Vetroplas secures M&S packaging deal

Jill Park, packagingnews.co.uk, 05 July 2007

 

Vetroplas, the specialist cosmetics and personal care packaging supplier, has won an ongoing packaging contract for Marks & Spencer's Body Formula Range.

 

M&S and partner PB Beauty have chosen the Kless range of plastic bottles, which includes a selection of caps, pumps and overcaps, for the recently extended bodycare range.

 

The bottles and closures are being produced by Milan-based manufacturer Eurovetrocap on behalf of Vetroplas, its Norwich-based UK distributor.

 

Vetroplas is also supplying flexible tubes for M&S's Sun Formula suncare range through CTL Packaging in France, for which it is the exclusive UK agent.

 

This will be the first time CTL has produced labelled tubes.

 

Vetroplas managing director John Anderton said: "We are delighted to be working with PB Beauty and Marks & Spencer, and are very pleased to be able to take them in a new direction regarding their packaging for this prestigious range."

 

The announcement follows another major contract win for Vetroplas, which has been chosen to supply the entire packaging range for Uber, the new beauty range to the stars.

THE RECYCLING PROBLEM

As simple toothpaste tubes become more complex, the downside is environmental. Old-style aluminium tubes, made from a single slug of the metal, were far more recyclable than their laminate counterparts.

 

"Typically the laminate is polyethylene (PE) and aluminium foil bonded together with an adhesive and so difficult to separate," says David Boorman, business development manager of specialist laminate recycling company Enval. "For recycling purposes these laminates are not strictly aluminium, nor are they pure PE, so instead they typically go to landfill or incineration."

 

But now Enval, a company formed as a spin-out from Cambridge University's Chemical Engineering department, has set up the first plastic/aluminium laminate recycling operation. The process, which is based on research carried out at the university, separates the aluminium from the laminate by heating in a low-oxygen environment to vaporise the plastic. After 12 months operating a pilot scheme in Cambridge, the company has now opened a larger-scale facility in Luton.

 

"We see much more environmental benefit and financial value in recovering the aluminium," says Boorman. "It does not lose its value and can be recycled infinitely. And then there's the replaced energy consumption to create it in the first place."

 

As a result, Enval is working with big toothpaste brand owners to develop a recyclability certification scheme so waste tubes can be sorted more accurately. But no matter the mix of waste tubes, the company claims it can recover 100% of the waste material - either as aluminium scrap, or the waste oils and gases from the polyethylene, which provide fuel for heat or electricity, or can be used as chemical feedstock.

A LIQUID ASSET

Mouthwash is the oral care market's star performer, but innovation tends to be led by product development rather than packaging design.

 

According to RPC Containers designer Dean Williams, mouthwash is presented in the "consumer's concept of how a mouthwash pack should be". That means using a pack with a tried-and-tested history of ergonomics and on-shelf familiarity.

 

"A lot of packaging design is historic," he notes. "Own brands hark back to old classic Listerine bottles of 10 years ago. Brands are quite conservative in packaging design - the innovation is in product design."

 

That means most creativity in packaging is concentrated in the label, and brand owners have instead placed more emphasis on ingredients. Over time this has meant a shift from alcohol-based mouthwashes to alcohol-free and the push toward kids' brands and more advanced formulations.

 

Other pack features are also accidents of history. The fact that the cap on most mouthwash bottles is a handy size for dosing, at around 30ml, is not intentional, Williams says, but coincidental. And tamper-proofing is a legacy of the days when the products contained alcohol and were more dangerous to children.

 

In fact, as with many products these days, the big change in packaging has been towards recyclability, with the advent of PET containers a couple of decades ago, which have now replaced old-style PVC bottles.

Markets: Toothpaste seeks fresh ideas

Simon Clarke, Packaging News, 05 May 2010

 

Toothpaste has been packed in tubes since the reign of Queen Victoria, so how do brands stand out in the sector? Simon Clarke brushes up on the new developments

 

 

The trouble with toothpaste is that it's not all that sexy. It's certainly big business - it's the biggest segment of the UK oral care market, with a £330m share of the nearly £840m total, according to research firm Euromonitor.

 

But it's not a particularly vibrant segment in retail terms. Toothpaste sales in the UK rose just 1.7% between 2003 and 2008. In contrast, consumption of mouthwashes and dental rinses soared - rising just over 64% in the same period.

 

As a result, there is fierce competition to differentiate toothpaste on the supermarket shelf. According to Euromonitor, manufacturers are trying to reposition the product as a premium item in-store, catering to special dental needs or age groups.

 

Consumers can choose from a range of novel and upmarket packaging options, from pump dispensers to aerosols, and are routinely assaulted by bright, metallic printing as brands bid for attention. Not only are the outer cartons jazzed up with foil blocking and high-colour printing, but special textures are used, such as embossing and even holographic printing.

 

"The majority of cartons are as shiny as possible to achieve stand-out on shelf," says Chesapeake marketing manager Bob Houghton. "These are high-value items, often costing between £3 and £5 - they need to look like they're worth that. The use of metallics and foiling supports the value of the brand."

 

But despite a fair amount of packaging innovation, the sector moves slowly. Toothpaste is dominated by just a few players - between them, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Colgate-Palmolive own all the top five toothpaste brands by sales - and consumers have only slowly embraced change. A visit to any supermarket reveals that it is still dominated by the tube - a packaging device that was first used for the product in 1892.

 

Tubes that were once made from aluminum are now routinely made of laminate - either polyethylene (PE) laminate or aluminium laminate. But though toothpaste brands were early adopters of laminate tubes, it took several decades from its inception in 1972 to become ubiquitous globally. Laminate only made it to Australia in 1983, for example, and only started making inroads into the local Chinese market in 1997, when Indian manufacturer Essel Propack started operations there.

 

Laminate construction has some clear advantages over aluminium. The pack has a softer feel and keeps its shape, unlike aluminium tubes, which inevitably became misshapen in use.

 

"It's the main reason laminate tubes have been adopted," says Evelyn Tweedlie, vice president Europe at Essel Propack. "Aluminium tubes dent, crease and even split when squeezed at least twice a day during their use by the consumer."

 

Some laminate tubes are not immune from this, however. "Of course aluminium laminate tubes still dent to some extent due to the layer of aluminium," she adds. But it's difficult to get away from the material. One of the key requirements of the toothpaste sector is protection against flavour loss. "Peppermint oils are very aggressive," notes Tweedlie. So an impermeable layer is still needed. This is another reason cartons are still used extensively on-shelf - to protect the product during transport and in-store.

 

Consumers also seem unwilling to move away from familiar forms. Houghton cites a nationwide trial of cartonless toothpaste about 15 years ago, but this failed to get traction with consumers. "Tubes were dented and damaged and it was awkward to retail," says Houghton. "There was also an issue with tamper evidence."

 

Stand-up tubes

However a few kids' brands, including Colgate's junior range, have moved to tube-only display, because the tubes are shorter and so stand up more easily. Adult brands are taller, so cartons are still preferred - though there is one adult example - Corsodyl Daily - that's sold without a box.

 

Nonetheless, the idea of using a chunky cap that allows the tube to be stood on its end has gained wider acceptance. "It's more user-friendly to stand them up on the cap in the bathroom," notes Tweedlie. "Dispensing or flip-top caps are also used for ease of opening and dispensing."

 

GSK's Sensodyne Pronamel is a case in point. Not only does the cap have a boldly oversized, pearlescent, flared cap, but this is coupled with a carton that features a cutaway section to show off the design.

 

"By looking at how consumers use toothpaste tubes, we created a new user-friendly structural design format for the launch of Sensodyne Pronamel," says GSK design agency Slice Design. "Standing on its head and introducing an easy-clean nozzle meant we could wave goodbye to bathroom mess."

 

Tubes themselves can also stand out better on the bathroom window-sill, thanks to laminate's superior printing qualities. While aluminum tubes are formed from a slug of metal which is extruded into a tube and then offset printed, laminate tubes are manufactured from sheet material allowing letterpress or rotogravure printing to be carried out before forming the material into tubes. Rotogravure is used to provide a high-quality print buried within the laminate structure.

 

Head and shoulders above?

The laminate sheet is then slit and fed through forming rolls, which gently turn the tube and form it into a cylinder. This is sealed using high-frequency heat and then sliced to length at a cutting station.

 

The one disadvantage with this is that, unlike aluminum tubes, which are extruded from one piece, the head and shoulder of laminate tubes must be made separately and attached. Sometimes a preformed head and shoulder are fed to a tube on a mandrel and fused to the top of the tube by high frequency heat. Other options are to use injection or compression moulding to fuse the head to the body.

 

This has implications for toothpaste packaging, however, as the head and shoulder area of the tube don't have the same sealant qualities as the rest of the laminate tube. Essel Propack tackled this problem by developing a seven-layer barrier film that can be inserted into the compression-moulded tube shoulder. Other solutions available include fitting the inside of tube shoulders with doughnut or cup-shaped inserts.

 

Toothpaste may not be sexy, but it is definitely functional. The days of having to roll up the end of the pack to get the last drop out are gone as laminates dominate, but few are yet to do away with the outer carton. Regardless, toothpaste packaging remains as sparkling white as your pearly whites.

 

CASE STUDY: MACFARLANE

Packaging and distribution specialist Macfarlane is well versed in shipping a wide variety of goods and has developed bespoke packs for products ranging from ejector seats for a Eurofighter jet to fine art.

 

One particular project was for the landing gear assembly for the Airbus A380 plane. Transported by both air and sea, previously a close-boarded timber case with internal timber supports and foam cushioning with a total weight of 24kg was used. Macfarlane was tasked with designing a pack that better protected the product, reduced transportation costs and was easier to handle.

 

The result is a heavy-duty corrugated container that uses closed-cell polyethylene foam fittings. As well as being half the weight, the new pack also doubles the number of units in a single shipment, which brings down the transportation costs. "By coming up with something that uses a different type of foam, we can get more on to a pallet," says Macfarlane sales director Owen Sylvester. It is easier to handle because of the reduced size and the unit cost is also cheaper than the previous design.

 

Also, the pack can be put into standard recycling waste collections to help reduce the customer's carbon footprint. "Because the products were going a long way, it wasn't suitable to have reusable packs. If it must be disposed of, we needed to make sure it is recyclable,"says Sylvester.

PASSPORT FOR PALLETS

Subjecting shipments to stringent controls when they cross international boundaries takes place for a number of reasons, such as ensuring the correct duties are paid. In the case of wooden pallets and packaging, the most important tests are for plant health controls to ensure that forests in the destination country are protected from the potential migration of pests.

 

Forestry officials around the world are particularly concerned about the pinewood nematode and the Asian Longhorn Beetle (pictured), which is native to China but has found its way to Europe and North America.

 

To combat this threat, the International Plant Protection Convention developed an international sanitary measure (ISPM 15) that acts as a standard to ensure that a pallet, or other wooden packaging, has been heat treated or fumigated.

 

The responsibility for complying with ISPM 15 lies with the shipper. By conforming to the standard they are able to reduce delays, which can be costly, as well as help protect forests. All wooden cases and pallets are marked with a unique number that allows a booking clerk to trace where it has come from and verify it has complied with ISPM 15.

 

There are some 650 firms in the UK that are certified to heat the pallets - effectively cooking off the majority of pests - to meet the standard. "It's a real success story for the sector," says Timcon president John Dye. "And because our procedure has worked so well, several other European countries are copying it."

Materials: Pallet firms push global ops

Simeon Goldstein, Packaging News, 03 February 2010

 

While half a billion pallets are in circulation in Europe annually, firms in the sector are reporting staggering potential for growth in worldwide markets, says Simeon Goldstein

 

 

Anyone who has travelled overseas in the past year will have noticed that the pound is not what it used to be. While a croissant on the Croisette in Cannes has become more expensive for us Brits, those UK businesses that do, or want to do, business overseas have found themselves more competitive on price.

 

Of course, the debate on the environmental impact of shipping empty primary packs to manufacturing bases in other countries continues apace. But, whatever the arguments, demand for the pallets and crates that ship those packs - or indeed any other products - remains strong.

 

"There are currently 500 million EUR1 pallets in circulation, with 70 million added annually," says Paul Davidson, UK and Ireland chief executive of Epal, the European Pallet Association. "Most of these are made and used within Europe, but the Epal system is expanding worldwide." To help boost this expansion, Epal wants to persuade shipping firms to palletise more of the goods loaded into containers.

 

Pump up the volume

Shipping giant Maersk says it aims for a 17-year life for its containers, although many do not last this long due to wear and tear. But, whether the container is brand new or has been around the world a few times, the important business consideration is product volume. "There's no minimum limit to the amount of cargo we ship, but we like as much as possible to make it a profitable sailing," says a Maersk spokeswoman.

 

While containers can be loaded to saturate them with product, Epal is pushing palletisation of product before it goes into containers as a way to reduce product loss and damage and minimise the risks involved in manual loading.

 

Epal-funded research into the 17.7m 20-foot containers that were shipped from Asia to Europe in 2007 found that the increased logistics costs from palletisation were recoverable in savings made when it came to handling product at the point of delivery, particularly in the case of high-value, heavy products. "If just 10% of the traffic was palletised, we estimate that nearly 40 million pallets annually would flow from Asia to Europe," says Epal's Davidson.

 

However, a major concern in shipping pallets, and other wooden packaging outside of Europe, is the need to comply with ISPM 15 legislation. ISPM 15 certifies that threats to forests, in the form of pests, have been removed from the wood prior to export. Failure to comply can lead to product being impounded or delayed in passing through customs.

 

Risk assessment

It is an issue that has led plastic pallet manufacturers to promote their own products, which are not subject to the legislation, to exporters. Jim Hardisty, managing director of Goplasticpallets.com, recognises that plastic pallets can be more expensive than timber ones, but says it is not a lot more compared to the potential risk of a product being impounded. "We have correspondence with people who underestimate, or don't fully understand the implications for shipping pallets, especially those companies setting out," he says. "People are generally not exporting low-value products, so I don't see why you would run the risk [of your product being impounded]."

 

While plastic pallets cannot carry the same load as wooden ones, Hardisty suggests that they are perhaps even more appropriate for airfreight. "A lot of incoming airfreight for things such as agricultural products and flowers are choosing plastic pallets because of the weight," he says. "If a product is important enough to air freight, people don't want it being seized because of legislation on the pallet."

 

The Timber Packaging and Pallet Confederation (Timcon) maintains, however, that the longevity and the environmental benefits of wooden pallets more than outweigh any negatives that might surround ISPM 15. "People might say that you use energy [to heat the pallets to kill pests], but it's less than to produce plastics. Wooden pallets can also be recycled," says Timcon president John Dye. If handled carefully, they also have a long shelf life - there are pallets being used that have been in circulation since the 1950s. "We're also reconditioning as many pallets as we can," says Dye. "And when it does become uneconomical, or dangerous from a health and safety perspective, we can do something practical and burn them for energy."

 

There are even wooden pallets that are not subject to the ISPM 15 legislation. The Inka presswood pallet is made from waste wood that is washed, crushed and coated in resin. It is then pressed and bound into shape to ensure it is water resistant. "The intensity of the process eliminates the need to meet ISPM 15," says Mark Kenyon, managing director of Cheshire-based Clingfoil, which is a regional distributor for the Inka pallet.

 

Tough customer

Kenyon says that the presswood pallet has traditionally been popular with the food industry, but also firms in the pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals sectors. It has a rounded edge and lip that means that less film is required to wrap the palletted goods and they are also very strong. "You can drive a forklift truck into one of the legs and not affect its stability," says Kenyon.

 

The pallets can be stacked inside each other to halve the amount of storage space they take up in the warehouse and improve the transport of unloaded pallets. One of the biggest plus points from the manufacturing process is the low moisture content that makes it ideal for long journeys in warm climates. "When a pallet crosses the equator you can get a massive amount of condensation that can affect the product. You don't get that with an Inka one," says Kenyon.

 

It seems then, there is a format to suit every shipment, by air or sea or land, and product category. Given the UK's taste for imported goods the inward market seems set to remain solid; exports, meanwhile, will keep the UK pallet sector busy for some time to come.

Capping and lidding: Sealing the deal

Lynda Searby, Packaging News, 04 March 2009

 

Thanks to capless induction sealing, the dairy industry's days of crying over spilt milk are long gone. Now packers, processors and consumers are catching on too, says Lynda Searby.

 

There are few packaging technologies that can truthfully claim to have benefited almost every household in the country, but induction sealing is one of them.

 

Ten years ago, leaky plastic milk bottles were the bane of many consumers’ shopping baskets. Milk dripping from carrier bags into car boots was a frequent grumble. And it wasn’t just consumers who were complaining either. Sealing specialist Enercon estimates that 15 years ago, approximately 56 million litres of milk per year were being lost during production and transportation as a result of cap leakage.

 

Then along came ‘induction’ or ‘hermetic foil’ sealing, putting an end to leaky seals and boosting the milk industry’s profits. So what is induction sealing?

 

After filling, the cap (with a foil seal or ‘wad’ inside) is applied and the container is passed under the induction sealing head. The induction head emits an electromagnetic field which rapidly heats the sealing foil. The heat causes the foil to bond to the container and the wax bond between the foil and backing material to melt. When the consumer removes the cap from the product, there is a perfect seal on the top of the container and the backing material remains in the cap as a liner.

 

By contrast, a conduction sealer uses electricity to heat the metal conduction head. When the head comes into contact with the container topped with aluminium foil, the combination of pressure and heat causes the foil to be hermetically sealed to the container. Milk producers might have been the early adopters of induction sealing, but many other branches of the food, beverage, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals industries have followed their example.

 

Geoff Leng, managing director of Capsolutions, believes one reason induction sealing has become more popular is because it has become easier for users to do accurately.

 

"It used to be a desirable process, but difficult to achieve a good result. Now it’s quite easy to achieve a good result," he says. "That’s due to improvements in the machines and the foils. In the past, fillers had to have very accurate, tightly controlled settings. Now the process has become more tolerant. The control systems and electronics are also much more advanced, which means the machines are more user-friendly, run at higher speeds and can be totally integrated within lines."

 

This is backed up by Peter Tindale, business unit manager of Pillar Technologies Europe, who lists flexibility as the main driver behind recent improvements in induction sealing systems. "It’s about making machines more flexible to minimise changeover time between pack sizes and formats, and smaller and easier to integrate into centrally controlled filling lines."

 

Widening appeal

He says this was a major consideration in the development of the Pillar I-Foiler induction sealing system, which was launched at the Easyfairs Packtech exhibition last month. Designed for wet and humid applications, the digitally controlled I-Foiler is said to allow easier integration into a filling line. It can seal diameters from 10-120mm and coil change is said to be a simple, tool-free operation. A touch screen gives access to basic operator controls as well as help and information screens, fault warnings and diagnosis and set-up of all optional features.

 

Induction sealing is no longer the preserve of large, high volume packers and producers either. "I’d say more and more smaller companies are starting to use induction sealing as a wider audience recognises the benefits of hermetic foil sealing," observes Tindale.

 

This is a trend which has played into the hands of Capsolutions, which, besides selling the Pillar range, sells budget hand-held and semi-automatic hermetic sealers under the Capsealer brand. "They are an economy range and are manufactured in the Far East," explains Leng. "We import them, modify them if necessary, test them and CE mark them. For small start-up companies, these machines offer excellent value for money and in the current climate we can see a lot of people being attracted by smaller machines."

 

While some companies are just coming round to the idea of induction sealing, others are embracing next generation technology – ‘capless’ or ‘direct application’ induction sealing.

 

In traditional induction sealing, the induction foil is inserted into the cap prior to filling and capping, after which the filled, capped container passes under an induction sealing head, explains Tindale. With direct application, the foil is sealed to the filled container, and the closure – if any – is applied afterwards. "This starts to bring induction sealing into more direct competition with traditional conduction foil sealing, with the benefits of lower energy consumption, faster sealing dwell times, although not yet faster production speeds, and lower replacement part costs," he adds.

 

Weight reduction

Besides these advantages over conduction sealing, Relco says capless induction sealing offers a number of benefits over conventional induction sealing – mainly in terms of container cost and weight-reduction opportunities.

 

As the hermetic seal is provided by the foil, the cap can be light-weighted to save money, explains Paul Rollason, sales manager at Relco. "You can also reduce the amount of plastic used in the container neck. That’s because you’re not reliant on the screw thread to give you the induction seal, so you can actually remove the thread from the neck of the bottle and use a snap-on cap." With a single-shot product, such as probiotic drinks, you can remove the cap completely.

 

Rollason reckons that the removal of the thread and use of a foil seal can reduce the amount of plastic by 14% in a one-litre bottle with a 36mm neck diameter. The smaller the container, the smaller the saving, but even for a 300ml bottle, material savings of 9% are possible, he says.

 

Capless induction is also beneficial for products that require post-sealing sterilisation. "If manufacturers put containers through the standard induction process, followed by sterilisation, they often then have to remove the cap to eliminate any excess water that could produce bacteria when the product is on the shelf. Capless induction sealing solves that problem," explains Rollason.

 

Investment bears fruit

Companies that have recently invested in capless induction systems from Relco include Nestlé, for its Munch Bunch Squashums yoghurts, which come in a strawberry-shaped PET container, and Lee Kum Kee Foods in China, for oyster sauce, which is sold in a 300ml PET container. At Lee Kum Kee Foods, the sauce has to undergo post-sealing sterilisation, which made capless induction sealing the obvious choice.

 

This installation posed a number of technical challenges that had to be overcome by Relco: the container has to be carefully handled to avoid spilling the product or distorting the bottle, and the neck supported so sealing pressure is not transferred to the base of the bottle. The seal strength also has to be sufficient to withstand post-sealing processing, plus the machine has to incorporate automatic head height adjustment for different sizes of bottles.

 

Induction sealing technology may have advanced considerably in recent years, but there are still some limitations to its use. "There are still many products which cannot be heat sealed today as there are no induction liners capable of sealing liquid products in glass containers without expensive glass treatments," says Tindale. Once this technical hurdle is overcome, more products will be able to be induction sealed.

 

Masterfil has supplied a single-head capping machine to DDD (Fleet Laboratories), a contract packer of pharmaceuticals and toiletries. The machine handles 18 types and sizes of container and a number of caps including screw cap, pump pack and press-on lids. Containers can be automatically fed or hand fed on to the conveyor.

 

The Mastercap single-head inline indexing capping machine can achieve speeds of up to 60 containers per minute, dependent on product, container and cap type. Masterfil says changeovers between cap styles and sizes are made quick and easy by features like push-button height adjustment of capping heads, colour coded change parts and programmable control systems.

 

Optima Packaging Machinery has launched the CFL1, a new machine for applying functional closures. These are closures containing ingredients which are released into the beverage or cosmetic product when it is opened. This preserves the quality of the ingredients.

 

While the foil seal may seem innocuous and unexciting, if it weren’t for those humble little circles, customers would still be finding leaky milk bottles in their shopping baskets.

 

 

SEALING EQUIPMENT ROUND-UP

• Mecaplastic’s S5000 tray sealer will be unveiled at Anuga FoodTec 2009. The system is an automatic and programmable machine for sealing prefabricated trays with cover film, with or without vacuum and gas reinjection

• The AVSealer from Key Technologies is said to provide consistent sealing temperature to eliminate ‘burn through’ and seals that do not hold. The semi-automatic machine is aimed at small to medium-sized fresh produce packers

• The Sealmaster quality control machine from Capsolutions is a hand-held device for checking that induction sealers are correctly set and functioning. Besides detecting faults with the sealer or process, it stores a history log of production date for QA and product traceability records

• Krones has developed a new generation of aseptic capping machines for PET lines that allows bottle diameters of up to 108mm

• The Saxon Sealer SH 2000 from Fischbein features temperature control technology and enhanced airflow, which aids the heat transfer system that seals thicker bags

• Packaging Automation’s Eco-cut tray sealer, launched last year, claims to reduce the level of film packaging waste created during the operation by up to 33%

• Also new last year was the GT1 from Proseal. Marketed as an enhanced version of the company’s F45 Tray Sealer, the GT1 is said to meet the changing requirements of high-speed food production lines

Precious metals make their case

Des King, Packaging News, 22 October 2008

 

Despite attempts by many sectors to lightweight, metal is beginning to shine in premium product packs, says Des King

 

Metal is under attack in traditional safe seats such as tinned tomatoes, pet food and even baked beans. Lighter-weight alternatives, including cartons, pouches and plastic are presenting themselves as convenient and carbon friendly.

 

However, when it comes to premium products, brands are voting for the heavyweight prestige of metal.

 

Presentation packs for malt whiskies, shelf-differentiating gloss for fragrances and cosmetics, even the elevation of a ready-made meal to gourmet status – they're all proving to be a diverse and natural magnet for the consumer confidence that only a solid metal solution can provide. Tinplate packaging is more likely to equal trust than rust.

 

"We reckon that around 17% of our pan-European £160m turnover is accounted for by the UK," says Simon Birch, sales manager at tinplate applications manufacturer Crown Speciality Packaging. "While the key markets for us are what we call 'twist-wrap' – confectionery, beverages, biscuits and, latterly, tobacco, which is making quite a strong comeback in a promotional format, the biggest sector of all is best described as 'other'."

 

Metal packaging at the top-end is not, nor ever will be, volume business. Speciality tinplate packaging represents less than 6% of Crown's global business, and is totally out of kilter with prevailing time to market criteria. For one thing, global supply of steel for packaging is in short supply. Also, the lead-time required to deliver a metal packaging application – even assuming local manufacture and no glitches – is around three months. Other products can have taken flight, crashed and burned in less. But when a brand wants to make a statement, the message that metal conveys in design terms can be highly articulate.

 

Webb Scarlett deVlam's response to repositioning Dunhill's luxury cigar portfolio is a case in point. The line-up consists of highly finished, lacquered wooden gift boxes and, for out-of-home occasions, a range of sliding cartons holding fewer cigars.

 

Fine finish

The distinguishing characteristic across each of the wood applications is the inclusion of an iconic aluminium de-bossed plaque; the extra touch that elevates the presentation from stylish to special, says Dominic Burke, a senior designer at the London-based agency. "You get a very light finish with aluminium that contrasts with the wood to dovetail modern with traditional, and on which the embossing works well to create a luxury image.

 

"Aluminium is relatively inexpensive to apply, and yet is highly effective in reflecting product quality. In my experience, the most successful executions are where metal works in conjunction or combined with other materials."

 

Global head of Dunhill Cigars Ron Reinders certainly agrees. "The new signed range has great brand standout in store and perfectly reflects the quality and heritage of the Dunhill brand. The new packaging identity has played a key role in increasing distribution, which by the end of 2008 we expect to extend to 70 countries as demand continues to grow."

 

Burke cites work done for items within the Hugo Boss skincare range as a further example of how aluminium can lift a product's shelf appeal. "To what is basically a rigid plastic construction, we added an aluminium base, pump cover and a 360-degree de-bossed collar – as effective as embossing in the round but easier and less expensive to undertake.

 

"Manufacturers will often resort to vacuum-metalized components to try to create that effect in cosmetics applications, as arguably the consumer won't always realise the very small, subtle differences that they're picking up on. Metal's tactile properties, however, are the giveaway that positions it between something that is luxury and otherwise commodity."

Lewis Moberly production manager Ciaran O'Connell concurs that going the full metal Monty "tends to represent the

 

luxury end of a product range". London-based Lewis Moberly and Crown Speciality Packaging, based in Ireland, created the distinctive triangular formed 'Tround' outer presentation pack for Glenfiddich malt whisky, echoing the bottle shape.

 

Golden opportunity

In the Tround, the metal acts as an extra colour. "You start with a chrome colour and then by simply printing a litho yellow you get a gold effect – and then an infinite variety of shades of gold," explains O'Connell. "It's quite a cost-effective way of getting a luxury appearance. By simply putting an ink straight down you tend to get a fairly brash effect. What we used on the Tround design was a combination of varnishes to soften down the metallic effect, so you'll find areas where there are high shine and others where it's more of a satin look."

 

Sounds straightforward enough, but from a manufacturing perspective it proved to be quite a challenge, says Crown's Birch. "Metal will always try to spring back, so even though it's wrapped around the mandrill and the two raw edges hook into each other to lock the seam, all of the curves and the slightly bowed side will try to get flat again. For this kind of application we use a patented size, bead and curl machining technique that sizes the open aperture to the same size as the footprint at the bottom of the can."

 

Aluminium's capacity for illuminating colour can be its passport from commodity to high-end application. This was certainly the case with the seven-colour printed top and base produced by Rexam for the new 'Attitude' antioxidant drink launched by Energiser Brands, and claimed to be a world first for beverage cans.

 

"The problem with can-making is that it's very capital intensive. In the past, customers have been very price focused because it was thought of as a commodity product," notes Rexam marketing manager Ann Bonner. "But with the market demanding differentiation and consumers eager for innovation there are opportunities for a more premium product.

 

Microwaveable metals

 

"You can have a Mini or you can have a Mercedes with a can. You can have an aluminium bottle; thermo-chromic inks; de-bossing – and eventually, I believe, you will have shape. That's not so far away, and we're looking at other markets as well as beverages," adds Banner.

 

Another commoditised application on the metallic track to the higher end is the predominantly cPET packaged ready meal. After four years of development, Impress is due to commercialise a microwaveable steel tray within the next few months, confirms strategic development executive Doreen Decker.

 

"Most ready meals come in a plastic container, which looks cheap and nasty, and consumers don't like to eat directly from them. Plus they can melt and lose rigidity after heating. Our research has shown that microwaves only enter into the food to a depth of 3cm, so we've produced a shallow container with a height that doesn't exceed that and with a maximum filling volume of 650ml.

 

"Furthermore, the tray can be over-printed – thereby reducing the requirement for wasteful over-packaging – and it is, of course, 100% recyclable."

 

Despite the can's humble origins as a means of transporting food to soldiers, it is making its way out of the aisles of low value processed food and into the ranks of the premium and pricey. Although not quite precious metals, when it comes to packaging, steel, aluminium and tin are certainly proving they can have quality printed and embossed all over them.

 

A classy cuppa

The combination of relatively low volumes and the prestige synonymous with the Harrods name made a tinplate tea-caddy the natural choice for a range of six different blends under the Opulence name, says London-based Honey Creative managing director Doug James. "Customers are taking a piece of Harrods home with them: they'll use it, they'll drink the tea, they'll then keep the tin afterwards. Individual colour-coded labels easily peel off to reveal the Harrods logo.

 

"If you're buying one branded tea over another one and they're both packaged in metal, this is where the graphics make their point of difference. Harrods has maintained its archive back to 1849, so we replicated original artwork depicting the Greek goddess of abundance Fortuna, which was associated with the store for over 100 years. Gold embossing the design into the tin gave it incredible definition as well as adding rigidity as we'd lightweighted down the metal as much as was practical."

 

Manufacture was undertaken in China by GM Metal Packaging, says Harrods brand and packaging manager Sarah Paskell.

 

"To be honest, tin production is normally a 12-week turnaround time anyway, whether it's coming from Basildon or Beijing, but the graphic required seven layers of very labour-intensive embossing. What swung it was the intricacy of the work. We were working with a supplier we'd used previously and we knew the quality of what they could do was high."

 

According to GM Metals' Sunil Gidumal: "The Opulence design entailed more than 20 separate semi-automatic stages including the slitting and trimming of the corners prior to forming. Lower tooling costs enable us to produce a greater range of shapes than can be made in Europe and brought in at an affordable price despite the four weeks on the water."

 

REFILL FORMATS

The 16 broad categories of refillable formats identified by Vicky Lofthouse and Tracey Bhamra at Loughborough University can be condensed into six different areas, each of which can be tweaked to fit individual products.

 

Lightweight refill pack

Consumers buy a self-contained refill which they take home and put into a durable dispenser

 

New bottle, old dispenser

Customers buy a new bottle of product but reuse the dispensing pump from the original pack

 

Refill in-store

Customers take the original pack or their own pack to the store to be refilled

 

Industrial refill

Customers return the empty pack to the producer to be refilled, either by leaving it for collection or by swapping the original pack for credits or new product in-store

 

Refill on your doorstep

Customers dispense the quantity of product required from a delivery van, only paying for what’s taken

 

Concentrated refill

Customers buy a concentrated refill which they dilute with water and mix in a dispensing unit or old packaging

Refill and reuse to reduce costs

Paul Gander, Packaging News, 01 September 2007

 

When Whole Foods Market started selling cereal, olive oil and wine in unbranded, refillable packs on 6 June, UK consumers got their first cross-category opportunity to prove they were interested in reusing the packaging they bought and whether the pack designs were good enough to encourage this.

 

However, the ease of use and branding potential of packaging is something FMCG companies are unwilling to sacrifice by introducing generic, refillable packs like those used by Whole Foods, says Dr Vicky Lofthouse, lecturer in the Design and Technology department of Loughborough University. She is currently managing a two-year, £140,000-plus project on Refillable Packaging Systems funded by Defra, which is intended to develop a refillable concept for Boots Botanics bodywash by the end of this year.

 

Since January 2006, Lofthouse has been asking consumers what they know about refillable packaging, running creative workshops to determine how they would like to see these packs designed and looking at the potential barriers to adoption.

 

When she first began working on the project Lofthouse says there didn’t appear to be a market for refills. “The use of refillable packaging has long been cited as a possible solution to the [environmental] problem. However, in the past, attempts to extend the use of refillables beyond a few traditional areas have met with little success,” says Lofthouse in the paper she wrote at the start of the project, Refillable Packaging Systems: Design Considerations.

 

She gives an example of where a poorly designed system meant the packs were rarely refilled; in the 1990s The Body Shop encouraged its buyers to return cleaned bottles to the shop to have them refilled with more of the same product, saying “Once is not enough”. In reality, consumers proved that using the pack once was often all they could manage.

 

Either they wanted to buy more product before they completely finished the first bottle, forgot to bring the bottle with them when they travelled to the shop, or they felt the financial reward for using the packs again was so small that it wasn’t worth it. Lofthouse sums up why it didn’t work: “The key contributors to this failure appear to have been high levels of inconvenience and low incentive levels.”

 

Consumer demands

It’s debatable if the public is more open to using refillable packs in today’s climate of recycling bins and lightweight packs.

 

“From the couple of focus groups we’ve conducted so far, my feeling is that, so long as it is presented in the right way, yes, consumers do ‘get’ refills,” says Lofthouse. “Clear communication on the label is critical.”

 

These studies threw up some other considerations, she says: “Consumers were very concerned that labels would wash off. As soon as the label goes tatty they would throw it out, they said.”

 

As the list of consumer demands on refillable packs expanded, a brain-storming session with potential customers and designers threw up the basis of a refillable system. Guy Robinson from London-based Sprout Design contributed some ideas. He says: “With the Botanics range we were thinking that it was an opportunity to simplify the ingredients contained in the products and we were coming up with solutions that were about mixing and matching the ingredients yourself.”

 

Concentrated refills quickly came to the fore, and seemed to offer transport-cost savings as well, says Robinson. Another bonus of refillable packaging, he says, is “if the packaging is meant to be refillable and reusable, brand owners might have a bit more opportunity to put investment into that packaging.”

 

Lofthouse identified 16 different types of refillable pack at the start of her research and says: “It’s not one size fits all. Different systems need to be designed for different products.”

 

Whole Foods’ approach of allowing customers to refill packs from dispensers in store, says Lofthouse, would have created “a logistical nightmare” for Boots, but it may work better to encourage consumers to buy a concentrated, smaller refill pack that can be decanted into the original pack and mixed with water.

 

Among the other 15 refill formats, some have inspired refillable packs that are already on sale.

 

Ecover opted for the refill-in-store approach when it decided its rigid plastic packs should last longer than one trip from the supermarket to the sink. “Ecover do not produce refill pouches because the materials used for these is more damaging to the environment and is not as eco-friendly as the plastic used in our standard bottles,” says a spokesperson for the firm on its choice of type of refillable solution.

 

And if refilling doesn’t happen, Ecover bottles are made from recyclable polyethylene with caps made from polypropylene.

 

Ecover identified another benefit that should sell refillable packaging to more brand owners. If the consumer can use the pack again and again, the materials for duplicate packs that would do the same job can be saved and the energy required to transport them to shops cut out.

 

Procter & Gamble opted for refills packed in lighter flexible plastic for its Olay Daily Facials cleansing wipes, which are initially packed in a high-quality plastic pot designed to be reused.

 

The dispensing pack for P&G’s Kandoo toilet wipes is similarly designed to be bought once. A spokesperson for the firm says “parents understand that they buy one tub and then buy refills. It makes more sense and is more cost-effective.”

 

The tub design was created to be user-friendly for children so it’s easygrip, a child-friendly size, there’s a simple, push-button opening and a lid that springs up to resemble a toilet seat. There has evidently been considerable investment in the design and this is recouped by selling the dispensing tub for a price of around £2.99, compared to £1.99 for a pack of wipes only.

 

Financial incentive

Catherine Conway, founder of Unpackaged, a firm that sells dry goods at markets in London, chose plain, see-through, resealable plastic bags to sell her goods. She already refills Ecover cleaning products from 25-litre drums on her stalls, but she chose flexible plastic packs from Flexico that could be used 20 or more times to pack the rest of her goods. She will also decant products into customers’ own packs brought from home.

 

“We give them a financial benefit and they are quite happy to take it,” she says. “It’s meant to be attractive, fresh, clean and easy. It’s as convenient as a supermarket, it’s just that you are doing something environmental at the same time.”

 

It’s proving a success, she says, and is averaging a 60% return rate after the business was launched in October 2006. To jog customers’ minds about her market stalls, she finds that labels printed with her company logo can also be used to communicate the weight and content details she needs.

 

It just goes to show there is more than just sustainability points to be won from refillable packs. In designing them, Lofthouse says it is vital that they add value to a product. “When I think of all the refills that we identified on the market, I doubt that they had been thought of because of sustainability. I would think they had been thought of for marketing and promotional reasons,” she says.

 

The reason any are a success, Lofthouse says, is that the whole refillable packaging system has been designed to consider all risks, barriers and potential failures and accommodate solutions to any problems into the designs.

 

She says that refillable packaging doesn’t suit all products and that the difficultly of designing a system that works can be off-putting. “I think, to get it right, it is more complicated than taking another approach to sustainable packaging.

 

“With lightweighting, you can stick the facts into a software programme and work out what is the minimum amount of material you can get away with. Creating a refillable pack is about redesigning the whole system.”

 

 

 

Pro2Pac preview

Tess Raine, Packaging News, 01 March 2007

 

Pro2Pac, aimed at the food and drinks industry, opens this month in London.

 

The first Pro2Pac exhibition for food and drink processing and packaging suppliers is due to open its doors at ExCel exhibition centre, London, from 18-21 March.

 

Taking place alongside IFE07, the international food and drink event, and in association with the Process and Packaging Machinery Association (PPMA), Pro2Pac has attracted more than 100 exhibitors in its inaugural year.

 

Exhibitors keen to display their latest packaging innovations include Reiser, T Freemantle, Nicholl Food Packaging, Windsor Food Machinery, ULMA Packaging, Rittal, Multivac UK, Compass International, Bizerba, A W Smith, Harrison Europack, SCS Packaging, Anchor Packaging and Parkers Packaging.

Packaging technology including biodegradable products, brand management software, packaging machinery, gift packaging and processing machines will be displayed and visitors can learn about the latest trends and future predications at the Future@Pro2Pac seminar programme.

 

 

“In 2005 we trialed a similar food processing event that was co-located with IFE and we had good feedback from both exhibitors and visitors,” says Sue Woodward, exhibition director from Fresh RM, the exhibition organiser. “So we decided to launch Pro2Pac. Specifically designed for the food and drink industry, Pro2Pac combines food processing with food and drink packaging to create a new event that collaborates perfectly with IFE.”

 

Here is some more information about what some of the exhibitors will be showing at Pro2Pac.

 

PFM Stand B36

Multinational PFM will exhibit three machines during the four-day show. Sales and operations director Chris Bolton says: “PFM is delighted to be attending the first Pro2Pac. We will be displaying a number of exciting machines including the UK debut of the Pearl flowrapper.” Suitable for both food and non-food applications, the Pearl will be exhibited alongside PFM’s Azimuth vertical bagger and an MBP10 multihead weigher.

 

Alexir Packaging Stand A41

In response to retailer requests, Alexir Packaging, the folding carton printer, will be showing a product it says will revolutionise the carton market. It is launching Alexipack, a more environmentally friendly pack for ready meals, salads and other tray-based products.

 

 

The Alexipack is produced from sustainable and renewable resources, is recyclable and much lighter than existing packaging formats. It has better gas retention properties, leak resistant qualities and the material is suitable for the microwave, fridge and freezer.

 

 

The top-of-the-range version has an ovenable film window, flat flanges to improve movement through the supply chain and sealed webs to provide leak resistant qualities.

 

Witt Gas Techniques Stand D05

Witt Gas Techniques, the Warrington-based gas safety, control, mixing and analysis equipment supplier, will be exhibiting and providing information on a range of gas distribution, mixing and analysis kit for modified atmosphere (MAP) packaging.

 

 

The newest product is Leak-Master Mapmax, an automatic in-line micro leak detection system designed to carry out automatic quality control on the entire packaging line. It is non-destructive and uses CO2 detection technology, eliminating the need for costly helium testing.

 

 

Information will be available on the firm’s new can and bottle piercer attachment for use with Oxybaby V hand-held gas analysers for O2 and CO2 content in the headspace of soft and alcoholic drinks bottles and cans, in metal, plastic and glass. It uses an unbreakable probe with integrated needle protection to penetrate the metal or plastic lids and caps to obtain a sample.

 

Ravenwood Packaging Stand F18

Chilled food packaging specialist Ravenwood Packaging will be exhibiting examples of its latest linerless adhesive-backed labels and the labelling machines and systems that apply them.

 

 

Sleevers, applicators and labels will be displayed on a themed stand. The “life of trees” theme will show dying metal trees surrounded by piles of used backing papers to highlight the problem of packaging waste.

 

 

New on display will be the Nobac 125 labeller, a high-speed linerless labelling system which eliminates the need for wasteful, non-recyclable backing papers. The absence of backing material means that reel changes are quicker and easier.

 

 

Also new for the show is the Nobac 400V, an applicator focused entirely on C-wrap applications. As well as C-wrapping regular shaped packs it is capable of labelling irregular packs such as whole poultry. The backingless labels can be made from slightly thicker than normal material, minimising wrinkling upon application.

 

Law Print & Packaging Management Stand A60

Flexible packaging specialist Law Print Pack will be exhibiting its range of primary and secondary packaging products including films, laminates, preformed bags and pouches. Latest features include re-sealable zippers. The firm prints in flexo or gravure in up to 10 colours to produce premium packaging at its sites in Europe, the Middle East and the Far East.

 

Odin Stand A18

Odin, the brand management system provider, will be promoting its work for Asda’s Extra Special range and showing off what it could do for other companies.

 

For Asda, it helped with the redesign and relaunch of more than 750 lines in the retailer’s Extra Special range by Christmas last year. Odin’s brand management system increased the speed of new designs onto store shelves by 30% and saved time by creating a digital artwork approval system to ensure an effective flow of communication and visibility of status for every product line. Anyone involved in the design and production process, including buyers, printers and marketers, can monitor the system to keep the job on track.

 

 

Busch Stand C05

Busch has launched a new F model of its R 5 rotary vane vacuum pump, which the company says is designed for continuous use in a range of applications. Described as being sturdy in design and reliable, new features of the F model include improved end pressure of 0.1mbar, increased suction capacity at low pressure and reduced model variants. Mark Sumnall, sales manager for Busch, says: “The R 5 with its rotary vane technology is a tried and tested product which has been used in many different manufacturing applications. The new version with its improved features will give even better performance, but still at the same price as before.” Key features include air cooling, internal oil recirculation, integral oil mist separator for oil-free exhaust air, low vibration and low noise level.

 

Domnick Hunter Stand E05

Domnick Hunter will be showing its new nitrogen gas generator. The new Maxigas follows the trend in demand for larger nitrogen generators and on-site nitrogen gas generation owing to long-term cost savings and increased end-user control. Applications range from MAP to inert conditions for electronic assembly. The Maxigas uses pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology to separate nitrogen molecules from normal compressed air and produce quality nitrogen gas with purities up to 10ppm as standard. New features include equalisation technology and a user-friendly interface. Equalisation gives improvements in air-to-nitrogen ratios; on average this is reduced by 20%, which gives substantial energy savings.

 

Domnick Hunter says the Maxigas can typically lower the cost per cubic metre of nitrogen gas by up to 90%.

 

D2 Europack Stand A36

D2 Europack will be exhibiting its Smoothsolution range for consistent sealing on aluminium foil trays.

Smoothpack comprises smoothwall aluminium foil trays, including the company’s newly launched 276 series, Smoothpeel lidding film, Smoothdome clip-on or heat-sealable dome-shaped lids, and the Smoothseal family of tray-sealing equipment, on show for the first time ever.

 

 

The compact rotary 2700R is the entry-level model offering space savings and cost benefits. The in-line 2800A machine is capable of higher outputs of up to 30 packs per minute.

 

 

All models are available to buy or for short-or long-term rental as part of the company’s ‘pay as you profit’ rental scheme, and in stock for next day delivery.

 

 

The newly launched 276 series of smoothwall trays will also be exhibited. They offer one top-out size measuring 265x162mm and four convenient depths for added flexibility: 37mm, 47mm, 58mm and 75mm. In addition, the 276 series is available with a flat or integrated trivet base.

 

 

Future@Pro2Pac

The show has a central feature called Future@Pro2Pac, a seminar theatre where current and future trends will be put under scrutiny by some high profile industry speakers.

 

Attendees can expect lively debates on technologies such as RFID, security concerns, logistics and packaging trends.

 

Insights into these key areas will be delivered from industry experts such as Mintel, Sheffield Hallam University and Packaging News.

 

 

These will take the form of short presentations, debates, demonstrations and practical case studies including:

 

 

Sunday 18

Market research firm Mintel will present a discussion on Consumer trends and FMCG packaging exploring how companies in different parts of the world are using packaging to address current consumer trends and concerns. This seminar will also run on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

 

Food Processing Magazine publisher Peter Whitfield and PPMA chief executive Chris Buxton will discuss Automating the food industry.

 

Odin will discuss Removal of waste from the design process.

 

 

Monday 19

PPMA chief executive Chris Buxton and Simon Wearing from Food From Britain will talk about the threats and opportunities presented by China in Enter the Dragon.

 

Food Processing Magazine publisher Peter Whitfield and Tony Hines from Leatherhead Food International will discuss the issues of Product recall.

 

Sheffield Hallam University will present on Product and packaging innovation. This presentation will also run on Tuesday 20th.

 

 

Tuesday 20

Former Sainsburys’ packaging director Terry Robins, now of TR Pack, will present A retailer’s perspective on biopolymers and biomaterials.

 

Packaging News editor Gordon Carson will interview the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) on How packaging can reduce food waste.

 

Wednesday 21

Checkpoint Systems managing director David Nuttall will talk about Product protection, right from the start.

Green skincare range chooses Vetroplas pack

Jill Park, packagingnews.co.uk, 23 February 2010

 

Yin Yang skincare products has chosen packaging with a low environmental impact from Vetroplas in response to consumer demands for green packaging.

 

The London-based cosmetics company, which originated from 1970s Carnaby Street store Cranks, chose a Nina Airless Pack from Vetroplas for its skincare range.

 

The packs are easily recyclable and the pumps enable the consumer to get "every last drop" out of the pack and the airless technology avoids oxidation.

 

Yin Yang's design partner Kithkin designed the new labels for the pack, which are meant to "express the pure, botanical character" of the line, according to company founder Katie May.

 

"As we all know, trends are always changing so Yin Yang skincare looks very different today than when it first started in 1973," said May.

 

"Over the years we've tried to stay faithful to the important symbols of our brand, while keeping our image fresh and dynamic."

 

Norwich-based Vetroplas is the excusive UK distributor for Eurovetrocap, plastic tube manufacturer CTL Packaging and acrylic jar manufacturer Mino Gaillard and German manufacturer of airless dispensing technology Megaplast.

 

Vetroplas lands Tri-Pentox contract

Jill Park, packagingnews.co.uk, 20 December 2007

 

Vetroplas Packaging, the cosmetics and personal care packaging supplier, has won a contract to package luxury anti-ageing range Tri-Pentox.

 

The range will include the 50ml Laura glass bottle for its Daily Moisture Recharge Serum and Rehydrating Night Complex, and the 30ml Laura bottle for its Neck and Decolette Rejuvinating Serum.

 

Tri-Pentox chose the 15ml Laura bottle, which includes a pipette-style Minerbio dropper, to package its Age Defying Eye Serum.

 

Norwich-based Vetroplas has colour matched all the bottles in the range, which all come with metalised dispenser pumps and clear, thick-walled PETG overcaps.

 

High-quality screen printing was used across the range.

 

John Anderton, managing director of Vetroplas, said: “We are excited to have supplied the full range of packaging for this innovative and prestigious brand of skin-care products.”

 

Vetroplas was launched in 2006 by Anderton, the former managing director of M&H Plastics, and his wife Amanda. The company can source glass and plastic bottles, jars, closures and flexible tubes.

Norland sorts out bottle size problem

David McCormack, Packaging News, 01 July 2006

 

The latest TritonLine large-bottle system from Norland International can handle multiple sizes simultaneously, without the need for hand-sorting or equipment setting adjustments.

 

The TritonLine Model 900 (pictured) has been designed to process up to 900 large bottles, from 11.4 to 18.9 litres/hr of virtually any style.

 

Bruce Kucera, vice-president of New England, US-based Norland said: “The ability to handle a variety of bottle sizes without manual sorting, parts-sorting or making system modifications is a major design breakthrough in the industry. It saves time, labour and costs.”

 

The automatic bottle-loading, washing, filling and capping system has been manufactured using 304 and 316 stainless steel for longevity and to help keep maintenance to a minimum. The Programmable Logic

 

Controller (PLC) provides the user with an immediate digital read-out of system functions. Stack lighting indicators show current operating conditions, while bottle-positioning sensors detect faults and alert the operator to potential problems.

 

The pre-wash/wash function features low-water protection on all water tanks, to protect pumps and heating elements from potentially damaging low-water conditions and an adjustable wash time of up to four mins/cycle.

 

Bottles stop at each station to ensure they are as clean as possible. Capping features include a high-capacity hopper that holds over 2,000 caps, located at floor level for safe and easy filling.

Drugs counters

Lynda Searby, Packaging News, 04 September 2008

 

Vast quantities of pharmaceutical tablets and capsules might be packed into blisters, but a sizeable proportion are still filled into bottles - IMA Safe estimates that bottles account for 40% of all solid drug packaging. Essentially, there are two methods of filling tablets and capsules into bottles: mechanical counting and electronic counting.

 

For large volumes and high speeds, mechanical counters are generally considered the best bet. These use either slats or discs to count the tablets and operate at speeds of up to 400 bottles per minute. But such high speeds come at the expense of flexibility – size parts changeover is very difficult and expensive.

 

Those manufacturers looking for flexibility over speed tend to opt for electronic machines, which count products as they freefall in front of an electronic scanner. These systems operate at much lower speeds of, say, 50 bottles per minute, but require few or no change parts.

 

However, most pharmaceutical manufacturers and contract packers don’t want to have to choose between flexibility and speed – they want both. Equipment suppliers have responded with machines that deliver on both counts.

 

Logic TPS (Tooling & Packaging Solutions), for example, has started acting as UK distributor for US equipment manufacturer IPS, whose Procount machine is said to combine the benefits of both counters.

 

It uses the slat counter to pick up and separate the tablets and a laser counting system to check the right amount of tablets has left the slat and gone into the bottle, explains Keith Gooch of Logic TPS. It achieves speeds of 100-200 bottles per minute.

 

The main feature of the Procount is said to be the ease with which changeover and cleaning can be carried out. The patented design allows downtime to be cut by over 50% versus other counters on the market, says IPS.

 

IPS has installed 70 Procount machines in the US and Gooch says he has quoted on several projects in the UK already.

 

Improving accuracy

Another issue with electronic counters, according to Gooch, is that they are not always 100% accurate. To this end, Logic TPS supplies a tare and gross checkweighing system that can be fitted under an electronic counter to guarantee fill accuracy to +/- 20mg.

 

Called the TC8210, the system will pre-weigh and zero a bottle weight before filling and then check the final weight of the count after filling.

 

It’s a double-check for the filler in case of a funnel blockage or a malfunction on the machine, he explains. Particularly on electronic machines, if an air valve malfunctions, it could give an undercount or an overcount. There’s no way of checking this after the tablets have been counted other than an operator checking each individual container.

 

The system is already in use at contract packer QBL, on a line that is filling 90 bottles per minute.

 

IMA Safe has gone one step further and incorporated product control capabilities into its counting machines. The Conta series of counters screens tablets and capsules for shape, colour and integrity and is capable of ensuring that bottles are filled with the right quantity and type of product. It is also claimed to be the only tablet counter on the market to feature single-tablet reject – eliminating full-bottle rejects and the associated rework.

 

Competitor Marchesini believes product control will remain a key focus for innovation in the future. Innovation in tablet counting technology is mainly focused on electronic devices, and in particular on product control, says a company spokesperson. This is certainly the area where we’re likely to see the most improvement in the future.

 

Shift in focus

That said, Marchesini’s R&D work in recent years has concentrated more on reducing the footprint of its electronic counters. Its newly developed Compact counter integrates an electronic counting head and an intermittent motion capper within one enclosure. The company says the system combines ‘the latest counting and capping technology with perfect integration’: a single base frame, a single electrical cabinet and a single HMI.

 

With liquid pharmaceuticals, closing the margin for error is also a key objective for equipment designers, but here, the focus is on process control rather than product control, driven by the burgeoning biopharmaceutical market. This growing market requires new ideas, says Matthias Poslovski of Optima Group Pharma. The highly active materials lead to small filling volumes. At the same time, a tiny amount may represent a massive value. The onus is on the filler, therefore, to make sure every tiny drop is used.

 

In Process Control (IPC), developed by Optima, performs automatic fill checks, and a statistical analysis of filling weights gives a signal to the filler to reduce or increase the dose.

 

Another advantage, says Poslovski, is that random samples are no longer necessary. Previously they had to be done manually which meant product was lost.

 

When filling liquid pharmaceuticals into bottles, the main decisions are the method of filling and the choice between a separate filler and capper or a monobloc.

 

According to Masterfil, part of the Adelphi group, at present, the pharmaceutical industry is showing greater interest in flowmeter technology.

 

The main advantages of flowmeter fillers are that they have no areas where product can collect, therefore they are very clean, changeover time is reduced as cleaning effluent is minimised and with no moving parts, maintenance is reduced, explains the company’s Russell Martin.

 

He adds that optional touchscreen programming and the ability to store up to 100 filling profiles on Masterfil’s systems has greatly increased throughputs. Adelphi Manufacturing also offers equipment for volumetric filling, a method that is suited to filling thicker liquids at higher speeds.

 

It says a trend among contract packers and biopharmaceutical companies towards monobloc machines is driving sales of its Cerberus system. Everyone is looking to achieve a higher output, but in the same space, observes the company’s Dean Willis.

 

Cleaning up

Although the Cerberus occupies less space than a separate filler and capper, he admits it is not the most compact of all the monoblocs on the market, but there’s a reason for this: Some other machines may be half the size of ours, but if you can’t get in to clean them, that’s irrelevant. On our machines everything is spaced so you can get in and clean and they are manufactured to allow for laminar flow. We also seal the top of the machine off from the bottom, as the bottom may be oiled or greased, and this prevents contaminants from getting through to the top.

 

A Kugler monobloc from Optima has just replaced an older machine of a different make at an Austrian contract packer. It is being used to fill a range of products, from syrups to dietary supplements, into a variety of glass and plastic containers.

 

Containers are fed from a turntable into the monobloc and positioned intermittently at a weighing cell where the tare weight of each container is determined. At the filling stage, rotary piston pumps fill the product. The gross weight of the containers is then checked at the second weighing cell, and the control system determines the net filling weight from these two values. Any deviation from the target weight is transmitted to the dosing station to optimise dosing accuracy.

 

Closures are fed from sorting bowls to the packaging process and made available to the closing units in swivelling motions, making it possible to first insert droppers or plugs, then pre-screw caps or insert and pre-screw spray pumps or PP caps. After checking the presence of closures, the system tightens or closes the caps.

 

A number of features ensure the system is flexible enough to accommodate the various containers, closures and products. The operator control unit, combined with servo technology, means format changes can happen at the touch of a button. The linear and modular construction of the system is also said to be advantageous when making size changes.

 

 

WHEN PRECISION IS PARAMOUNT

When filling liquid pharmaceuticals into tiny receptacles such as ampoules and vials, precision is paramount, both from a cost and a patient health perspective.

 

The German-built Rota range, which is sold in the UK by Adelphi, achieves fill accuracy of 0.02%.

 

Two Rota lines – one for vial filling and one for ampoule filling – are in operation at Torbay PMU (Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Unit), a medium-scale supplier of sterile fluids – mainly injectables – to secondary care NHS.

 

When choosing our equipment, we tried to get most of it from one source, explains Phil Bendell, head of production at Torbay PMU. It makes it much easier for spares and for maintenance.

 

Flexibility was also a major consideration – the ampoules PMU produces range from 1ml to 10ml, and the vials from 10ml to 100ml.

 

We wanted interchangeability of the filling pumps and some components on the machines, as producing more than 50 products means we do a lot of changeover. The Rota machines seemed quite straightforward for the operator to change and understand. They were also priced quite reasonably and Adelphi seemed to offer the best service back-up of all the agents we spoke to.

 

Torbay PMU is about to upgrade its current ampoule filling system to an even larger one to cope with increasing demand, and is designing a new facility which will house a new vial filling line.

Hacking at packs: trials and tribulations in the life of a pack hack

Des King, Packaging News, 01 February 2008

 

All things considered, it’s a pretty good life writing about packaging.

 

There are days, though, when one half of the equation makes the other challenging to perform with a happy heart. As this diary entry reveals:

 

7.30am (well, okay, say 8.15am) Open fridge to find that re-seal tab on the coffee pouch has unstuck itself overnight and contents have spilled in fridge and on floor and then – via dog – havespread through kitchen. Tamper-evident seal on milk carton pulls away in hand. Resolve opening problem by using Stanley knife, but inadvertently cut index finger on right hand. Resolve bleeding problem by applying plaster from pack in bathroom cabinet.

 

9.00am Am led on inspection tour of numerous stains on stair carpet, landing and bathroom floor. Manage, however, to conceal heavily smeared Elastoplast box from detection.

 

10.30am Rearrange interview for midday due to unanticipated tape recorder difficulties (flat batteries) compounded by inability to extricate replacements from pack quickly enough. The irony of it being a blister manufacturer at the other end of the phone indicates equally unanticipated sense of humour failure.

 

Tip trials

10.35am Take advantage of unscheduled window in agenda to take used cartonboard, PET bottles, HDPE cartons, glass bottles and cans for recycling. What should take 30 minutes extends over two hours, mostly spent in queue to get into the tip, where the local authority has apparently instituted a complex segregated skip-based waste management scheme. Verbally abused by four ‘refuse recycling consultants’ for inadvertently dropping Guinness bottle into the green glass bin.

 

12.40pm Phone blister pack manufacturer. Told by switchboard operator that he has now flown to Mumbai to attend a three-day conference, and won’t be able to return calls until back in the office next Monday. Mention of copy deadline being this Friday fails to elicit workable alternative solution.

 

12.45pm Urgently needed caffeine fix pre-empted by repeat performance of non-re-sealing coffee pouch issues.

 

12.50pm Unfortunate domestic with wife. Take dog for long walk.

 

2.30pm Offer to make bacon sandwiches for late lunch, but reconciliatory gesture marred by second Stanley knife incident of the day. Further manual damage incurred while retrieving Elastoplast from rubbish bin (apparently, not all cans have gone for recycling). On returning from pharmacy spend rest of afternoon tidying desk.

 

6.30pm Seek to restore friendly marital relations over a relaxing glass of Chilean merlot. Cork breaks off in neck of bottle; when pushed in with pencil causes contents to spill on living-room carpet. Helpful suggestion to apply white wine and/or salt summarily rejected.

 

6.45pm Take dog for a seriously long walk. Spend rest of evening re-tidying desk.

 

10.00pm Productivity at last (well, okay, write this column).

 

11.30pm Pump-action fails on toothpaste dispenser (again).

 

11.40pm And so to bed … spare room (again).

 

Client Newswrap: Supermarkets hit by massive tobacco-pricing fines and ice-cream brand plans to 'hijack' election meetings

David Elliott, packagingnews.co.uk, 19 April 2010

 

Welcome to this week's Client Newswrap, bringing you the latest from the world of retailers and brands.

 

Brands

Confectioner Mars has recruited former Liverpool and England footballer John Barnes to star in a new advert in which he will re-enact his famous rap from the England team's 1990 World Cup song World in Motion, performed with pop band New Order. The ad, which will air in May as Mars bids to cash in on the building excitement around this year's World Cup, will appear on TV and on the company's website.

 

Luxury ice-cream brand Antonio Federici is to make the most of the warmer weather and the run-up to the UK's general election with a series of spoof online adverts and outdoor publicity stunts featuring a lookalike of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi as the head of its fictional Gelato Party. According to The Grocer, the brand will send its ‘Berlusconi' with bikini-clad ‘candidates' in tow to "hijack" election meetings and media events and promote the brand's message, ‘Change Your Ice Cream, Join the Gelato Party".

 

Bread brand Kingsmill has launched an on-pack promotion to tie in with the latest run of ITV series Britain's Got Talent. The promo, created by marketing agency Billington Cartmell, features on 65 million Kingsmill packs and incorporates an adaptation of the Britain's Got Talent logo alongside the bread's well-known yellow, white and blue branding.

 

Soft drink brand owner AG Barr is pumping £15m into promoting its Irn-Bru line in the south of England, in a bid to dramatically boost sales in the region. The investment represents the brand's biggest-ever single spend on Irn-Bru, which currently makes two thirds of its revenue in Scotland. AG Barr last month posted an overall sales growth of 18.7% to £201.4m.

 

Export volumes of Scotch whisky hit record levels last year after a boom in demand for the drink from the US and Latin America. Exports of malt and blended whiskies grew by 4% in 2009, according to the Scotch Whisky Association, and sales rose by 3% to £3.13bn. While the US was the biggest importer, spending £419m, UK sales fell by 1% to £1.26bn.

 

Retailers

Morrisons and Asda are among supermarkets hit by £225m of fines handed out to tobacco giants Imperial Tobacco and Gallaher and nine retailers for "unlawful practices" in price-setting. Morrisons received an £8.6m fine, as well as a £10.9m penalty for Safeway; The Co-operative Group was fined £14.2m and was also responsible for a £4m fine for Somerfield; and Asda was slapped with a £14.1m penalty. Imperial was hit with a £112.3m fine while Gallaher had to pay £50.4m. Combined the fines are the biggest ever handed out by the watchdog, and relate to infringements that took place between 2001 and 2003.

 

Tesco is expected to announce a solid profit increase tomorrow. Analysts expect the supermarket to report pre-tax profit of around £3.4bn for the year to the end of February, up 9% on last year, while total sales are expected to hit the region of £59bn.

 

Retailers in Central London have reported like-for-like sales rose 9.9% in March, more than double the rate of the rest of the UK, according to the British Retail Consortium. The rise was attributed to an earlier Easter, which fell in March this year, and the weak pound attracting tourists to the capital. For the country as a whole, sales grew 4.4% in March.

 

Food and drink retailing magazine The Grocer has tipped Dave Cheesewright to take the helm at Asda after current chief executive Andy Bond's shock decision to step down last week. According to the magazine, Cheesewright was identified by the supermarket's owner, Wal-Mart, as an eventual successor a number of years ago, and it has been suggested he may have taken the job as president and CEO of Wal-Mart Canada in 2008 as a "stepping stone" to the Asda top job.

 

Meanwhile, Asda has confirmed plans to become the UK's biggest non-food retailer, by boosting the number of its Asda Living stores five times to 150 over the next five years. Departing chief executive Andy Bond said: "Over the next five years, we have two clear aspirations - to be the market leader in general merchandise and the clear No 2 for food."

Flexibility fulfilled

Lynda Searby, Packaging News, 03 April 2008

 

One word sums up current developments in liquid filling systems: flexibility. Manufacturers and contract packers want to be sure the filling equipment they invest in is going to be future-proof and able to fill a variety of products into a variety of containers.

 

Peter Kierans, sales director of Optima Group Pharma UK, says: “Today, different types of filling system can be used on the same machine frame. So the filling system can be changed if a new product is introduced on the line, and even between shifts or production runs. Some of our pharmaceutical machines are even able to switch between filling systems for liquid and powder products.

 

“In the cosmetics industry it’s also of great importance that all kinds of jars and bottles can be run on the same machine, as designs change frequently.”

 

He says this requirement for flexibility is driving demand from cosmetic manufacturers for filling systems that incorporate CIP (clean-in-place) or SIP (sterilise-in-place) systems. “Product changeovers happen much faster if the piston or other filling system stays at the machine,” he says.

 

At Interpack, Optima will show filling systems for both the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. For pharmaceuticals, the Inova H6-10 is a 10-position syringe-filling and packaging machine capable of producing 36,000 finished syringes per hour. The machine on show will include an isolator-compatible robot, which pulls the Tyvek paper off tubs and disposes of it. The Kugler Linoline is a monobloc system for filling liquid and paste cosmetics. The machine’s modular concept enables both rotary and piston pumps to be used, as well as mass flow and magnetic induction filling systems.

 

Modular versatility

Adelphi Manufacturing is another filling equipment specialist that has responded to the requirement for greater flexibility, with its Response automation system.

 

Up to four Adelphi Response bench-top pneumatic filling machines can be plugged into the detachable mobile bed of the Response automation system, giving users the flexibility to run an automatic, four-head inline filler one day, and up to four semi-automatic fillers the next. The filling heads can handle pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food products, from liquids and creams to pastes and solids in suspension.

 

“For contract packers it’s quite exciting,” says sales director Dean Willis. “One day they can have a semi-automatic system filling thin liquids into bottles, then the next they can convert it into a pouch-sealing unit. The flexibility is as good as it gets. It can fill just about any product and can match the speed of any machine running a four-head automatic filling system.”

 

Sister company Masterfil, which was acquired by Adelphi last November, will also be present at Interpack, with several flexible liquid filling systems.

 

These will include a one- or two-head volumetric filler on a frame sized for growth – extra heads can be added to match increased output requirements. Masterfil says the filling heads offer a wide range of fill volumes and can handle low- to high- viscosity liquid. The nozzles are adjustable to fill foaming and non-foaming products with multiple speed filling capacity.

 

The company’s FlowMaster flow-meter filler is said to provide flexibility and quick product changeover times. It is available in semi-automatic format with one or two filling heads or as an automatic inline machine with up to 12 heads. With no pistons to clean, changeover time and cleaning are minimised, according to Masterfil.

 

Breitner, represented in the UK by Engelmann & Buckham, is also pushing flow-meter technology on the basis that it is easy to clean and maintain. The German company will demonstrate an inline liquid filling system with flow-meter technology. Breitner says the filler is distinguished by the vast product range it can process without the need for format parts, and claims that negligible component wear, zero service requirements and easy cleaning guarantee high production efficiency.

 

Problem products

There’s no doubt flow-meter systems offer many advantages over volumetric systems: they are easier to clean, are programmable to allow flow rate to be adjusted to suit the container, offer high accuracy and, since they measure mass rather than volume, are able to handle hot fills to a target weight.

 

However, as Ian Hillaby, sales director with ADG Packaging Systems (which incorporates the brands of Albro, Dico and Gravfil), points out, their operating method requires consistent product quality, with air bubbles within the product the most common source of inaccuracy.

 

“Air often enters the product during pumping from the main storage vessels or the blending plant and may take considerable time to clear, ruling out larger-volume settling tanks as a solution,” he says.

 

At Interpack, ADG will launch its new Excel Servo inline volumetric filler, which it says provides an advanced programmable alternative to flow-meter machines for problematic product applications. A six-head version fitted with five-litre cylinders, but capable of multi-dose filling of containers of up to 20 litres, will be on show. Applications include food, chemicals, personal care products and mineral oils.

 

ADG says the use of servos enables programmable fill volume and speed control, which can be set to follow a fill profile that matches the container shape. In this way, speed can be reduced at narrow points, such as container waists and shoulders, to prevent foaming.

 

It’s not just flow-meter fillers that are profiting from the cleaning issues associated with volumetric systems. Peter Mayhew, sales manager with Ocme UK, says he has witnessed a shift in the past few years from volumetric filling to net-weigh filling for products such as household detergents, personal care products and lube oil.

 

“Weigh filling is not only very accurate, but you can also clean the machines more easily. Volumetric fillers have a number of seals on them, whereas with weigh fillers there are no internal workings, apart from a couple of spray balls and a lance, so you can clean the tank very quickly and effectively,” he says.

 

But while volumetric fillers might have their issues, they are still the most widely used filling technique.

 

“There are always problems to solve, but it’s down to us to find new ways of handling them,” says Carlo Ferrari, marketing manager with Italian company Procomac, which specialises in designing aseptic lines for beverages.

 

Improved profile

He says Procomac has enhanced its filling systems by improving the profile of the product pipe so the magnetic flow-meter is positioned to achieve a better flow and more precise metering.

 

The company has also upgraded its proprietary control software, so it takes into account the historical trend for each individual filling head, to establish the optimum closing time and achieve better accuracy. The control system also provides the user with information about the performance of the valve, including the last filling error, total filling time and valve closure time, so the user can diagnose problems and improve accuracy.

 

M&P Engineering, meanwhile, has supplied a volumetric system to a Russian firm for depositing 3g of seasoned oil into cans of fish. M&P says this involved redesigning the filling head to accommodate small-volume cylinders and valve plugs. The accuracy achieved on 3g was +/- 0.1g and the maximum line capacity was 100g. Managing director Pamela Nugent says this success won M&P another contract to supply a 24-head monobloc filler to fill hot chilli sauce into 97ml glass jars.

 

“The machine is more economical than a full-scale model, because the filling heads are much cheaper to produce,” says Nugent. “It is also ideal for 30g pots of condiments and jams, balms and other viscous products,” she says.

 

 

 

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THE RIGHT FILLER FOR THE JOB

 

Volumetric fillers

Volumetric fillers can fill a wide range of products accurately, from watery liquids to thick pastes and products with particulates. However, they are slow compared with level fillers, have lots of moving parts, require regular maintenance and are difficult to clean. They are not generally suited for products that foam.

 

Weigh fillers

Weigh fillers, which measure out a predetermined mass of product, have the advantage that there are very few parts in contact with the product so they are easy to clean and lend themselves to both small and very large fills. On the minus side, their load cells and electronics make them complex.

 

Level fillers

These are the fillers of choice in the soft drink and brewing industries but they are considered too inaccurate for oils and are also unsuitable for creams, pastes and products with particulates.

 

Flow-meters

These have all the advantages of weigh fillers, in that they have few moving parts, and don’t have the complications of load cells. However, induction flow-meters are only suitable for aqueous and uniform products. Mass flow-meters, by contrast, do not depend on a product being aqueous or uniform, but the product contact area is greater than with induction flow meters and weigh fillers and they are quite expensive. Magnetic flow-meters can also cope with liquids containing pulps or fibres. They are generally used for still drinks and aseptic applications and can be fitted in counter-pressure fillers.

 

Gravity fillers

This type of filler is cheap and simple in operation, but is not that precise. Gravity fillers are often used for food and chemicals as they are easy to clean.

 

Vacuum fillers

These machines are used for filling still products without particulates, such as wine, oil and spirits, into rigid containers. Good fill-level accuracy can be achieved, but changeovers are lengthy.

Vacuum packing: Touching the void

Lynda Searby, Packaging News, 01 October 2008

 

With new kit offering automation features and the potential to slash the amount of materials used, Lynda Searby asks if the vacuum pack is about to make a comeback.

 

The benefits of vacuum packs versus many other packaging methods are plain to see: the packs allow foods to be kept fresher for longer, are economic on material usage and require less storage space than rigid packs. They also prevent freezer burn and offer exciting potential for 'cook in the bag' convenience products.

 

However, the technology does have its downsides, and in the past this has deterred some potential users.

 

Although entirely cosmetic, one issue is that deoxidation in the vacuum causes meat to brown. UK consumers are

conditioned to believe red meat is fresh meat, and for this reason, a lot of retail meat packs are thermoformed gas-

flushed packs.

 

Similarly, as Ian Kitching, managing director of Swissvac, points out, when you open a vacuum pack of sliced cooked

meat or bacon, the meat is wet and the slices stick together, which doesn't happen when it is packed in a plastic tray with

gas flushing.

 

While machinery manufacturers are powerless to do much about such issues, there are some areas over which they have slightly more control.

 

Vacuum packing with a chamber machine, for instance, is an inherently slow process because it involves loading the product into the chamber, then waiting until the cycle has finished before unloading the packaged product. However, double chamber or 'swing over lid' machines that make table-top vacuum packaging quicker are now available.

 

"With a swing-over lid machine, while the lid is down on one side, you can load and unload the other chamber," explains Kitching. Swissvac distributes the Dutch-built Audion range of vacuum packers, which includes a swing-over lid machine.

For larger food operations, most vacuum packaging equipment manufacturers supply belt-fed chamber machines, which allow continuous packing.

 

The Food Machinery Company, for example, sells a range of machines built under licence in Taiwan, incorporating Busch vacuum pumps. One of these is the J-V022, a conveyorised system on which the chamber moves up and down over the conveyor. "This means it unloads itself and staff can continually load bags even while it's vacuuming," explains the company's Lee Gapper.

 

Increased automation

But even with continuous systems, operator intervention is still usually needed for loading the product into the vacuum bag.  According to Uriel Inauen, chief executive of Inauen Maschinen in Switzerland, reducing the manual involvement in the  process by increasing automation and better integrating vacuum packaging machines with up- and downstream equipment such as shrink tanks and dryers is what customers are asking for at present.

 

"The focus is on automating the process – in particular getting the meat into the vacuum bag and transferring

the bag with the product in on to the conveyor," says Inauen. The company's K7 machine, launched at Interpack, can be integrated within a fully automated vacuum shrink line.

 

This observation is backed up by Peter Mellon, managing director of Reiser UK, who says: "Customers are pushing to have products loaded automatically into the bag and into the machines – they want the minimum number of people on the line."

 

An Austrian-built system launched in April, Supervac's GK842, which is sold in the UK by Reiser, responds directly to this requirement with its split-belt operator mode. "This mode means a product can be brought to the machine independently of going into the chamber, so only one operator is needed.

 

With previous systems, two operators were needed to load the machine."

 

Another new addition to the machines, according to Mellon, is the ability to remove excess packaging material. "It's trimmed off and sucked out of the chamber into a bin, so the pack is nicely cut to the right size and there's no excess packaging."

 

The sealing bar on the machine is a bi-active system that seals from top to bottom. "Typically our competitors only seal from the top," says Mellon. "We can guarantee less leakages through more accurate sealing."

 

On Inauen's K7 machine, seal integrity is provided by a sealing system that originated in the medical packaging industry, where security is paramount.

 

"Sealing is temperature controlled, so users can preset the temperature according to the material they are sealing. This makes for an excellent, tight seal. The machine can even wrinkle seal, so if the bag is not exactly flat in the chamber or it is contaminated with fat or juices, it will still create a tight seal," explains Inauen.

 

Reducing cost

On the flow-wrapping front, Reiser has been acting since July as exclusive UK agent for Repak, which produces machines that feature a rapid air-forming system that enables the use of thinner films.

 

"The forming system uses high air pressure to form the pack very quickly," explains Mellon. "This results in cost savings because you can down-gauge the thickness of the material by up to 20% while maintaining the same barrier properties and thickness in package corners."

 

However, according to Ilapak sales director (HFFS) Mike Butler, the problem with using flow-wrapping systems to create vacuum packs is their speed. "The film goes round the product, it goes to the single sealing jaw area, and then just before the seal is made the vacuum is pulled. You get no more than 10, 15 packs a minute," he says.

 

With this in mind, Ilapak has launched a machine which it describes as a 'hybrid', combining the best characteristics of a flow wrapper and a thermoformer.

 

Butler says the Delta VacMap offers all the cost-saving and efficiency benefits of conventional flow wrapping, such as

high throughputs, fast product changes, ease of use, reduced material and labour costs, fully automatic feeding and high quality pack presentation, while achieving a comparable shelf life to thermoforming.

 

It achieves this by relying on a combination of vacuum and MAP (modified atmosphere packing) technology within a single machine. An inline vacuum feature allows the system to extract trapped pockets of oxygen found inside the product itself, particularly spongy bakery products, to keep the product fresher for longer than a standard MAP flow wrapper.

 

"The product comes in on a belt and there is a series of chambers going round like a carousel. The chambers close down over the product and evacuate, then the gas is flushed in when the vacuum shuts off," says Butler.

 

Ilapak has calculated that each VacMap machine can achieve up to 50% more throughput than a typical thermoforming machine. The VacMap is already up and running on pizza lines in France and Germany.

 

As food manufacturers and packers tighten their belts, and vacuum packaging equipment designers make kit quicker, easier to integrate inline and more economical on packaging material, could we be about to see a resurgence in the popularity of the vacuum pack?