Baby Chef installs PA sealing plant
Automation sealing equipment at its Portsmouth plant to ensure that
the lids on its new baby food pots are strong and reliable.
The company claims that the semi automatic PA182 heat sealing machine offered the best means of ensuring both quality and safety.
"The integrity of the seal on our products is paramount, and with ourmove into heat sealing for the first time we had to be sure that we made theright choice," said Baby Chef director Yvonne Richardson.
"We produce eleven different products for the baby and toddlermarket, and in addition to supplying a number of independent retailersnationally, we also offer a home delivery service. The Packaging Automationmachine is working well, and providing exactly what we need. Our operatorsare finding it very easy to use."
The PA182 is an entry-level semi automatic machine, which Packaging Automation claims has the benefit of quick and easy tool change - this can be achieved in just two minutes. The robust construction and recent redesign has also resulted in improved operation, efficiency and ease of maintenance.
Baby Chef's adoption of heat-sealing technology represents an industry-wide trend, which is being driven by changing consumer preferences and greater food diversification. Customers want easy to use packaging that is completely safe and tamper proof, and heat sealing offers a viable means of achieving this objective.
Food manufacturers such as Baby Chef therefore need to react to these changes, and install cutting edge equipment that will enable them to satisfy current consumers needs.
"To achieve this producers must have built-in reliability and rapid tooling change facilities, if they are to maintain and expand their market share," said Packaging Automation's commercial manager Samantha Ashton.
"To meet these requirements Packaging Automation has invested heavily to expand its range and ensure that its Vision machines now operate even faster to meet ongoing peak speed demands and can be quickly re-tooled to meet the needs of small batch runs, which are increasingly the norm.
"We believe speed of changeover is the vital element of heat sealing and lidding machinery because of the demand for a bigger and better choice of ready meals. Some factories can be running a line for just minutes before a changeover."
