ProMach: Performance, Packaged Performance, Packaged

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Handling & Sterilizing

New Video Features Advanced Automation with Robotics and Batch Retort Systems from Allpax

A two-door retort automated system, a robotic loading cell, foreground, loads baskets with products. The process is reversed, rear center, with the robots removing the sterilized product and slip sheets from the baskets.

Allpax, a ProMach product brand and global leader in the design and fabrication of food sterilization such as cookers, retorts, autoclaves, and material handling automation equipment, has a new video out highlighting advanced automation with robotics and batch retort systems. The new video features new high-speed sweep style loading/unloading systems for handling cans, up to 2,000 units per minute throughput per loader and unloader cell. At the loading cell, one robot sweeps cans into a basket while another places a slip sheet between the layers. The unloader cell reverses the process by having a robot sweep cans out of the basket while the other robot removes the slip sheet between the layers. And while this video is an animation, it is based on an actual production system that Allpax recently delivered to a customer!

The Importance of Advanced Robotics

Robotic sweep-type loaders provide an alternative for operations looking for greater flexibility in batch retort automation systems. The robotic sweep loading reduces stress on the structure of the loading system, extending the service life. Time and labor are saved because robots can perform automatic changeover between can sizes vs traditional non-robotic loaders. Robots can also be called in when systems are upgraded or decommissioned.

Not just for cans, Allpax also offers robotic automation systems for handling pouches, bowls, cartons, and more. These can run 300 units per minute or more.

Learn more about Allpax on their website here and see the full video below.

By the Numbers: Snack Food Packaging

With more people eating on the go and enjoying smaller meals that fit their active lifestyles, the snack food industry has seen an increase in market size and SKU offerings on store shelves. According to a 2022 Market Analysis Report by GVF, The global snacks market size was valued at over USD $1.4B and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.7% from 2022 to 2030.* The pandemic’s effect on eating patterns and new norms such as working from home has taken this industry to new levels.

When it comes to packaging, ProMach product brands are busy at work ensuring bagging, filling, labeling and coding, packing, and many other machinery tasked to package these products are operating at peak efficiencies to ensure their customer’s production goals are met and products are shipped out the door in a safe and timely manner.

Just a few of the snack products ProMach brands package are shown above in the By the Numbers infographic.

ProMach product brand Allpax boasts retorting 100,000 lbs of raw chickpeas for hummus each day. This is an important part of processing hummus as the chickpeas are steam cooked and baked to then go on to be blended into hummus.

Bartelt, a ProMach product brand and leader in pouching, cartoning, shrink wrapping, case packing, and tray packing systems for the food industry packages 532,000 lbs of jerky each day and a whopping 22 million bags of chips per day.

ProMach product brand Benchmark is an industry leader in product infeeding, loading, orienting, and conveying and works with customers to handle products such as cookies, crackers, frozen pizzas, and cheese snacks. Kleenline is another product brand that manufactures integrated sanitary product handling solutions including conveyors, automation and controls, and specialty devices. Kleenline works directly with producers of foods such as turnovers that need to be safely handled to ensure product integrity.

Product brand Matrix provides flexible packaging machinery for customers in the snack industry including vertical form, fill, seal, pre-made pouches, stickpacks, and sachets. This includes customers packaging popcorn in a range of bag sizes.

EPI manufactures industry-leading and high-performing labeling technologies for large customers of snack foods like chips for their packaging operation, ensuring boxes are labeled correctly and are ready to be shipped out the door on time.

From the beginning of the packaging line to the end of the line, ProMach offers best-in-class packaging solution product brands that can package anything, including snack foods, with precision, efficiency, and performance.

As a reminder, we’re featuring a By The Numbers infographic each month right here on The Packaging Observer so be sure to watch out for next month’s out soon. If you missed August’s By The Numbers, you can read it here.

* https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/snacks-market

Day Two Highlights from IBIE

ProMach product brands Benchmark, Kleenline, and Southern, experts in product handling and pouch filling are at the ProMach Bakery and Snack Solutions booth here at the International Bakery Industry Expo (IBIE). From ovens to packaging, production facilities rely on product handling and pouch filling expertise to provide sanitary product handling and conveying systems that preserve the integrity of their products for their bakery lines. Attendees can see the Benchmark InFlight AC Feeder, the Kleenline Reciprocator Product Orienting System, and the Southern Intermittent Pouch Machine running at booth #4244 in the West Hall at IBIE.

Rich Arnold, VP of Sales for Benchmark, walks us through the highlights of each machine on the show floor below.

The Benchmark InFlight AC Feeder
The Kleenline Reciprocator Product Orienting System
Southern’s Intermittent Motion Pouch Machine

Smart Conveyors Streamline Wet Wipes Packaging Challenges

High-speed automation for folding, wetting, cutting, and piling of wet wipes presents throughput challenges when fragile stacks of newly-produced wipes are transferred to downstream primary and secondary packaging machinery operating at lower throughput speeds. Smart conveying solutions, such as Slip-Torque® roller technology, Dynamic Accumulation, SmartFeed®, and flexible product control devices – developed by Shuttleworth – enable high-speed end-of-line throughput of delicate wet wipes while maximizing uptime, minimizing product damage, and maintaining industry standards for cleanliness. Read more in the new white paper, written by Shuttleworth Sales Engineer Christian Dager.

Smart Conveyors Streamline Wet Wipes Packaging ChallengesDownload