The company said that the SFR regulated flow system can be retrofitted to its entire range of Cermex shrink-wrappers with SDI pin-gating infeed, developed for soft drinks, beer, mineral water, and canned beverages.
"Processors can easily select one format over another via the data management facility of the industrial PC, which automatically changes the position of the pin-gating to adjust the dimensions," Jean-Marc Passemard, Cermex sales promotion manager told FoodProductionDaily.com.
He said the SFR allows flexibility in terms of format size adjustments so that processors wishing to create new formats can do so by simply entering the new data and dimensions into the PC's control pad.
"A single SFR cassette, controlled by a servo motor, is now sufficient for all formats, eliminating the need to use different pin-gating cassettes for each product format," said Passemard.
Cost savings
Cermex claims that this design enables cost savings as the purchasing of cassettes for each format is no longer required, while the need to stock cassettes on a trolley is also eliminated, resulting in reduced equipment footprint.
"A return on investment in the SFR system will be obtained when three or more formats such as 0.5 litre, 1 litre, 1.5 litre drink bottles are handled on the same machine," added Passemard.
The SFR will be exhibited at the Emballage show in Paris from 17-21 November, when it will also be released on the market.
Diagonal infeed adapted
Cermex said that it has also made improvements to its CCO diagonal infeed system, which can be integrated with its TSi shrink-wrapper to produce up to 26,000 products per hour or 65,000 bottles per hour.
Initially designed to handle small cartons, the infeed system has been modified to enable it to take standard and slim cartons from 200 ml up to 1 litre, as well as small PET and HDPE bottles and tins, according to Passemard.
The modifications also include new continuous selection functionality, which is provided by a spacing system that comes with lateral fingers for product protection, added Passemard.