Dispatches from Pack Expo in Las Vegas
Flexibility key for small confectioners, says Bosch
We spoke to Paul Garms, product and marketing manager at Bosch, at the show in Las Vegas last week to talk about his company’s SVI 2600 vertical bagger and Pack 101 flow wrapping machine.
“In the confectionery industry and in other industries, the need for flexible machines is really driving a lot of our developments,” he said.
“Customers want to package their products for one SKU in a pillow bag, maybe with a hole-punch for hanging on shelves, and then for other products they are looking for stand-up presentation where they are looking at a four-corner seal bags or doy style bags.”
He said the stand-up bags were among the most popular pack types for confectioners at present.
VFFS launch
Bosch launched its entry-level vertical form, fill and seal (VFFS) machine SVI 2600 at Pack Expo. The equipment supports pillow bags, gusseted bags and standard block bottom bags and is capable of packing 100 bags a minute.
“It’s a very competitively priced machine. It has a lot of higher end feature that we have leveraged from our high end baggers but put on an entry level bagger,” said Garms.
The machine uses servo-driven cross-sealing units, vacuum belts and Bosch/Beckhoff controls, which are also used on higher end Bosch machines.
The company demonstrated how the unit could pack after dinner mints at the show.
Flow wrapping equipment for SMEs
Another launch Bosch made at Pack Expo was its Pack 101 horizontal flow wrapper meant for smaller confectioners making their first steps towards automation.
“For the smaller customers, they are manufacturing multiple different SKUs with different product size ranges and Pack 101 is designed to handle a broad product size range,” said Garms.
“It’s really a flexible machine, so it’s easy to change over between different product sizes.”
He said a lot of the adjustments to change between products could be done with just the push of a button.
The equipment includes a human machine interface (HMI) touch screen, which Garms claimed made it very easy for workers to learn how to operate.
