ULMA Packaging UK has supplied its packaging machinery to Southern England Farms to provide an efficient packaging alternative that would boost productivity.
Its Sienna Hi-Tech LSBI flow wrapper and shrink tunnel, along with a cross-sealing jaw station, has increased the farms packaging capacity.
Southern England Farms rely on its machines to wrap its broccoli and courgettes to suit customers prepack specifications.
The machine is controlled by a motion control system that synchronises the movements of the main axes through the UPC7G industrial PC control, resulting in higher packaging speeds.
Mark MacBean, ULMA’s Business Manager - Machine Sales says the ‘No Product – No Bag’ function ensures that when a lack of produce is detected at the in-feed conveyor, the machine will stop waiting for the broccoli or courgettes to arrive and will instead start the conveyor to bring the next load of produce to the machine, improving the packaging efficiency.
While the ‘Misplaced product safety’ function checks for misplaced veg at the cross-sealing jaws and prevents the jaws from closing on the product, preventing the creation of a double pack.
Gordon Stokes, Head of Farming at Southern England Farms, said: “Since making the move to the Sienna we have increased our production from 50 packs per minute to 80. With the help of ULMA, we have managed to speed-up the packaging process and expand our output, allowing us to keep up with business growth in the fresh produce sector.”