Current trends in the sector include the continuing popularity of healthy snacks along with the introduction of diverse food flavours, functional foods and on-the-go snacks. These are being accompanied by ongoing developments in sustainable packaging and a greater range of pack sizes and formats to satisfy consumer demands. 

At the same time, snacks manufacturers are facing challenges such as energy costs, skilled labour shortages and supply chain issues.

The Ishida Inspira Boxmotion can help address these challenges while offering companies exceptional levels of flexibility and future proofing to meet changing customer needs while reducing costs and ensuring errorfree production. 

The Inspira Boxmotion handles a variety of pack formats, including pillow, side gusset, block bottom, chain packs and flat bottom bags, and its continuous motion capability can achieve speeds of up to 160 packs per minute. A variety of optional automated features, including film centring, film management and air-fill technology, help deliver consistent pack quality.

At Snackex, the Inspira Boxmotion bagmaker is being demonstrated with its Auto-Splice module which automatically heat-seals separate film reels together to deliver continuous production. In less than 20 seconds the Autosplice ensures a safer and quicker film reel replacement, minimising downtime, product and film waste and reducing errors caused by operator set up.

Designed for easy handling, all essential mechanical parts are accessible for faster cleaning and maintenance whilst the intuitive 15.3” HMI screen provides user friendly operation and machine diagnostics.

To meet the challenge of rising energy costs the Boxmotion bagmaker uses 17% less energy during operation and 25% less on standby compared with previous models, while noise levels are less than 80dBA, even at 160 packs per minute.

The Ishida TSC-AS inline sealtester offers high precision seal integrity testing at speeds of up to 150 packs per minute. It combines high accuracy leak detection with gentle bag handling to offer manufacturers excellent quality control to meet the stringent standards of the retail sector.

The sealtester measures the air pressure and fill level of every pack directly from the bagmaker. It can detect apertures as small as 3mm, using inline, non-destructive testing, checking each pack for leaks, incorrect inflation and double packs. Its small footprint allows quick and simple installation and enables it to fit easily into existing lines.

As part of an integrated Ishida packing line, the TSC-AS can link both upstream and downstream to the Ishida bagmaker and casepacker. It measures and feeds back air-fill data directly to the bagmaker, allowing automatic adjustment of the jaws to maintain a constant pack thickness. Downstream air-fill data to the case packer enables adjustments to be made to prevent packs being mis-fed and ensure the correct number in each case.

Among several new features, the seal tester’s advanced HMI touch screen has been designed to resemble a smartphone for easy and intuitive operation. As well as enabling rapid set-up and changeovers, the HMI also provides a wealth of real time production data, alerting operators to potential issues so that they can take immediate action. This helps to minimise waste and unscheduled downtime.

About Ishida: 

Ishida provides end-to-end packaging automation solutions for the food industry and is a leader in weighing, food safety and packaging technology.