Gastro Star produces 30t of fresh products every day, ranging from vegetables and salads to fruit. Its new line produces 200g and 250g packs and includes tray denesting, multihead weighing, tray sealing, labelling, seal testing, vision system, X-ray inspection, checkweighing and packing into crates.

The design enables crates of prepared leaves, which have been cut to size and washed, to be run via an elevator above the multihead weigher, where the salad is tipped into an infeed system.

The tray sealer at the heart of the line is an Ishida QX-1100. It handles four trays at a time, flushing them with an atmosphere of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide, and delivering a neat, economical seal with no protruding edges.

At the end of the line, the Ishida pick-and-place system not only automates what used to be the most labour-intensive part of the line, but does it at high speed and with far greater flexibility by picking out individual packs rather than pre-determined lots or layers.

Contact: Ishida Europe

Tel: 0121 607 7700