IDE Online Magazine Abril 2018 | Page 52

EMPRESAS

The successful KHS Innopouch Bartelt K series concept: flexible systems for pouch packaging

> Machine with full range of servo equipment

> Format changeovers in less than 15 minutes

> Optional blocking with KHS palletizers

Flexibility, precision, ease of operation and hygienic safety: with its Innopouch Bartelt K series KHS presents a pouching machine with a full range of servo equipment. With an ever increasing variety of products to be processed this system offers the beverage and food market many advantages with its short setup times and high level of productivity. It can also be combined with the KHS Innopack Bartelt CMC cartoner for a pouch packaging line from a single source.

Consumers appreciate their low weight and easy handling, producers above all their low cost, as less material is needed for production: the pouch is definitely up to the minute. To date its growth in popularity was most discernible in the USA, yet demand for the practical pack is now also on the increase in Europe and parts of Asia. The best examples are smoothies or candies which are hitting supermarket shelves in this type of packaging with increasing frequency.

KHS offers customers its Innopouch K series poucher in two versions: an FS (fill and seal) machine for pouch filling and an FFS (form, fill and seal) variant for pouch production and filling. “The production stage can be flexibly retrofitted from the FS to the FFS version at a later stage as the machine is modular”, says Thomas Brooker, senior product manager at KHS USA.

Large variety of pouches

The horizontal, cyclic packaging system makes stand-up, flat and bottom gusset pouches from film laminate. It can run in both simplex (one pouch per machine cycle) and duplex (two pouches per machine cycle) operation. The Innopouch K-400 changes formats at the press of a button using linear servotechnology. “This takes less than 15 minutes”, explains Brooker. “We’ve simplified and automated the time-consuming simplex and duplex conversions common to mechanical machines”. For example, the grippers in the filler area can be adjusted to new pouch widths as quickly as they can be switched between simplex and duplex operation.