More flexibility, less downtime

Related tags Soft drink

Contract packer Thomas Hardy Brewing and Packaging, which packs beers, ciders and soft drinks, as well as offering brewing, blending and contract filling for many leading household brands, has upgraded its end-of-line facilities to provide customers with increased flexibility of options.

Company director Peter Armstrong says: “Many of our customers were asking us for new packaging solutions and so we have been upgrading the wet end of the line here at Kendal for some time. The original Dimac shrinkwrapper supplied by Aetna UK had packed over 50M cases for us and had been a brilliant machine but was now ready for an upgrade.”

The project was in two parts. The first was to provide a solution for replacing the old shrink tunnel but it added the option of providing registered or printed film for trays or pads. The second phase was to replace the tray erector and wraparound packer within the line's existing format. This included linking in a direct feed from its existing Mead Clusterpak machine.

The improved mechanisms on the Prasmatic TC 500 and Dimac Greenstar F installed by Aetna have helped to improve changeovers and cut downtime. The Prasmatic TC 500 can accommodate pack sizes as small as six x 275ml bottles, while handling 45 packs a minute.

Contact: Aetna Group UK