Packaging Automation, a leading manufacturer of heat-sealing machines, has upgraded its flagship Vision range to operate at faster speeds.
The company's Vision models - which are capable of atmospheric and modified atmosphere packing including gas flushing, vacuum and high oxygen -have all been upgraded to now operate at a startling 25 per cent faster throughput.
Based on sealing six packs per cycle, the Vision 4000 is now capable of a speed of 100 packs per minute and the Vision 182 based on sealing 3 packs per cycle, can now operate at 60 packs per minute - the company claims. Packaging Automation says that like all machines the speeds are reliant on the product being suitable for transfer at this speed into the machine - with the key determining factor being the viscosity of the actual product.
Cheshire based Packaging Automation's commercial manager Sam Ashton commenting on the new higher operating speeds said: "As food processing equipment becomes more and more sophisticated, food producing factories are required to be more efficient and must be capable of turning around orders at greater speeds. This has resulted in older manufacturing lines being replaced with new equipment, but with the introduction of greater efficiencies, the bottlenecks simply move further down the production line."
"Ultimately the final bottleneck in any facility will be the packaging machine at the end of a line. Hence, following increased speeds in a wide range of processing equipment, the day has finally come when packaging equipment must also support increased production speeds."
Packaging Automation says that the increased speed is not at the expense of flexibility which is an important factor in the design of all its Vision and PA range of machines. Therefore the latest generation of Visions is said to offer both high speed and flexibility allowing product range tooling changes in just a matter of minutes.
The company has achieved its speed breakthroughs by cultivating a very close relationship with its leading suppliers of high-tech components, that are crucial to the design of the Vision and PA182 ranges. By working with these suppliers, and through incremental fine tuning of existing machine programmes, Packaging Automation believes that the new speed changes will ensure its products remain at the very forefront of the industry.
Summarising, Ashton said: "The introduction of a 25 per cent speed increase in the Vision models is the culmination of many months of research and development by our in-house equipment designers. These machines will clearly make a significant difference to those involved in volume food production and during the coming months we intend to tell the food industry about these important speed breakthroughs."
Packaging Automation was established in 1963 and is the UK's leading manufacturer of heat sealing machinery for the food industry. The business employs 120 people and produces a wide range of equipment. The company also manufactures volumetric fillers, conveyors and various other ancillary equipment.For further information please contact Samantha Ashton.