Food & Drink Processing & Packaging Issue 42 2022 | Page 68

Chill out with IMA ILAPAK ’ S flow wrapping solutions for fresh food

Stand D10 , PPMA , NEC Birmingham , 27-29 September 2022
A Delta 3000 flow wrapper with automatic infeed will take centre stage on IMA ILAPAK ’ s stand ( D10 ), demonstrating how food producers can reduce their line-side labour requirement whilst reliably and efficiently producing hermetically sealed MAP packs from latest generation films .
“ Two of the topics on everyone ’ s lips are workforce shortages and sustainable packaging ; the equipment we have on show illustrates how we can help our customers to address both chal-lenges . Automating the infeed of the flow wrapper is a relatively simple step that eliminates the need for manual loading . It is a starting point and we are hoping that at PPMA it will also be a talking point for discussions about how we , as part of the IMA Group and FLX HUB , can work with our customers to implement laboursaving automation technologies at every stage of the packaging workflow ,” said Tony McDonald , Sales and Marketing Director at ILAPAK UK .
With its heavy duty , hygienic design , the 68 FDPP - www . fdpp . co . uk
The Delta 3000 has a long dwell sealing head which is capable of running films that a rotary sealing system simply cannot handle .
Delta 3000 is fast becoming the flow wrapper of choice for the fast-growing chilled sector , where it is used to pack everything from sandwiches , pies and cheese portions to fresh fruit & veg , meat , poultry and fish . IMA ILAPAK is currently experiencing particularly high demand from producers of sandwiches and hand-held snacks thanks to the Del-ta 3000 ’ s ability to accommodate complex laminates , paper films and recyclable PE and PP mono-films with its long dwell sealing technology .
“ The Delta 3000 has a long dwell sealing head which is capable of running films that a rotary sealing system simply cannot handle . Paper films are notoriously difficult to run on flow wrappers because of their structure - applying heat evenly and efficiently to achieve a hermetic seal is made difficult by the thermal insulating properties of the top paper layer . IMA ILAPAK has over-come this by deploying special geometry surface treated sealing jaws in conjunction with consol-idated long dwell technology ,” said Tony .
The long dwell sealing jaws and special surface treatments developed by IMA ILAPAK also ena-ble the Delta 3000 to run heat-sensitive mono-materials at high speeds .
At the same time , the Delta 3000 meets the chilled food industry ’ s stringent hygiene require-ments by enabling full wash down capability , even of the sealing elements . This has been achieved through full stainless steel execution , isolating the electrical cabinet from the main ma-chine frame and smooth , sloping surfaces without recesses .
As well as food applications , the Delta 3000 is suited to non-food applications where a hermeti-cally sealed pack is required , such as medical and personal care products like wet wipes .
IMA ILAPAK will also demonstrate its capabilities in VFFS ( vertical form fill seal ) applications , showing