The demand for Flow Wrapping solutions is increasing and the RDGMAPE machines lend themselves to a wide range of applications. They offer clear advantages in terms of productivity, versatility, hygiene and product preservation as well as being a valuable marketing tool.
Barry Baldock, Xact Sales Director says, “We are excited to be working with RGDMAPE and the new range strengthens and compliments our current packing and coding solutions. The RGDMAPE Flow Wrapping machines offer concrete solutions to any size company wanting to pack their own products despite having limited resources for investment. The machines are affordable, flexible and easy to use”.
Nicola Merlin, Sales Director at RGDMAPE stated, “There are great opportunities for our Flow Wrapping solutions in the UK market across all industries. Our solutions are the result of over 30 years of innovation and experience and we look forward to working with such an established company as Xact with a vast network and great reputation in the UK”
Directly printing onto corrugated cartons on-demand allows you to reduce your stock of pre-printed cartons and simplify the picking and shipping process. Replacing adhesive labels lowers your cost-per-mark dramatically and also reduces production downtime during ribbon changes. Xact solutions offer large, bold graphics and fonts making your cartons stand out on the shelves of the “warehouse” stores. Real-time date, time, and batch information is crisp and legible taking the guesswork out of traceability. Additionally, the high resolution barcodes rival those of labels in terms of readability.
In this issue, we bring you our latest packaging innovation, the ‘W-Pack’ which is gaining national press coverage. You can read about the brand new Girlabel plugin which we developed based on client feedback, this allows you to increase your ‘use-by and display-until’ flexibility. We also introduce the new PDG-4 machine, which can save over 12 tonnes of fruit a year using the most accurate weighing technology on the market. Plus there is much more!
“Display until” or “Best Before” dates on labels have always been a problem if production planning dictates that you should pack several days ahead of the batch being shipped to the distribution depot, as is the case with many fruit and vegetable pack houses.
This usually causes problems as the old programmes were fairly inflexible with lots of manual modifications to the label design being required to adjust the dates shown on the label. This can often lead to mistakes being made and labels left with the modified dates rather than the original date.
When a label sent to the packing machine asks the operator for the “Depot Day”(the day the product will leave to move to the distribution depot), the offset days are now calculated from the depot date. An added safe guard is that the range of dates can be restricted to stop “Display until”, “Best Before” dates a year in advance, for example.
The modification, which can also allow fruit caliber to be chosen at the time of packing is supplied as a “plugin” (a small additional “add on program” to the current version of Girprint). The label delivery screen shows what will be printed so the operator can check the dates before committing to printing.
The new PDG-4, the most accurate citrus weigher on the market
The PDG-4 is a machine based on its predecessor, the PDG-3, keeping most chassis, mechanical, pneumatic and electrical parts. Visually identical to the PDG3, the difference is in the technology of the machine.
The accuracy of this type of weigher is based on three parameters: precise weighing of the buckets, having a large volume of buckets (to obtain a large number of combinations) and having an advanced algorithm to produce the best accuracy.
The PDG-4 improves 2 of these 3 parameters significantly. The Giro Research and Development team looked to see how they could improve on the already accurate PDG3 machine as part of ongoing development.
The load cells have been replaced (a key element for weighing) with more accurate and faster units. Secondly, the modifications have been made the moving buckets stabilised. To make an analogy, we can have very expensive bathroom scales but if we weigh ourselves when jumping or moving the weight won’t be precise.
New calculation algorithm
Last but not least this is another key element. Once each bucket has been weighted as precisely as possible the ‘brain’ of the machine must decide which combination of buckets is the optimal for achieving the target weight, or find a weight very close if the target weight can’t be achieved.
This machine brain uses much more accurate calculation, a faster processor and a new algorithm that optimises many factors to consider in order to improve speed and precision weighing.
Xact are currently installing several PDG4 machines across the UK and they are already delivering results.
The New W-Pack – Keeping Up With Citrus Packing Trends
Delivering on our promise to extend the life of machines and deliver flexible options to the market place, we have designed the ‘W-Pack’ which can simply be produced with a low cost addition kit to the ‘UB Girbagger’ range of machines.
The ‘W Pack’ can be used for a whole variety of fresh produce up to 1kg such as citrus, apples, onions, potatoes and sprouts. The format allows your product to stand up or lay flat and gloss, matt or transparent films can be designed for maximum effect. Although there is a large printable area, the W Pack still provides good airflow around the products. The size and shape of the window may vary depending on the graphics of the film and the designer’s creativity. Handle options make this one of the most innovative fresh produce packs currently on the market.
The website brings together information on both packing and coding ranges and is divided into 6 sections reflecting the main areas of the business: Checkweighers, Labelling, Thermal Transfer, Inkjet Coding & Marking, Strapping and Prepack. Each area follows a ‘step-by-step’ format.
Large coloured tabs, clearer headings, shorter routes to product pages and industry specific information all contribute to a more user-friendly experience.
Further enhancements include easy access to video footage, downloadable files and quick links to solutions which are most relevant to the browser’s industries.
This development coincides with Xact’s growth of their coding and marking range into new markets, such as FMCG and food. Xact equipment, consumables and services has always been of premium quality and the new site reflects this.
Thanks to the use of knitted net as the basic element, Giró’s packaging systems are highly sustainable, up to ten times more sustainable than other packaging systems.
The format allows your product to stand up or lay flat and gloss, matt or transparent films can be designed for maximum effect. The window area can be shaped however you like!
Although our picture shows oranges, the W Pack can be used for a whole variety of fresh produce such as citrus, apples, onions, potatoes and sprouts.
Its modern, compact design includes 7″ touch screen which allows fields to be easily added or removed from each message.
Messages are simply created on a PC and loaded via USB.
Some key benefits:
Very little maintenance – patented long life mechanical design and free ribbon feeding system ensure ribbon flows smoothly even in high volume operations
Extremely clear impression every time – 300dpi print head for barcodes, logos and text
Flexible ribbon economy mode – for intermittent or continuous use
