At this year’s PACK EXPO in Las Vegas, Proseal showcased its tray sealing equipment that answers the increased focus on sustainable packaging.
Models on display ranged from the semi-automatic Proseal GTR, ideal for smaller-scale enterprises and new product development, to the high-speed, fully automatic Proseal GT6e with a maximum speed of 96 Vacuum-Gas packs per minute or 160 Atmospheric Seal packs per minute on an 8-impression tool.
Proseal says that the increasing focus on more sustainable packaging is fuelling growing demand from both retailers and consumers for more environmentally friendly solutions, and this has led many food producers to explore alternative packaging materials.
During the show, Proseal demonstrated the Halopack tray, the first fully hermetic cardboard MAP packaging, according to the company. Halopack trays are produced on the Proseal SKR machine and the board base material is made from more than 90% recycled cardboard. Halopack incorporates high barrier properties that maintain product quality and, with the right conditions, can extend shelf-life.
Proseal also highlighted its ability to handle and seal lightweight plastic trays, enabling businesses to achieve the benefits of food protection and reduced food waste, while reducing the amount of plastic by up to 42%.
In addition, the company demonstrated a variety of different pack sealing formats, including a new skin packaging technology, Skin2™, which increases cycle speeds over existing skin processes while reducing unit and equipment costs.
Proseal’s flexible ‘e’ range of tray sealing machines can handle every format of tray sealing, with the ability to introduce or remove these features at any time. This gives food producers the flexibility to easily switch between packaging formats during normal production.
The company’s commitment to sustainable solutions was also be underlined through its Eseal®technology that features on all its automatic tray sealers on display. This delivers ideal seal reliability to meet the stringent quality requirements of the food retail sector while achieving a 92% reduction in energy usage.
Furthermore, Proseal exhibited its advanced OC Conveyor feeding a Proseal GT1e machine to illustrate the production efficiencies of an integrated conveyor and tray sealer solution, and the LC1 Lid-clipping machine. The LC1 is a fully automatic, in-line lid-placing, denesting, and tamping system (patent pending), designed to cut labor costs while using recyclable packaging. It can accept trays from any conveyors; clip lids onto film-sealed trays; and take trays directly from a filling conveyor when no film lid is required. Through the use of these features to avoid any loading errors, the LC1 system can be fully integrated with any other in-line equipment including upstream tray-sealing machines.
