Fast and efficient film wrapping

The side-sealed horizontal wrapping machine and PVC film helped the contract packager ARI thrive, by continuing to meet the customer's new secondary packaging needs, including many of the country's largest consumer product companies.

ARI's full name is Advertising Resources, Inc., which was established in September 2000. It had only 40,000 square meters of open storage, three conveyors, a semi-automatic L-bar sealer, a hot air duct and a forklift. Since the beginning, ARI’s focus has been on assembling POS (Point of Sale Terminal) displays, hence the name Advertising Resources, Inc. However, its contract packaging business continues to grow. In December 2002, ARI moved to a 266,000 square meter facility in Alsip, Illinois. The plant is equipped with seven horizontal shrink wrappers with hot air ducts, two cardboard packaging machines, and multiple hand-packed job conveyors. ARI President Richard Ehrie said, “These devices run two shifts per day and run 5-7 times a week. day."

At the Alsip plant, up to 1,500 pallets are taken from 24 stations per day, usually delivered by the customer's truck. The company employs 20 full-time employees and 115-120 temporary employees.

Ehrie believes that "strategic alliances" with customers and suppliers help them operate successfully. Three major suppliers include the Arpac Group, which supplies five wrapping machines; Xpedx, International
Paper (International Paper) packaging distributors have purchased machines and materials; and Alcoa Flexible Packaging, whose primary role is to provide polyvinyl films for wrapping machines.

Local resources are extremely important

Since the start of business, ARI has purchased 4 TS37 Great Lakes side-sealing horizontal baling machines from Arpac. “We visited various equipment exhibited at the Chicago Packaging Show (Pack Expo),” recalls Ehrie. “In the factory, we 'rented' equipment from other suppliers and compared the machines. Finally, we liked Arpac.
Many features of the device. ”

This device allows us to reposition the reciprocating transverse seal system from a vertical position to a horizontal position to suit different package heights. This can be done in 15 minutes. All you need to do is remove the four screws and the two quick-connect handles, turn the system, and then back to the fit. Transverse sealing systems are used for vertical position packaging of packages with a height greater than the width. "This is a significant advantage TS37 has," Ehrie said.

“We also like the way the equipment transfers packaging from the input area into the machine,” he added. “This kind of equipment is fast and efficient. We also know that if we need parts, Arpac only 10 miles away. We like the local resources it provides, just like Xpedx and Alcoa.”

How it works

ARI has received stretch parcel trays from which many well-known manufacturers have packaged products. The incoming trays are placed on one side of the factory area where they are packaged. The out tray is on the other side. ARI generally uses several types of packaging at the same time as each customer's instructions. Many of these packages are sold in wholesale club shops and large trading companies. "Our 60% growth comes from this," Ehrie said.

Workers unpacked and packed the cartons, bottles, or bags onto the fast-moving conveyors of the continuously running TS37. Optoelectronic eyes are detected and packaged when incoming goods are transported into the film. A slidable film holder is extremely easy to load into the film roll. The single-wound film passes through the dancer roller and rises from a spreader mounted on a shelf above the floor to the TS37's proprietary film forming machine. The forming machine folds the film to form a tube. The edges of the film are sealed on the sides by radiant heat, so no mechanical parts touch the film.

At the next station, the transverse seal system reciprocates as the product is delivered into the film. The sealing mechanism uses a heated knife seal and cuts between the packages on the conveyor. This action also seals the trailing edge of the first package and the front of the next multiple package. At the same time, the front package is delivered to the inside of the MPD 122260 heat shrink tunnel.

At the unloading end of the hot air duct, the workers stacked the packaging on display boxes, trays or shipping boxes according to the customer's instructions. The customer specified secondary packaging materials used at ARI. These cartons or trays are then manually placed on the pallets, which are then shovelled by a forklift to an automatic stretch wrapper near the shipping area.

Running time and conversion are key

Ehrie said that the shrink wrapper can pack 80 bags per minute. However, the combined package is usually 30-60 pieces per minute. “We are very pressureful on the equipment and have been working hard with our partners to take preventive maintenance plans,” he said. "The cost of downtime is too high for us to bear. If downtime, it will be far behind the deadline. The customer's requirements are getting higher and higher, but the turnaround time is getting shorter and shorter."

With so many different packaging configurations and scales to satisfy customer orders, it's no wonder that Ehrie said: "Fast conversion is one of the most critical aspects of our business. The company is engaged in 5 to 10 jobs at any given time, so We are constantly making changes, either changing the manual packaging conveyor or changing the equipment. Our flexibility must be quite high, which is why the Arpac machines are so important to us." For different packages, the TS37 does not require the use of multiple forming heads. Changes can be made within minutes without tools.

Switch to PVC film has a lot of advantages

Until November, ARI was still using three layers of polyolefin co-extruded film as its shrink film on a horizontal wrapping machine. When Alcoa switched to using PVC film, Ehrie had doubts. "PVC has many well-known shortcomings, and we really can't get excited." He admits, "However, by evaluating it, I found that the use of PVC film also has many obvious advantages, including transparency.

The sealing and heat-shrinking temperatures for PVC are between 154°C and 160°C, while the polyolefin is around 200°C. Therefore, he said, “Using PVC means that you can use less energy and also help extend the life of your equipment. Imagine a hot air duct working at 200°C for 16-20 hours a day and working 7 days a week. How large is the load?

“When we wrap through a hot-air duct with a polyolefin film,” he continued, “especially for irregular packaging shapes or large multipacks, polyolefin films sometimes clump together and form folds. Wrap, because the film expands before shrinking into the package.When heat is applied to the polyolefin film, sometimes the heat load on the sealing port is too large.Compared with PVC, the temperature is lower and the opportunity for re-wrapping is even better. With less, material and labor costs are saved.” Ehrie explained that the transverse sealing and heat shrinkage temperatures are usually 10° or less. "It depends on the residence time and several other factors."

So far, ARI is extremely satisfied with PVC film and horizontal wrappers. "Using the new film, our repetitive wrapping rate dropped by 2-3%," Ehrie said. "When you add these materials and labor costs to millions of products, these savings are significant." Compared to the table wrapping machine, ARI can also reduce the width of the film used due to the TS37's side sealing process. “Ehrie once again emphasized that although there are only 5cm differences, adding up this length is another reason why we use the Arpac machine.”

How long will it take to recover the investment in such equipment? "It depends on the work and quantity," Ehrie said. "The quantity is quite critical, because the more you produce using this machine, the more management costs you will spread over more products. This will enable you to be competitive in cost, which is for our business. It is extremely important."