Automate Your Production: Several Packaging Equipment Suitable to Connect your Multivac Thermoformer
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Multivac is fundamentally the synonym for thermoforming machine and is the prevailing packaging equipment used for all sub-sections of the food industry from fresh-prepared meals to frozen food, meat, and dairy products like cheese, forming various packaging from simply PE trays with plastic sealing lids as Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP), or creating tight and vacuum sealing of skin pack for products like fresh steak and fish.
Roll-fed thermoforming machine R-085
Credit: Multivac
Having at your disposal a Multivac thermoformer could be sufficient to save your packaging and labour costs with your primary packaging processes, however, a food production and processing company would have to constantly seek further implementation of automated processes when the business scale escalates in order to achieve controlled and reduced average costs per unit of packaging along with increased productivity.
To provide professional advice, we would like to extend a study into those complementary packaging processes a food processing and production company may need following their primary packaging of thermoforming and sealing, and then the corresponding packaging equipment needed to incorporate with their existing packaging equipment – here the Multivac thermoformer.
What are Thermoformers and their applications?
A thermoformer machine is used in packaging and manufacturing sectors to shape plastic sheets into containers of specific forms with applications of heat and pressure, usually with also a mould to trim and create the containers like trays, cups, blisters, clamshells, etc.
The hygienic and quality of the above-mentioned primary packaging formed by thermoformers is notably used in especially food industry and applied for fresh products like meat, vegetables, margarine, cheese, butter, and so forth, fundamentally for the reasons that thermoforming packaging either with a modified atmosphere or vacuum skin pack is ideal to avoid the spoilage of these products that are caused by bacterial growth or oxidation which will affect the packaging’s preservation and freshness.
Examples of Thermoformed Trays
Credit: ELITER Packaging Machinery
What are the Complementary Packaging Processes Following Thermoforming and Equipment for Automation?
Extending the shelf life of fresh products with thermoformed packaging is just the preliminary step in the overall landscape of consumer packaged food products.
In an integrated packaging end-of-line such as that for ready meals, there are still a series of packaging processes following the thermoforming machine. They are either for the purpose of providing an additional layer of protection, a surface for information display and marketing, as well as for regulatory compliance.
Plastic Lid Sealing and Tray Sealer Machines
Sealing takes place after a vacuum or modified atmosphere process of inserting gas such as nitrogen combined with an antimicrobial active gas, such as carbon dioxide. [1]
The filled food trays undergo the sealing process, where a film is adhered to the rim of the tray. In heat sealing, the film is heated to activate its adhesive properties before it is securely attached to the tray’s brim. The sealed tray then cools down, firmly cementing the film onto it.
A tray sealer is usually a machine that directly follows the discharge end of a thermoformer to seal the trays filled with food or vegetables or other ingredients, while in some cases the sealing function is optionally integrated into the thermformer that makes the tray sealer no longer necessary as separate packaging equipment.
ULMA TSA 1200 XL Traysealer
Credit: ULMA
Tray sealers are considered just as the thermoformer as primary packaging equipment now that they come in direct contact with the food ingredients contained in the trays, for which reasons they are supposed to be applied with robust construction, hygienic and easy for cleaning, and low maintenance design.
Labeling Machines
Labelling plays a role here rather than providing protection but is an essential step for compliance with applicable regulations imposed by food and drug administration organizations worldwide.
Labels are considered an indispensable medium for the communication of vital information to customers including ingredient lists, allergen information, nutritional lists, barcodes, QR codes, or RFID, which enable the efficient tracking and tracing of the product throughout the supply chain.
Compared with the traditional method of pre-printed labels and applying them with an old-fashioned labelling machine, companies who seek a higher standard of compliance may adopt an online printing labeller which is designed to print information in real-time and apply the labels onto the product immediately after, leaving the packaging with barcodes, QR codes, production dates, batch numbers, expiry dates, and other variable data created strictly according to the timing they are produced from the packaging end-of-line.
Cartoners
Cartoners are also optional equipment to be integrated with a thermoformer. Unlike any cartoners in a general case of applications, cartoners following a thermoformer does not necessarily be packaging machines that simply load those sealed thermoformed packaging into a carton box, however, they can be specifically designed to accommodate versatile packaging styles and forms such as retail-ready packaging, cartoning packaging from unglued flat blanks, sleeve carton wrap-around packaging, or pre-glued sleeve packaging.
In the food industry, a fully-servo driven cartoning machine would outstrip an old-fashioned mechanically driven one in terms of hygiene and ease of cleaning. Now that the servo technology can simplify the kinematics and mechanical linkages between each mechanism, and set them separate from each other but still synchronized and orchestrated by sophisticated programming. The result is reduced number of mechanical parts, easier works for maintenance, improved access and improved cleaning and hygiene.
Gran Sonata is an Ideal Option of Cartoner to Connect your Thermofomer
Credit: ELITER Packaging Machinery
Case Packers
Thermoformed packaging of fresh products is vulnerable to external factors like volatile temperatures and contaminations so they are usually directly distributed to local or regional groceries for sale to consumers. Despite the common concerns with tertiary packaging for all products that the rigid case packing with corrugated box should provide solid protection for the products within, case packing the thermformed packaging products is preferred to be with more flexibility and unique characteristics that allow specific designs to improve the visual appeal.
