Ishida claims higher efficiencies with combined snack pack technology

Technology firm Ishida has claimed that its packaging line for snacks that combines both weighing and bag making technologies has efficiency advantages over lines that use separate machines.

The company’s iTPS snack packing system integrates Ishida’s mulithead weighers with its Atlas bag maker in a move that it claims reduces waste, lowers maintenance costs and gives higher pack speeds.

Kevin Ferris, snacks packaging applications manager at Ishida, said: “The thing that makes the system stand out is the combination of the machines.”

He said that most other solutions had separate weighers and baggers, which used up more space.

“Other companies buy in multiweigher technology, incorporate it and badge it as their own,” he added.

He claimed that Ishida was the only company specialising in snacks that manufactures both the multiweigher and bag making technologies to bring cost savings for snack firms.

How it works

Salted or savoury snacks are fed-in to the mulithead weigher at the top of the machine, which gives the correct weight per pack.

The snacks are then discharged through a metal detector and the bag forms around the product. This method allows high speeds with low waste figures, said Ferris.

The packaging line supports pellet snacks, potato and baked chips and extruded snacks.

Ferris said that standard films used for snacks, such as OPP, polyethylene, polyester and cast-polypropylene, could all be used in the machine.

Speed and accuracy

He added that the combination of the machines improved the speed of bagging. The machine has an average capacity of 180 bags per minute, but is capable of up to 300 bags a minute.

“The multiweighers are extremely accurate,” said Ferris, adding that for a typical 25g snack packs the weight wouldn’t be any more than 0.1g over or underweight.

Ferris added that the system would produce less than 1% material waste over the course a production run. As the machine incorporates the bagging and weighing technologies rather than using two machines, Ferris said that it saved space in snack makers’ factories.

The film reel requires changing every 45 minutes, but takes less than a minute to put on a new reel.

There is the option of an auto-splice feature, which allows for near-automatic changeovers.

Limitation

He said that one of the limitations of the machine was the physical size of the bags it can support.

The smallest bag the system can handle is 75mm wide by 100mm long, while the largest size is 330mm wide by 700mm long.

Ishida claimed that the packaging line would appeal to both major snack manufacturers and small to medium sized enterprises.

Source: Ishida