Can Flow Solutions LLC

12/19/2025

In-Line working the way it needs to, the 5° pitch on the section of conveyor helps.

10/06/2025

Can Flow Solutions is turning 10 this week. It has been a great run so far.

02/11/2025

10/02/2024

We have made it another year. It has been a wild ride.

09/20/2024

Chris and I went out to a customer's plant to replace five twists and drops into a printer, we were contacted by this plant via a reference from someone I have heard of but have never met.
The existing twists and drops they had on all three of their lines were terrible. It turns out the company who makes the printer uses this other company to supply these parts.
They sent them and they do not have finished tails on the end, and they had no way of making them repeatable when they changed from one size to another.
We replaced everything on none line and made them a quick - change easy turnover. The other two printers, we added some brackets and welded plates to allow a changeover without all the issues they had. We also tuned up those drops because it was the end user that had to bend the rails with tools the manufacturer supplied, that are junk.
I am not for getting on someone else's work, but if we tried to supply this, we would be called out on it for sure.
The printer we fitted with all new drops finished their run yesterday much earlier than they normally do, because they did not have to keep climbing on top of the upper deck to clear jams.
The plant manager as well as the engineer told me as funds become available, we will be back to replace more.
The best part is that a technician from the printer company saw what we made and passed video and photos along with my card on to his boss.

07/20/2024

I went to St. Charles MO and met with a new customer to audit their twists that they got from someone else to see if we could help them make them change out better.
Two of the units they feed, we can use what they already have, just add some brackets and extend a few rails here and there, and make them a repeatable change part.
The third unit, we will have to replace all five of the current twists to our style of a quick change and eliminate the jams they are currently getting.
I asked this customer where he got my name. He told me, and I know the name, but have never met the man, but he told this customer, if they wanted it right, to call me. I need to find that guys contact info and send him a very nice thank you.
While I was driving home this morning, they called and gave me the job. The number of first-time customers in the last two years had grown, and I could not be more pleased.

06/25/2024

The 19.2 OZ can startup with the new top end twist went perfect this morning.

06/24/2024

They do not run very fast, but they can run without the jams now.

06/24/2024

Chris and I were on a site over the weekend to replace the twists on a job from 2 years ago, the customer had a nose over conveyor feeding our twist and the tall can was giving them problems because they had too much radius on it. We removed the nose over and made the first twist straight out so there is no fanning of the cans because they don't need to nose over. The radius after the twist eats up any pitch we needed to use and then the can gets turned the rest of the way over to be cleaned. They only need to readjust their load balancers to accept the new amount of weight and they will be in great shape. The air conveyor clears all the cans when the run is over, so nobody had to go up to push then through. This is something we will be doing for most customers going forward, we are letting them know about the fanning issues before we build.

03/09/2024

Just got home from one of "Those" jobs. We made a batch of twists for a labeler machine, after I had the #1 twist in and was working on the second one out of the machine, one of the mechanics who sets the machine up told me the first twist has the can turning the wrong way and the label will be upside down. My contact came over and confirmed that he had in fact "messed up".
The problem is we had the can turning four times before it made it out of the system. I told him I was going out to the truck to call the shop, mind you it is day one of a three day on site for me. I had 8 twists to install, now the first one is trash. I told Chris Smith the issue and he started making parts to replace the first twist in two can sizes. I just kept installing the second twist, because it was correct. Day two of three on site, I finished the second size #2 twist, then mounted mu quick change plates to their rolling trackwork that twist #3 and #4 go in and out of. The idea is to have the can upright and labeled properly after the 4th twist. I still had two twists that would turn the can the right way, I installed one size on the infeed and one on the discharge end. Now I have all the brackets for everything in place and something to copy when the other twists arrive. Chris and Cody Smith finished the twisting and cleaning, Chris drove them into Beloit and spent the night, today we got the n4 new twists installed and were out of there in under 8 hours. We still will have to build all the rest of the #1 twists that we finished for the other 6 can sizes, but the good news is we did not have any of the # three twists made that were the wrong hand.
My contact at the plant who made this mistake was shaking Chris' hand and thanking him for all the work and coming out and leaving his family. Chris told him they are used to it, we do it all the time.
We all got a good chuckle when I said that this is what the "Solutions" in Can Flow Solutions is about. I have received a few emails from my customer thanking us for the save. My contact asked me how I could be so calm about the whole thing. I told him first, I did not make the mistake (thankfully) and even if I had the outcome would have been the same. I can't stress over that part of it. Now I just have to work on the change order part of this and invoice the extras.