Going with the flow!

Tuesday, 25 November 2008

We look at flexible packaging materials developed for use in confectionery applications, as well as some of the latest flow-wrapping machines With more than 100 years experience in the packaging market, Heyne & Penke Verpackungen believes it can rightly call its a specialist in the area of flexible packaging made of paper or film in the confectionery industry. Today, the company can call upon two flexographic printing machines and two rotogravure printing machines, one of which includes an inline-laminating mechanism; seven full automatic reel-slitters; two wax coating machines; and a film laminating machine. All of this enables the company to offer a wide range of paper and film flexible packaging with both flexographic (up to 8 colours) and rotogravure (up to 10 colours) print. A particular strength is said to be in the manufacture of mono- and compound film flow-wrapping material. The advantages of flow-wrapping packaging include flexibility, high speed converting and lower cost for the end product. Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) is also possible, if necessary. One well known Heyne & Penke product for the confectionery industry is its high-quality flow-wrapping material, made from compound film, which runs well on all major high-specification packaging machines – such as Bosch and Theegarten Pactec. Even a speed of 2,000ppm is possible without causing production problems. Customers are able to choose from a variety of raw material films – for example metallised or transparent variations. Polypropylene co-extruded and lacquered mono-film, as well as compound film BOPP/BOPP, BOPP/PE, PET/PE, PA/PE can all be supplied in transparent, white opaque or metallized quality and can be printed with up to 8 colours flexographic or 10 colours rotogravure. Fast sealing films for high-speed machines BOPP-cast, BOPP-twist, cellulose film, LDPE are usable in flow pack applications mostly used for snack products, confectionery, dried fruits, bread, and cakes. Henye & Penke’s compound film flow wrapping material also demonstrates good sealing and barrier characteristics. Compound film flow packs can be utilised, for example, for the packaging of frozen food, wet wipes, tea, or as deep-drawn packs for bakery or ready to bake products, in addition to confectionery applications. Mono film solutions for flow wrapping material can offer an interesting alternative with regard to price and are often utilised in confectionery products, snack products, bread, and cakes. To improve the service it offers for wax paper buying customers, the company has recently invested in a new Kroenert wax coating machine. With a working width of 1,400mm, this offers it a higher production velocity. In a single run, simultaneous application is possible on both sides, as well as high gloss coating, if requested. Flow-wrapping machines The ACMA SP range of flow-wrapping machines have been developed over the years for improved reliability and to handle an ever wider range of products. Often specified for use in chocolate, bakery, and snack packing applications, the SP2 single wrap machine offers a continuous motion horizontal form-fill and sealing machine for flow-wrapping products, with coldseal materials being taken from a reel. The maximum speed of the unit is 1,200pcs/min (or 120m/min). It uses a pillow pack wrapping style and materials suitable for use on the machine include plastic materials (PP and PVC) and multilayer films. The in-line infeed system consists of a smart infeed belt that includes two belts placed one after the other. The unit also boasts ease of accessibility for cleaning and maintenance purposes. The wrapping unit features an RCO folding hopper, a patented vacuum web tensioning device, and an automatic reel splicer for wrapping material. The unit also features cantilevered, cross-sealing jaws. Flow-wrapping specialist OPM, together with Corazza, RC, Stephan and Sympak Process Engineering, is part of the Sympak Group, a leader in processing and packaging technologies, with a particular focus on the food industry. This year, OPM has been celebrating its 30th anniversary. Made up of five centres of expertise – OPM Moulding, Fima Wrapping, Jointech Flow-wrapping, OPM Packaging and OPM Palletizing – company activities range from chocolate moulding lines up to high performance robotized systems for primary and secondary packaging and palletisation for food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics applications. Jointech is the group’s specialist in flow-wrapping technology and manufactures automated flow-wrapping systems consisting of row distributors, aligners and feeders, horizontal mono and multi pack flow-pack machines and accessories.The range includes solutions for medium and high-speed lines, suitable to automatically feed and wrap ‘multi-products’ flow-pack configurations in slug, with or without tray and in stack, dedicated to the primary packaging of many different chocolate and confectionery products. Jointech flow-pack wrapping machines can be divided into three families – the J200E with a capacity of up to 350 pieces/min, the J350E with a capacity of up to 500 pieces/min and the J600E with a capacity of up to 1,000 pieces/min – the exact capacity, for course, depends on product dimensions and packaging material. The machines are available in several versions, according to the feeding and transporting system, designed on the base of the product and packaging type. Jointech machines are electronically servo-driven, are easy to sanify, and are said to be suitable for connection to automatic product feeders, card feeders from reel and from pre-cut magazine and longitudinal tear-tape applicators.

 

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