Food & Drink Process & Packaging Issue 22 2019 | Page 9

squeezed by inflation, surging commodity costs and price-sensitive consumers. The Plimsoll survey reports that last year each fresh produce firm averaged pre-tax margins of just 1.2%.” Capable of loading up to 180 top seal punnets and top seal trays per minute into full and half-sized crates, as well as lipped boxes, the BR Punnet Packer Series maximises throughput by collating product into a full layer, lifting and lowering in one seamless motion into the crate or box. David explains. “The most common dilemma in punnet packing is not the movement of products, but managing the container in which they are being placed. For example, with soft fruits, K37 is the most popular punnet size. However, because of the dimensions - The cycle time is literally lift, lower, “Given the additional uncertainty faced push, lift, lower, push - next container, with Brexit and uncertainty over export that is narrow at bottom.” emphasises David. and trade tariffs, the future viability He continues: “With punnets we are Designed as a versatile, standalone 184x118x35mm - this size especially is a tight fit when placing into a tapered crate dealing with a pack shape that can vary by three millimetres. This can cause punnet edges to catch, overlap or flip system, David believes that the BR Punnet Packer has cracked another industrial automation drawback. “A lot of of fresh produce companies rests on boosting productivity, being able to adapt swiftly to new supplier arrangements and packing formats, with minimal investment and the quickest ROI. when inserting into retailer containers. case loaders feature bespoke elements and are designed around a specific “By matching these line speeds we This in turn slows the line down while an line. This affects design, build, lead and can ensure that loading containers is operator manually resolves the issue and installation times, plus makes projects no longer detrimental to efficiency, flattens the layer, before the next layer higher risk, not to mention costlier.” productivity and therefore profitability.” can be stacked on top. The BR Punnet Packer can effectively be With a price tag of £87,500 for the “For many years this has held punnet interlocked with any top seal machine on 120ppm model - almost twice the speed packers back from investing in a fully the market. of semi-automated case loading and automated system,” claims David. Many of the latest tray seal models 20ppm faster than the company’s Unipick automated case loading - Brillopak To resolve this longstanding issue, handle a wide variety of pack sizes and Brillopak’s engineers have utilised sealing formats and the BR Punnet traditional mechanical techniques Packer works in synergy with all these redeploying them in innovative ways developments automatically adjusting Through labour savings and productivity to both increase speed and maintain to the different packs sizes and case gains alone, David estimates that the consistency of packing. Layers are formats In addition to soft fruit punnets, BR Punnet Packer Series can deliver a collated to the side of the container. the system is equally adept for loading 12-month return on investment. is making automation affordable and accessible to SMEs. tray sealed fruit, vegetables, meats, fish A crate-sized vacuum end-effector then and shellfish into containers. gently suctions the entire layer, lifting Brillopak it just enough for a supporting plate to “Tray sealing is rapidly becoming the retract, before lowering and pressing the most popular method to maintain product punnets gently into place in the crate. freshness, with products coming out of +44 (0)1622 872907 Nothing protrudes and as a result no the sealing machines at rocket speeds,” manual intervention is required. adds David. [email protected] www.brillopak.co.uk FDPP - www.fdpp.co.uk 9