Zimmbäcker, based in Greeley, Colorado was unhappy with the look of the shrink overwrap used on cartons for its range frozen and flash frozen gourmet braided breads and rolls in a variety of flavours.
Its search for a solution led to overwrap specialists Marden Edwards’ (www.mardenedwards.com) booth at Pack Expo International 08 where Zimmbäcker discovered the answer to its needs. The company has now taken delivery of a S4B100FF wrapper, a medium-speed machine with PLC control and the ability to handle a wide variety of pack sizes.
Miles Kiefer, production manager, Zimmbäcker, has been impressed by the ease with which the machine has integrated into the packaging line, “We plugged it in and it worked! I have never had that happen before with manufacturing equipment. We plugged it in again the next day and it still worked!”
On a more serious note Kiefer commented, “Our products now look much better compared with the results the shrinkwrap process was giving us. Another factor was the simplicity of operation compared with other machines we considered”.
The wrapper can operate at between 30 and 50 packs/min, which easily meets the requirement of between 35 and 40 packs/min. This is a threefold increase on the shrinkwrapping speeds being achieved. Pack dimensions range from 9 x 4.25 x 2.25in up to 7.5 x 4.25 x 2.6in.
Film costs are less expensive when compared with the shrinkwrap material used previously and there is no waste using the overwrapping process. As there are fewer working parts and no heat tunnel, maintenance times and costs are also expected to decrease.
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