Specialists in material handling equipment for product
packaged in plastic pails and containers

The simple plastic pail and lid has changed North American society in many ways since its inception over 60 years ago. Originally it was viewed as a means of packaging and transporting everything from joint filler and driveway sealer to garlic and apple pie filling, to the local industrial warehouse. Pail packaging was not yet seen as a marketing strategy.

Economic downturns in the late 70’s, 80’s and 90’s produced an opportunity to allow the average consumer to purchase bulk product at a reasonable price in sizes that were predominantly 5 gallon or under. Out of an increasing need to supply a large consumer market with bulk product at affordable prices, the demand for pails has seen the greatest growth of any packaging available. The benefits of the pail are many and various: unlike many other products, it’s one of the few examples where the packaging costs less than the product; it can be resealed and re-cycled, with a silk-screened label it will carry a producers name for the life of the pail, and to many parts of the world. So it was, that the humble plastic pail changed the way we shop, and resulted in the birth of the ‘warehouse’ store concept. Obvious examples include Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Lowes, Costco etc. But the pail has changed more than the type of store we shop in. It has been instrumental in developing the equipment required to semi-automate the pail handling system.

The early systems would use manual labor for placing the lid and closing the lid as well as filling and placing pails on the filling machine. However the natural forces of the market-place and increasing competition between “big box” stores soon demanded a filled pail at less cost. As the content costs remain consistent with the forces of supply and demand, the only changeable variable in cost was the labor content per pail. The need for mechanization increased dramatically. As a rubber hammer generally performed the lid closing operation, this became the logical operation to mechanize. This precipitated the design and build of the first PAILmate Lid Closer in May of 1975.

This machine could press lids into place “on the fly”, i.e. without stopping. With the pail & lid trapped firmly between upper and lower belts, the lids were essentially “rolled on” from front to back. It could also accommodate all sizes of pail, from 5” high to 18” high square or round. Its capacity was up to 25-5 gallon pails per minute. But by the early 90’s, even greater pressure to be competitive led producers to seek out the next tier of cost savings: a Lid Dispenser.

This led to the development of a Lid Dispenser that could dispense a lid onto the pail as it traveled below it. At this point, it became apparent that all pail lids are not created equally. Many lids are of poor quality and are simply not machine compatible, being out of tolerance or simply deformed. Producers are demanding some form of ‘quality control’ or at least an assurance that a specific lid is capable of being dispensed and lidded by a mechanical device.

For too long, lid (and pail) purchasing has been determined primarily by cost. With increased mechanization on the ‘pail line’, this is no longer the criteria. Pail lids come literally in all shapes and sizes. If they cannot be mechanically dispensed, the price no longer matters. Quality lids are in demand. They save time and ultimately, money. Consider some of the problems of a poor quality lid:

For the first time this year, one company has decided that its choice of lid will be decided by its dispensing capabilities. A 1% failure rate in dispensing is considered acceptable. With the integration of controls between the pail conveyor system and the Lid Dispenser, it’s possible to avoid virtually all delays caused by a lid not being dispensed correctly.

So, the next time you see an empty plastic pail, consider the historic journey it took, and the changes it created to bring affordable secure product to both industrial warehouse facilities and to a society who’s desire to ‘do it yourself’ has assisted in job creation and improved life style.