While working for a packaging company, self-taught machinist Lawrence Zepf was asked if he could make some change parts for one of their bottling machines. Commonly known as stars and guides, these parts allow companies to change parts on production lines to fit different size bottles. Doing a great job, Zepf realized he could fill the demand for aftermarket change parts, and went into business for himself in 1972.
Starting his small machine shop attached to the family home in Waterloo, Ontario, the fledgling business was known as Bottler’s Engineering and Design. Within five years, the company doubled in size, relocated to larger premises, and became well-known for supplying change parts to manufacturers, distilleries, and wineries across North America.
In 1996, Zepf Technologies was acquired by world-renowned manufacturing technology and service company Barry-Wehmiller. Relocated to Clearwater, Florida, Zepf Solutions was integrated with Pneumatic Scale Angelus, a leading supplier of aftermarket parts for food, beverage, and packaging industries. Today, Zepf Solutions is a product line of the newly formed Barry-Wehmiller Filling and Closing (BWFC) division of Barry Wehmiller, explains Paul Celli, Director of Sales for the Zepf Solutions product line. “BWFC is the combination of Pneumatic Scale Angelus and Synerlink divisions.”
Today, Zepf’s team has grown to 27 engineers—the majority of them mechanical—and 12 field service technicians globally. The company’s main location is in Clearwater, Florida, along with locations in Waterloo, Ontario and a third site in Doncaster, United Kingdom. Being part of BWFC has enabled the company to be a truly global supplier.
Working with major companies in all markets, including breweries, carbonated soft drinks, foods, pharma, home, and personal care, Zepf’s solutions include feedscrews, rotary bottle orienteers, wet case detectors, and storage. Renowned for products like its MARK II Change Parts System, Zepf’s quick, no-tool changeover greatly benefits customers.
Pioneering “toolless, quick change” change parts, Zepf developed a system that uses embedded locks, knobs, and magnets to allow for quick and effortless changeovers, resulting in savings for its customers. Installing a ‘core’ system on the machine for parts to lock in place gives parts repeatability in bottle spacing, as well as timing. This results in less time wasted changing over parts, which means machines are in operation longer, instead of sitting idle.
“The cost savings of changeover time—changing from a 12-ounce bottle to run a 1-liter bottle, for example—is huge,” says Celli. “If it’s not running, you’re not making money. The way our system works is, if you take our parts off and put the next set of parts on, you don’t have to do anything; there’s no more setup. It’s already been set up. The timing of everything, where the star wheels all meet up with each other—picture gears trying to mesh with each other—that timing is built into our design. So once you change over, you’re done. You don’t have to do anything.”
Owing to its many years in business, Zepf has gained plenty of experience working with machines, many of them old but still functional. In these cases, Zepf isn’t changing the true mechanics of the machine, but instead putting on new quick-change parts to better hold containers and prevent product from spilling. “We can retrofit an old machine with our system,” says Celli. “And those old machines—where they were just a lot of bolts and knobs to hold things on, and a changeover could take an hour—a standard quick change for us can knock that down to 20 minutes. Our engineers have been trained in the best practices to go into the field and reverse engineer the customer’s machinery. We then take this information and adapt our superior design procedures to retrofit new container handling change parts to their machine.”
Drawing on its alignment with Barry-Wehmiller Filling and Closing, Zepf Solutions’ three design/manufacturing locations enable the company to offer a range of standard solutions. Recently, Zepf has been perfecting its Multi-Position Change Parts and Multi-Position Guide Rail Systems. Multi-Position Change Parts allow customers to run multiple bottles on the same set of parts without removing them from the machine, decreasing downtime.
“Such parts can take a changeover from nine minutes to one minute,” Celli explains. “Multi-Position Guide Rail systems are the same idea, but for all the customers’ conveyance. We can supply manual handwheels to modify straightaways and corners, or completely automate their conveyors and change over a complete line in seconds with the touch of a button.”
Welcoming advanced technology to its facilities, Zepf has adapted additive manufacturing (3D printing) into its designs and offerings. “We use in-house printers as well as printing vendors,” says Celli. “We have 14 printers within our three locations, and are looking to add more.”
Being in business for over half a century has earned Zepf Solutions the trust of returning and new customers alike. Veteran clients are familiar with Zepf’s products and services, and the company regularly consults with customers, with regional sales executives in the field constantly traveling to meet potential clients.
“Our reputation and longevity in the marketplace also bring customers to us, asking if we can solve a particular problem,” comments Celli, explaining that while the packaging world is big, it is also small. Many clients, for example, have worked for years at some of the world’s top soft drink manufacturers and distilleries. When there is generational turnover in these and other industries, the new people coming behind them may not be familiar with Zepf; similarly, for massive Fortune 500 companies who have dozens of manufacturing sites nationwide, staff turnover may mean recent hires are unfamiliar with Zepf. “You have to stay in front of them,” Celli says. “Our big thing is, even if it’s a customer we’ve maintained for many years, you’ve got to visit them. We have our regional sales team that does nothing but hit the road.”
Indeed, working closely with clients to meet their exact needs remains one of Zepf’s greatest strengths, and the company is committed to respecting their privacy. Distilleries pride themselves on their custom-designed and shaped bottle caps, and Zepf works closely with them on change parts to meet their specific requirements. And with growing environmental concerns around generating less plastic waste, water bottles are becoming thinner and thinner to the point they are “glorified bags these days,” jokes Celli. “We have to constantly evolve with that, to make sure we can handle these containers. A 500 m. spring water bottle runs 100 per minute, and can barely be touched.”
In the sphere of aftermarket change parts, Zepf Solutions remains a leader, and looks forward to meeting and exceeding client demand for many years to come.
“In a world where marketing is constantly changing containers, customers need experts to customize their container handling change parts specific to their needs,” says Celli. “We are the experts. OEMs have machine engineers who also do change parts design on the side; we have engineers that only design change parts and have learned the nuances of other OEM equipment to improve the handling of any container. And we can provide that expertise globally.”
