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Packaging Flexibility in the Baking and Snack Food Industry

Joel Wiskochil
Great Lakes Regional Sales Manager
BluePrint Automation (BPA)

Why should a baker or snack producer consider flexibility when upgrading or adding a new line in their plant?

Today’s retail and club store requirements as well as our customer’s expanding product diversity necessitate the need for maximum flexibility with quick, seamless changeovers between production runs.  Quick, simple, tool-less changeovers allow our customers to maximize the usage of their BPA Case Packers to pack a wide range of product sizes and case styles within the available production schedule.

How can this flexibility help increase efficiencies?

Flexible, simple and tool-less change-over optimizes availability within the OEE equation.  This reduces the time required in between production runs as well as increases each line’s capacity to run a wide range of product sizes and case styles on each packaging line.

What are some challenges with running very small package sizes?

Smaller packages can now be run on higher speed baggers necessitating the need for faster, more flexible case packers.  Also, smaller products can be hard to handle due to their light weights.  Positive product handling throughout the packaging process allows you to maintain reliable control of the packages resulting in increased case packer up-time.

What are some challenges with running large family pack bags?

Larger packages may require a larger machine footprint.  The baking and snack industry have a need for maximum flexibility and should look for a partner that can provide a wide range of dimensional and payload capacities. This will allow the plant to switch from small products to large products quickly and efficiently, all in one compact machine.

Does your equipment make it possible to do both large and small formats on the same line?

BPA’s Spider 200i Snacks Case Packer not only handles small and large bags it also packs them into either RSC or Re-Usable corrugate cases which is an industry leading technology. Flexible, high-speed, high payload technology utilizing servo driven functionality and 40 years of experience in the baking and snack industry allows BPA to truly understand what the industry needs and how to help.

BPA has historically created a partnership with our customers so that we can best understand their production and flexibility requirements. We design our machines to allow for maximum product size diversity, efficient and easy changeovers and ease of operation.  This allows our customer’s the ability to run large products as easily and efficiently as they run smaller products.  For instance, our Spider 200i Case Packer can achieve speeds up to 140 one-ounce bags/min as well as up to 60 bags/min for larger sixteen oz bags.

Is your equipment able to match bagger speeds, avoiding bottlenecks?

BPA has historically provided one of the industry’s most efficient means of handling high speed packaging in the bakery and snack food industries.  Implementation of delta robots, high-speed servo-drives and optimization of machine movements allow BPA to push the limits of our customer’s requirements. Our Spider 200i Case Packer can achieve speeds up to 140 one-ounce bags/min as well as up to 60 bags/min for larger sixteen oz bags.  Our Delta Robot solutions can achieve speeds up to 130 products/min.

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