Marden Edwards Journal

Imperial Tobacco in Nottingham has not only improved the integrity and security of transit packs holding either 3,000 or 5,000 cigarettes but is also saving space on shipping pallets thanks to the installation of several PSB1000 collating and stretchwrapping machines supplied by Marden Edwards Ltd.

The PSB1000 uses twin reels of polyethylene film which is stretched around the collation, forming a very tight band and drawing the packs tightly together. This systems produces a stable and uniform bundle before the seal is made and the film cut.

The machines at Imperial Tobacco are being used to collate and wrap overwrapped packs holding 100 cigarettes and they have the capability to handle these packs at speeds up 100 a minute. They are grouped into collations 5 packs wide by 5 packs deep and 2 packs high, measuring 600mm by 300mm 200mm overall and wrapped using film which can be up to one metre wide.

Once the collation has been wrapped, focused heat guns are used to shrink the overlapping film onto the sides of the collation, fully enclosing the bundle. This prevents the ingress of dirt or dust and makes it difficult for anyone to remove an individual pack without cutting or tearing the film, so providing a high degree of tamper evidence.

This system provides considerable cost advantages over casepacking when the price of polyethylene film is compared to corrugated cases and the resulting transit pack takes up less space than either the casepacked or shrinkwrapped equivalent.

A major UK logistics company has recently purchased and installed another Marden Edwards B125LH8 collator overwrapper.

It is becoming more common for logistics companies to act as contract packers for tobacco brand owners for small run and promotional batches.  Rather than disrupt high speed production lines in the main manufacturing plant, companies can contract out the packaging of different pack formats.

Because it is not possible to predict the variety of formats that might be required, it was very important for the logistics company to purchase a machine that can package many different formats of pack.  The B125LH8 collator wrapper is capable of producing anything from a two pack sales unit of cigarettes up to a five wide by four high 400’s distribution pack.

The B125LH8 can be equipped with a print registration system, as seen in the video.  This allows expensive carton outers to be replaced with printed, opaque film which provides an excellent presentation and a much reduced cost.  This concept is further discussed in the “Reducing the cost of cigarette packing” article.  Marden Edwards produces a complete range of overwrappers for the tobacco industry ranging from medium speed individual pack wrappers up to high speed collating and wrapping systems.

Marden Edwards has recently manufactured a large format S4B225FF overwrapping machine for wrapping very large cartons of chocolate selections. The largest box being overwrapped is 460mm long and 320mm wide whilst the smallest carton that the machine is wrapping is only 100mm long and 100mm wide.

Although the size range being wrapped is very large, the time taken to change over from one size to another is still extremely rapid.  Utilising the same tooling for a number of sizes means that once the size change has taken place the machine is ready for production.

When wrapping very large boxes the cost saving achieved by using polypropylene overwrapping film compared to polyolefin shrink wrap can be dramatic. Because the polypropylene wrapping film does not have a shrink property, the cost of the film is much less than polyolefin. In addition, no high energy consuming heat shrinking tunnel is required and the overwrap provides better protection against aroma and bacteria transfer than traditional shrink wrap.

The BX225FF is one of a range of Marden Edwards large format overwrappers, designed to wrap individual and transit collations of packs in polypropylene, cellophane, polyethylene and paper. It is designed to be suitable for frequent size changes and it’s in-line feed enables it to easily be slotted into to automatic production lines.

Trans-herb in Canada, a brand leading producer of packaged teas and infusions, has just taken delivery one of the latest Evo-Fold low cost over wrappers from Marden Edwards, the 12th Marden Edwards packaging machine the company has installed.

Transherbe has a portfolio of more than 300 different products including traditional black and green teas as well as fruit and herb infusions. They are packed cartons holding between 10 and 24 sachets, all of which are overwrapped in clear film using the Marden Edwards units. The cartons are then packed into transit cases holding between 6 and 36 cartons.

As well as supplying virtually all the retails stores in Quebec, the company exports throughout the world with 80% of its products being sold under the Trans-herbe name and others sold under the La Courtisane and Four o’Clock brands.

Having recently received a contract to pack a new product into cartons holding 14 sachets, Trans-herb needed to increase its cello overwrapping capacity, although the output of the new product did not immediately justify a major investment in new equipment.

This is the ideal situation for the Evo-Fold. Marden Edwards has used its decades of experience in the overwrapping market to design and build an automatic machine that produces a high quality cello wrap at speeds up to 40 cartons a minute, but which can be manufactured very economically.

Roger Leblanc at Transherbe, said “We needed an extra overwrapper for this latest contract. Due to the tight margins with the project we considered purchasing a re-conditioned machine and contacted Marden Edwards as we have always enjoyed excellent service from this company and find their machines efficient and easy to use. We were really happy to find out about the Evo-Fold which has meant that we have been able to purchase a fully guaranteed, brand new machine for a similar price to a second hand one. The machine is installed and performing well, just like the other eleven!”

For further information regarding this article please click here.  Marden Edwards is exclusively represented in Canada by Linfo Systems.

Marden Edwards Group company, Wraps UK, has just completed the first model in a brand new range of two reel sleevewrappers. The AS75 has been sold to a major UK packaged tea supplier for shrink wrapping shelf ready trays of tea leaf cartons. The tea is either in a 6 or 12 pack plastic tray which is automatically fed through the film web by conveyor.

The AS75 is the latest generation of sleeve wrapper produced by Wraps UK. Drawing on over twenty years of machine building experience, the AS75 incorporates many improvements incorporated through listening to the needs of customers. Manufactured in Wraps UK’s Wimborne factory, the AS75 is more robust than ever before but is still easy to move around the production floor if required.

Improvements include a high level, easy access perimeter guarding system for great safety and machine visibility. Machine control and diagnostics are via an ergonomically positioned LCD display which allows the operator unprecedented control over the wrapping process. Both film reels are now mounted after the film sealing jaw enabling simple and speedy film thread up.

Improvements with both the pneumatics and machine controls mean that it is suitable for production rates greater than 20 products per minute. The thicker, folded frame is extremely strong making the machine very smooth in operation. The solid knife sealing jaw has been extended enabling film widths of up to 700mm to be used.

The AS75, in combination with one of Wraps UK manufactured heat shrink tunnels, provides a low cost but high performance shrink wrapping packaging system.