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Second cartoner speeds hurricane relief efforts

Machine allows Innotech to double the production and shipment of its self-heating meals to assist displaced victims and relief workers during last year’s disastrous hurricane season.

Thanks to an investment in a cartoning machine last summer, Innotech Products was able to double its production and shipping of self-heating meals to between 40ꯠ and 45ꯠ a day to displaced victims and relief workers during the July through November hurricane season.

Before the hurricane season hit, the company sought to increase its ready-to-ship inventory and increase its daily production. Turns out that was a wise decision. “We produce and ship meals throughout the year, but this most recent hurricane season caused a tremendous spike in our business, which required the acquisition of additional packaging equipment,” says Tim Zimmerman, president of Cincinnati, OH-based Innotech Products Ltd., makers of self-heating dinners and breakfast items known as HeaterMeals and HeaterMeals Plus. HeaterMeals sell for $3.99, HeaterMeals Plus for $5.49.

At its Cincinnati plant, Innotech uses two lines to fill its six dinner entrees and two breakfast foods into rigid plastic “tubs,” as Zimmerman calls them. The flexible lidding is ink-jet-printed with the product’s name and various production data. Primary packages are then brought to a separate cartoning machine. Operators place the lidded tub, cutlery, napkin, and spice kit pack into a carton for the HeaterMeals, which is produced on one line. The second line fills HeaterMeals Plus, meals that include those same items, plus prepackaged snacks. One meal, for example, includes cookies, apple sauce, nuts, breadsticks, seasoning packets, and a can of lemonade.

Last August, Innotech added a second cartoner. With it, Innotech paired each primary packaging line with a dedicated cartoner. The company sourced the machine through The Frain Group, with whom it had previously worked. “I knew Frain had a large inventory of equipment that was immediately available,” recalls Stan Smith, Innotech’s vice president of operations. “And Frain offered a rental program with no fixed term, which fit our needs exactly.”

Selecting from 300 cartoners, Innotech chose a Langen B1-M machine. It matched the cartoner that Innotech added in the late 1990s. “The Langen provides us with the flexibility to run different-sized cartons,” says Zimmerman, who adds that changeovers can be done quickly on the machine.

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