Combined snack pack technology for greater efficiency
- Details
- Published on Thursday, 02 August 2012 09:00
- Written by Staff Reporter
JAPAN – With its combined snack packaging line, Ishida Co Ltd says its equipment is much more efficient than lines that use separate machines.
The Japanese company’s ITPS snack packing system integrates Ishida’s multihead weighers with its Atlas bag maker. By doing so, the company says its reduces waste, lowers maintenance costs and offers greater pack speeds.
“The thing that makes the system stand out is the combination of the machines,” said Kevin Ferris, Ishida’s Snack packaging application manager, who claims Ishida is the only company specializing in snacks that manufactures both the weigher and bag making technologies to lower costs for snack brand owners.
While most other companies had separate weighers and baggers and hence take up more factory floor space, still others buy in multiweigher technology, incorporate it and badge it as their own.
Combined technology offers higher efficiencies
Ishida’s ITPS system works very easily: salted or savoury snacks are fed into the multihead weigher – which gives the correct weight per pack - at the top of the machine. The snacks are then ejected through a metal inspection detector and the bag forms around the product, allowing for high speeds with lower waste.
According to Ferris, the combination of the weighing and bag making machines greatly increases bagging speed. This machine has an average capacity of 180 bags per minute, but can also go as fast as 300 bags per minute.
In addition, the multiweighers are very accurate, with less than 0.1g +/- in error for a typical 25g snack pack.
The system also produces less than 1% material waste over the course of a production run.
While the film reel must be changed every 45 minutes, this process only takes less than a minute.
The ITPS can be used to pack pellet snacks, potato and baked chips and extruded snacks. Standard films such as OPP, polyethylene, polyester and cast-polypropylene can be used in the machine for bags between the sizes of 75mm (w) by 100mm (l), and 330mm (w) by 700mm (l).
