My father owns a beverage distribution company (SIMMKEE) in Baltimore,
Maryland providing services for Pepsi, Shasta and Snapple. A major
service that he offers is the "rainbowing" of several flavors for
warehouse style retail business such as Sam's Club and B.J.'s.  He is
looking for a way to automate more of the process and decrease labor
costs.

The process is fairly simple but is labor intensive, requiring several
people to man a single line:  Four packaged cases of 24 sodas of four
different flavors (typically Gingerale, Grape, Orange and Lemon-Lime)
are unwrapped from their plastic packaging, then one six-pack of each
flavor is put into four empty cases.  The filled cases of the
"rainbowed" packages are then rewrapped in plastic and put onto a
palletizer.

While a completely automated process would be ideal, he is looking for
a machine that would automatically remove the plastic from the
packaged cases.  The starting wrapped cases are exactly like retail
packages.  He has heard that an Italian company has manufactured a
machine to handle the unwrapping while leaving the bottles or cans
inside the carboard box.

If you have any information about potential manufacturers or business
that may have used products like these I would greatly appreciate any
information that you have to offer.

Sincerely,

Leon S