Apple growers have been packing apples traylessly for some time now and are praising Redpack for continuously innovating our flow wrapping machinery. Trayless packaging enables reduced use of material and Redpack have ensured development of their machines continues to tighten the pack even further, saving more packaging material. Furthermore, they gather industry feedback to help develop user friendly features of the machine.
Apples are notoriously prone to damage and bruising so they have to be handled very carefully, “soft packaging” as it’s known in the trade. Redpack initially developed the P325E-FI trayless apple flow wrapping machine by working closely with apple packers to ensure they developed the best solution possible. The “Frictionless Infeed” has been specifically designed to pack apples at relatively high speeds (up to 70 ppm for a 6 pack) with elimination of bruising. The finished pack presentation is high quality to carry the retailers brand image and to be appealing to the customer.
Redpack have continued to improve on the original design of the P325E-I by introducing integrated web handling to enable thermal printing and labelling functionality which is quick and easy to use for the machine operator.
Redpack’s innovation hasn’t gone un-noticed. A leading apple packer recently trialled Redpack flow wrappers against a competitor machine to ensure they purchased the best solution. The planned 2-week trial was completed in just 4 days. A representative said:“The results speak for themselves. Speed up 20%, Rework down 90%, and the team running the machine happy every day”
The P325E-FI has as standard a 3.5 metre long product infeed with driven side belts, carrying slats and soft flexible front and back product pushers. The combined effect of these features forms a product collation pocket that creates a soft bed to nestle the apples. This ensures that the apple collation is protected and prevents bruising as the apples are transported to the wrapping module.
Customers fed back that they would like an improved transfer from the infeed belt to the wrapping film. In response Redpack designed a belt unit that ensures that the collation is not disturbed and is carried to the film as gently as possible. In combination with this the machine has an overhead mechanism with “soft” paddles to retain the collation in the film tube as it progresses through the machine seam crimp module and a conveyor system is included at the end crimps to carry the product through the end crimp sealing jaws. The wrapping operation is carried out with minimum disturbance of the collation and minimum movement of the fruit thus minimising damage and bruising of the apples.
A further unique design feature of the P325E-FI enables the product infeed pitch to be adjusted without additional change parts. By turning an adjustment handle the front and back product pushers move apart to give a wider product collation pocket to accommodate 2-4-6-8-10 apple collations without having to change parts. So it’s quick and easy for your pack house staff to change the fruit collation size and to adjust the pocket to suit product grading. For further versatility the P325E-FI can be easily adjusted to allow fruit on a tray to be wrapped including in line “Hot Dog” packs.
Of course, it’s not just apples that can be wrapped because pretty much any graded top fruit, pears, plums, kiwi, oranges, lemons and many more can be accommodated. If the P325E-FI is not the perfect flow wrapper for your particular job Redpack have a range of machines and in-feed systems that can be tailored to your specific requirements for all reasons and seasons.
To discover how Redpack Packaging Machinery can help your business, get in touch.
