Packaging The perfect
package There’s a certain skill in designing, manufacturing and operating cut and wrap machinery. By Chris Shaw.
T
he secret to this skill is not just in the production of the machine, but in adapting it to suit different products and wrapping material characteristics that may be encountered. A.M.P-Rose believes it has addressed this need with its 42HSBG cut and wrap machine, designed to withstand the rigours of high speed bubble gum wrapping. The machine produces square, rectangular, or cylindrical shaped sweets and is said to be capable of speeds of up to 1000 pieces/m. Comic strips, or stickers can be used as inner wrappers on the machine and there are two ways these can be fed; the inner and outer wrappers are taken from a single reel of wrapping material. The reel is split into two (inner and outer), so both wrappers are registered. The other method is where the inner and outer wrappers are taken from separate reels and the outer wrapper is continuously printed (not registered). The inner wrapper is the sticker, which is registered to ensure that the cut is in the correct place. According to A.M.P-Rose, different outer wrapping materials can be accommodated on the 42HSBG. Cellophane and waxed paper are said to be the best materials to achieve optimum speeds and efficiencies, however, lower cost materials such as PVC and OPP can also be handled. The use of special materials to counter static, assisting the paper feeding system with a stream of air - and retaining the twists by the use of hot air blower systems - are typical examples of what is necessary to handle such films.
The sequence of operations of the 42HSBG starts from the confectionery mass being fed, in rope form, from an extruder to the infeed section of the cut and wrap machine. The infeed section has two or three pairs of intermittent sizing rollers that feed and size the rope to the desired width and thickness. The presence of the rope is detected by a sensor and the PLC signals the correct time for the paper feeds to engage. This, says A.M.P-Rose, avoids wrapper wastage. The paper feeding rollers are designed to provide the correct length of paper, which is cut off by a detachable rotary knife. The rope of the product is cut to the desired length by a pair of nipping knives (or a rotary knife, if cutting a whirl type product) and then pushed with the cut wrapper into the wrapping wheel. Automation is a necessity in today’s production environments and the A.M.P Rose production lines are designed to have a
24 Kennedy’s Confection September 2012
minimal amount of manual intervention. Features such as automatic product detection in the candy feed section are said to minimise paper wastage. In addition, an automatic paper reel splicing unit can be supplied, which switches to a new paper reel once the other has run out. As well as bubble gum, the ‘42’ range is designed to cut and wrap toffee, chew, or hard boiled sweets, in a number of wrapping styles such as; double twist, end fold, under fold, and whirl twist.
Cut and wrap equipment
Cut and wrap technology is just one of Theegarten-Pactec’s domains. Products such as extruded bubble gum, chewing gum, chewy candy and soft gum are still produced in cut and wrap technology – wrapped as single products in fold or twist wrap. However, most are wrapped in stick packs. Nearly 40 years after the company introduced its machines, current models are designed and equipped with modern servo technology to increase efficiency, durability and ease-of- service. For example, the U1-DCW is based on the U1 series, but wraps two products simultaneously via its twin cutting, folding and sealing principle. This delivers a maximum output of 1600 products/m in side fold, double point end fold or envelope fold. Theegarten says the intermittent function also enables compact machine design, so less space is needed than with continuous machines for the same performance level. Transport and cutting of the wrapping material are electronically controlled, which assists in centring the printed image. The wrapping material length can also be modified according to product dimensions - critical when the product mass tends towards shrinkage or expansion. There is an electronic control for the sealing temperature at the product discharge and the machine features an automatic splicer, as well as a ‘no product – no wrapping’ function. In recent years, numerous machines have been manufactured to wrap layered products – a new product generation, wrapped in envelope fold wrap style – and the majority of these machines are nowadays connected to wallet type overwrapping machines. Theegarten-Pactec’s WHF – F4 is a continuous motion
kennedysconfection.com
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