This year’s PPMA show was another impressive arena of sparkling stainless steel and powerful machines of all shapes and sizes, with visitors seeming to relish the array of equipment on display.
Spanning four halls, the event is a platform providing a meeting and exhibition opportunity for people all across the machinery and equipment sector, allowing them a point of contact with new clients, as well as keeping all members of the industry up to speed with new innovations and designs in produce machinery manufacturing.
Many of the exhibitions came from companies familiar to the show, but as the show’s exhibition director Barbara Jackson explains, with 10 per cent of exhibitors taking part for the first time, both the turnout of exhibitors and visitors was extremely positive for the industry: “We are very pleased with the way it’s gone. We’ve had a good solid turnout, which is very encouraging because it is a challenging environment at the moment. Manufacturing in the UK has lost a lot of people over the last few years. It’s a good signal and it’s a comprehensive and representative event for the industry,” she says: Many of the exhibitors were representatives from overseas principals, so the amount of companies could be as many as three times that.
Talking about the number of people who attended this year’s event compared with last year, Jackson is equally upbeat: “it’s holding steady,” she explains: “with the decline in number of people in manufacturing, it had a good attendance, and our exhibitors are all very pleased.”
Many of the fresh produce exhibitors used the opportunity to showcase new aditions to their machinery ranges including Bizerba which was marketing its new GLM-I V 100 1T - a fully automatic weigh price labeller with a belt system designed for weighing and labelling of awkwardly-shaped products. It also showcased its complete line solution for weigh labelling produce, made up of a variety of different mechanical stages, including a robotic arm from Abar automation.
The GSH Holdings group had a stand promoting products from its three component groups, the Infia UK, Verti-Pack and the newly acquired Easiweigh. One of the most impressive on show was the Verti-pack Sorma P14, a linear multi-head weighing system that handles a wide range of fresh produce, operating at speeds of up to 90 packs a minute.
Machinery manufacturer, Multipond was also in attendance, and was excited about its new LW 1201-B Lift Weigher - a system designed to allow manufacturers the ability to remove a multihead weigher from the production line and lower it for cleaning, as opposed to simply mounting it on a mobile lift frame
And Ishida a designer, manufacturer and installer of automated weighing, packing and labelling handling systems for the food industry showed off its CCW-R multihead weigher range using state of the art electronic control systems and aiming to achieve 100 per cent weighing efficiency.
This year also saw the inclusion of a new sector in the show - the packaging innovation show, which Jackson says, generated an extra channel of visitors: “The packaging innovations exhibition next door added a lot of interest and probably benefited many of our exhibitors,” she says.
Presenting their range of pallet wrapping and handling solutions at the show and their new semi-automatic wrapping machine the LP300, Orion were especially pleased with this year’s turnout. Managing director Walter Williams thinks the event will have a good effect on business this year: “The show went very well and all our sales people thought that it was a very good show and that the quality of enquiries was excellent - it was definitely one of the best we have done. It was also nice to run into some of my old colleagues,” he says. Colleague Ken Weaver, area sales manager, agreed: “I really enjoyed the show,” he says: “It was definitely up to standard from the point for view of the leads we were getting - they were very good.”
John Dryland was selling numerous products as part of GSH’s exhibiton, including the Easiweigh and Verti-pack ranges. He says he think numbers were down on previous years, both visitors and exhibitors, but explains that the quality of the show meant they had a comparatively lucrative show: “It was extremely profitable,” he says. We did very well overall. It was a bit small, but we did more business than last year, on the Easiweigh side, we sold quite a few machines off the stand with a lot interest in the P14,” he says.
The Steve Quilt, sales manager at Ishida agrees: “The quality of the customers was exceptional this year, he says: “The volume was a bit low, but the guys that did come had a genuine interest and money to spend. Day one was particularly quiet but days two and three were absolutely excellent. We had some really good enquiries. It always surprises us, you think you know all the clients and something like this brings even more along. Shows like this one are great for finding those small producers who are just starting out.”
Despite the challenging situation facing the manufacturing industry, it appears that the PPMA show was an overall success, with members of the fresh produce machinery industry united in saying that the event generated interest in new lines and even boosted sales by providing an opportunity for prospective clients to see the machines in action, But Jackson says organisers won’t become complacent, and are always looking to improve the experience for everybody involved: “With our new chief executive of the PPMA, we are discussing all sorts of ideas and strategies for next year,” she says: “We never stand still with the exhibition, we build on it.”
FASTFILL SPEEDS UP
Packaging Automation Ltd, manufacturer of tray sealing and filling equipment in the UK, launched the latest addition to its range at this years’ PPMA show - the Fastfill 40.
The Fastfill 40 is a pot-filling and heat-sealing device and is targeted at producers within the convenience food sector.
The maker says the Fastfill range is capable of a production speed of 33 packs per minute and is manufactured in stainless steel with easy-to-remove parts to maintain good hygiene levels.
The machine can accommodate different pot sizes and will seal pre-cut lids as well as film. It also can be used with both dry and liquid products and is available to hire.
Also on display was the Fastfill 60, a model incorporating an advanced control system with programmable recipe control, self-diagnostics, and real time adjustment of all operating parameters including fill weights, seal time and film feed.
“The launch of the Fastfill 40 is an exciting development and we’re confident it will be of interest to many within the food industry. We look forward to welcoming visitors to our stand to find out more about it and the other machines on offer,” says Sam Ashton, Packaging Automation’s commercial manager.
SORMA HAS A STORMER
Fresh produce packaging solution company Verti-pack, part of the GSH group, presented their new high-speed weigher, the Sorma P14.
Offering faster, smoother and more cost-effective packaging and constructed in stainless steel, the P14 is fully automatic and can operate at speeds of up to 90 packs a minutes. Featuring touch screen control, it also has the ability to discharge products in four separate packaging systems simultaneously and can produce two different pack weights at the same time.
Since its launch nearly four months ago, Verti-pack have sold six P14s in the UK, with the first machine selling within two months of it becoming available.
“We are the only ones doing this at the moment,” says John Dryland, sales manager of GSH’s fresh produce division: “It’s great if you want to run two weights at the same time and don’t want to lose any speed - no one else can do that on the market. Also, with 28 scales it can give you better efficiency and accuracy,” he says.
BIZERBA BUILDS ITS PLATFORM
Foodservice technology company Bizerba UK Ltd, based in Hemel Hempstead, used the PPMA show as a platform to launch its new model for weigh labelling fresh produce.
The Bizerba Complete Line solution, is made up of a succession of components; produce first passes through the GLM-I 150 2T - a fully automatic weigh price labelling system with multi head configuration capable of weigh labelling up to 150 packs per minute, and is then automatically weighed and a label printed and applied using a Bizerba air jet or rotary applicator. The vision system checks each pack for correct label details and label positioning and the robotic handling unit (pictured below), produced by Abar Automation, collates and places packs in the crate according to its required configuration. In the final stage, the required outer case label is automatically applied to the crate. This unit is networked to a GLM-I weigh labeller and all product details are synchronised to provide accumulated weight data for each crate.
“It’s a complete line solution for customers to really maximise productivity and minimise line costs,” says product manager, David Bell.
“They have experts in robotically handling packs and crates and robotically palatising and that combined with Bizerba’s world-renowned expertise in areas of weighing labelling and also vision systems means that customers can confidently source complete line solutions from one supplier,” he says.
ORION REACHES FOR THE STARS
Packaging machinery manufacturer, Orion, unveiled the latest product from its pallet wrapping range - the new semi-automatic LP300.
One of only two packing machinery manufacturers in the UK, Orion used the PPMA to debut the new model and says it is confident that it will sell well, filling a vital gap in the market for an affordable wrapping machine for the smaller business. The LP300 offers full manual control over the pallet wrapping cycle and is designed for customers with a lower throughput.
Other models in the range are over twice the price and are fully automatic, which makers say is less versatile for companies with low usage: “Using pre-stretched film is designed to give greater load stability without high capital costs that you would have to spend on a power pre-stretch machine. The machine is robust and reliable and it’s more flexible with more control and its economically priced,” says Ann Williams, marketing manager.
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