Tray Sealing Flexibility – At Your Convenience
Accordingly to heat sealing specialists Proseal, a combination of new product development and competition in the convenience foods market puts pressure on machinery suppliers to provide solutions that maximise speed and efficiencies while maintaining product quality. The introduction of many different products and pack formats is also leading to shorter production runs.
As Tony Burgess, Proseal’s Head of Sales and Control Systems, explains: “For tray sealing, as well as the different shapes and designs of trays, we are also seeing a wide variety of sealing requirements in addition to traditional atmospheric sealing, including Gas Flush, Hermetic Shrink, Vacuum, Skin Pack, Skin Plus and Skin Deep.
“Nevertheless, one certainty in fast-developing markets is that pack requirements can change very quickly. That is why an element of future-proofing is vital in the development of new tray sealers, so that food manufacturers have the reassurance of knowing that they will have the capability to cope with the latest packing trend without the need to invest in new kit every time.”
Proseal’s Latest GTe Models
Proseal’s latest GTe models are able to handle all of the above-mentioned sealing formats and these options can be added at any time. In addition, as the company develops new features in line with customer requirements, it ensures that these can also be retrofitted to models already out on the production floor.
The GTe range combines innovative E-seal® electric sealing technology with the many proven functional and reliability benefits of Proseal equipment.
E-seal® provides an energy efficient system that delivers a high-precision seal with an extremely strong sealing force, ensuring every seal has the tightness and reliability to meet the stringent quality requirements of the retail sector.
The technology achieves an increase of seal force of 260%, while only consuming 8% of the air of a machine fitted with an equivalent standard pneumatic cylinder to deliver major energy and cost savings. E-seal® also increases machine productivity through shorter seal times, reduces gas flush cycle times and ensures accurate gas flush positioning for enhanced MAP packing. The retention of some pneumatic functions means the machines offer additional benefits such as date coding of pre-printed film.
Pro-Motion System
Proseal’s Pro-Motion system uses following motion and intelligent buffering technology to enable trays to feed continuously into the sealer without having to pre-sort and adjust pack spacing. This delivers an increase from 15 cycles to 20 cycles per minute, equivalent to an additional 30 packs per minute with a six impression tool. Product handling is improved with fewer lines stoppages due to misplaced trays.
The overall performance of the line can be analysed using Proseal’s unique Pro-Vision data collection system, which records any stoppages and provides an accumulated set of data for each connected piece of equipment. This helps production managers and engineers identify recurring problems and develop suitable corrective action.
Another advanced feature is the Pro-Tect user login security system, which provides different levels of authorisation access for individual personnel.
World First
The Proseal GTe range includes the world’s first semi-automatic tray sealer for skin deep packs, ideal for smaller scale enterprises that do not require a fully automatic in-line tray sealer, with compact dimensions that mean it can fit into the smallest of factory spaces.
Unlike traditional manual machines where the operator has to wait for each tray to be sealed, the rotary operation of the GTR-e allows a new tray to be loaded while the previous one is being sealed, delivering higher speeds and efficiencies.
A GTR-e has been installed at Rhug Estate, an award-winning organic farm in Denbighshire, Wales, where cutting plant manager, Gary Jones comments: “We needed a tray sealing machine that would ensure our high quality meat was both presented and protected effectively, in order to reach our customers in premium condition.
“With limited space available in our packing operation, we approached Proseal to help us come up with an appropriate solution. The GTR-e meets our requirements, and we have been delighted with the high standard of service from Proseal and the reliability and efficiency of the machine.”
