The genesis of CapTech Automation has a long and interesting history. One of CapTech’s founders, Tom Kieran, was given a project in the early 1980’s to purchase or design an efficient PLC-controlled closure lining machine for a small but growing closure manufacturer. Kieran traveled the world to see what was available and view the state-of-the-art machines. After deciding that no existing machine in the world met the mandates for simplicity, rigidity, and process-control capability, Kieran emba...

The genesis of CapTech Automation has a long and interesting history. One of CapTech’s founders, Tom Kieran, was given a project in the early 1980’s to purchase or design an efficient PLC-controlled closure lining machine for a small but growing closure manufacturer. Kieran traveled the world to see what was available and view the state-of-the-art machines. After deciding that no existing machine in the world met the mandates for simplicity, rigidity, and process-control capability, Kieran embarked on designing and building his own cap lining machine. In 1986, the world’s first PLC-controlled closure lining machine with no star-wheel was put into production and was a resounding success. The internal conversion to his new design was enthusiastic and rapid, resulting in 15 more machines being built and fueling consistent annual production growth. In 2001, Kieran devoted full-time to his automation company Accurate Machine and expanded his closure lining machine designs and found additional commercial success with new customers. His machines allowed a sizable closure manufacturer to take its lining department from being a 24 hour per day bottleneck to being a day-shift-only profit center. Next came his breakthrough closure die set design, known as the “Clockwork” system. In parallel, Mark Strasser founded Big Sky Engineering in 1997 and along with Joel Cunningham achieved growth in custom automation that lead to a series of successively larger facilities and broad list of Tier 1 manufacturing automation customers. Proprietary designs in high-speed closure orientors and automated closure log-packing systems lead to a growing concentration in closure automation systems. Tom Goth, a veteran of the closure industry, was the catalyst that brought Accurate Machine and Big Sky Engineering together to form CapTech Automation and bring disruptive new closure lining machine technology to the national marketplace, along with closure business analysis capabilities available nowhere else. The product offerings and capabilities of CapTech Automation are expanding rapidly. You owe it to your company and to your bottom line to contact CapTech Automation and explore the new best practices in closure lining automation.