of an oven,”
he continues. “As the items move along the conveyer belt,
the cameras can locate, inspect, look for quality, reject bad products
and put good products back. The machine identifies what is good
and bad, and one person watches over 10 or 12 machines just to monitor
them.”
BluePrint employs 175 people worldwide, 95 in the United States.
Approximately 65 of its employees have engineering degrees, he adds.
“We work with some schools to do internships for mechanical
engineering and have hired several of those interns,” he says.
“We do a fair amount of work with local universities.”
For more information contact:
Robbie Quinlin
Phone: 804-520-5400
E-Mail: robbie.quinlin@blueprintautomation.com
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