Baking & Snack - April 2024 - 84

SNACK PACKAGING
Running new products
on a packaging line may
increase opportunities
for waste and error.
BluePrint Automation
degree of repeatability so that snacks are packaged the
right way every time.
" In the old days, you'd scale things and if it was close,
it was good. And that's not the way it is anymore, " he
said. " You don't need it close - you need it where it
needs to be set, and then you repeat that every time you
come back to it. "
Josh Becker, product manager, bakery/confection,
Harpak-Ulma, echoed this, observing that increased
product weight control is perhaps the greatest benefit
digital controls provide to a packaging operation.
" Whether it's a snack bar or a mixture of multiple or
single products into a package, understanding how to
best control that package weight to me is one of the most
important factors, " he said.
Jeff Almond, industry manager, snack food packaging,
Heat and Control, said the company aims to reduce
the decisions operators must make on its equipment, as
well as how often they must adjust packaging parameters,
both of which introduce opportunity for error.
" Ishida has optimized the equipment settings for all
the snack products and uses a software algorithm and
optical sensing combination to make further adjustments
as conditions vary from hour to hour or from
shift to shift, " he said.
He added the controls eliminate mistakes such as using
the wrong seasoning, erroneous packaging material
or incorrect code dating.
Digital controls have become more beneficial as
producers struggle with less available labor, especially
skilled labor, to operate their lines, said Bill Kehrli, vice
president of sales and marketing, Cavanna Packaging.
" As the skill sets in bakeries diminish, there is less left
to thought [by using digital controls], " he explained.
Kehrli said Cavanna's machines today are built to bet84
Baking & Snack April 2024 / www.bakingbusiness.com
ter accomodate this lack of skilled labor.
These controls also facilitate predictive maintenance,
said Mukul Shukla, vice president, TNA North America,
helping snack makers identify and resolve issues on the
line before they lead to equipment failure and costly
waste and downtime.
The flexibility of a packaging line may also be improved,
allowing snack producers to make a wider range
of products and more easily introduce new ones.
" With the ability to easily adjust parameters for different
products or packaging sizes, manufacturers can
quickly adapt to market demands or product innovations
without the need for extensive manual reconfigurations, "
Shukla said.
Hitting the sweet spot
For snack makers looking to meet high throughput
demands or quickly change between products, a highspeed,
efficient line is essential. Advancements in packaging
technology are providing manufacturers this
needed boost by minimizing changeover and downtime.
TNA Solutions, for example, recently launched the
" Perfect Pair, " which combines its VFFS robog 3e with
its auto-splice 3. The robag 3e produces a range of products
at up to 250 bags a minute, while the auto-splice
system automatically joins a new film to an expiring film
roll, allowing for uninterrupted packaging.
" Traditional methods required halting production
to manually change film rolls, leading to unnecessary
downtime, " Shukla said.
For an operation running three 7-hour shifts per day
at a speed of 140 bags per minute, Shukla noted the new
system could produce an additional 3.5 million bags annually
and reduce machine downtime by 385 hours.
Christian Romualdi, group marketing communica
http://www.bakingbusiness.com
Baking & Snack - April 2024

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