The packaging industry has now become a multimillion dollar industry, covering all corners of the globe. It has been boosted by various industrial sectors, mainly the food and beverage processing industry. Improved incomes in the traditionally less developed economies have led to better living standards and more consumption of processed rather than the traditional foods. These countries have created emerging markets for packaging equipments as well as need for technologies that will cater for the new demands.
Food Safety Standards
Food safety guidelines have also become stricter by the day, requiring compliance to standards that ensure all food packed is safe and there are no chances of contamination whatsoever. Packaging is a key pillar in the food processing sector these concerns have led to development of advanced features and technologies in packaging machines. There is also renewed effort in developing packaging methods that enhance environmental sustainability and reduce the level on non biodegradable waste in the environment.
Areas of Advancement
There has been focus on various areas of development in the shrink sleeve machine designs to address the modern day needs of most packaging industries. These include
- Advances to achieve increased throughput while maintaining packaging integrity
- Ability of the shrink sleeving and shrink wrapping machines to handle a wide range of package sizes and shapes for higher returns on investments
- Compliance with industry regulations , food safety standards and government regulations
- To enhance ability apply various types of labels for better marketability of products
Modern day manufacturers are also keen on equipment that will be able to handle the future needs of the business which are broad and varied.
Control and Automation
Better controls and automations of packaging equipment such as the use of computer aided manufacturing systems has also been an area of advancements in the modern world packaging machines. This in turn reduces down times associated with machine calibration when there is change over from one product line to another.
Important Features of Packing Machine Advancements
There has been specific improvements seen in equipment developments which include;
Neck shrink sleeve machine
Some of the features include minimal material wastage through the “no bottle ,No sleeve” feature, rotary cutting system that enhances speed , operating accuracy guaranteed by use of servo motors and the programmable logic control system, height adjustments , eye mark sensors and can be easily synchronized with the shrink tunnel machine to create a continuous packaging process.
Tamper Evident Band Applicator
This equipment has been developed with great innovation to provide a complete sealing with innovative features and abilities. Some available models can handle up to 300 bottles per minute enabled by fast sleeve handling system and accurate product detection system that guarantees high efficiency.
Cap Lining Machine
Some of the processes of this machine include gasket filling system, Wad inserting system, cap sorting mechanism for removal of damaged caps and a system for accurate placement and screwing of the caps on the bottle.
Bottom Line
There have been major advancements in the operations of packaging equipments which have been centered on improvement of productivity, efficiency as well as maintaining the required levels of safety and hygiene. Current models are able to handle a wide variety of pack sizes and shapes as well as easy to calibrate and use.