Marden Edwards Journal

With a greater emphasis on environmental sustainability, bio-degradability and cost reduction there is a greater focus being placed on wrapping products with paper.  Whether it is being used for gift or presentation purposes, protection or for distribution and transit purposes, paper as a wrapping material can offer a quality impression that also conforms to the most stringent of environmentally conscious concerns.

All Marden Edwards base seal overwrapping machines can already wrap with paper instead of film.  The positive gripper system that transports the wrapping material through the machine is perfect for reels of paper resulting in no machine conversion work necessary.  However, for this simple conversion to happen it makes the assumption that the paper itself can be already be sealed by heat.

There are two types of self adhesive paper available, paper which contains a thin plastic coating which seals when heat is applied and paper where the a glue is pre-sprayed in the exact places where the seal needs to be made.

The plastic coated paper can be expensive and has the problem of not being able to fully bio-degrade.  The advantage is that it can be run on any existing Marden Edwards overwrapper with no conversion.  Paper where the glue has been sprayed into discrete locations is less expensive but the overwrapping machine requires the fitting of a standard print registration system to ensure that the paper and seals are accurately placed around the pack being wrapped.  The biodegradability of the glue can also be in question but recent developments by such companies as Parkside Flexibles have resulted in materials which have complete bio-degradability.

If non adhesive paper is to be used, Marden Edwards can supply one of its range of KAP Kraft paper overwrappers, which applies the glue to the paper as the machine is running.  Marden Edwards has manufactured over two hundred of this style of machine and the PVA, sugar based dextrin or hot melt glue is applied inside the machine as the materials are running through.  Typically PVA and dextrin are used for presentation quality wrapping whereas hot melt glue is used when the paper is replacing cardboard for reducing casepacking costs.    

Marden Edwards has recently supplied a new TM100 fully automatic overwrapping machine to a major manufacturer and distributor of pre-recorded DVDs in France. The machine was purchased for the re-wrapping of DVDs that have been returned from retailers. The machine therefore needed to be able to wrap individual DVDs as well as multi packs of up to five high.

Machine versatility and rapid changeover were important considerations for machine selection. The TM100 is a combination servo motor and mechanical machine, with three separate motors used for machine running. The main motor drive controls the closely linked mechanisms whilst one servo motor controls the film metering and another controls the product feed through the machine.

When the machine is changed from one size to another, the automatic film metering determines the correct length of film and the pack feeding system automatically sets itself for the new pack transfer length. All other physical settings are adjusted by wind handles meaning that a full three dimensional product change takes less than 10 minutes.

Options include a tear tape depositing system, a print registration system and a cellophane or polypropylene in-line film slitting device. This means that the film width can be cut to size as the machine is running, greatly reducing the number of film widths needing to be held in stock.

In the search for market differentiation in the tobacco, cosmetic and food industries more and more brand owners are turning to non rectangular cartons for their products. These trapezoidal, ballotin or bevel edge packs have been considered difficult to overwrap.

Marden Edwards, by virtue of the design of its wrapping processes and many years experience of non rectangular product overwrapping, have developed many techniques to provide a high quality, overwrapped product.

In the confectionery industry, especially in Belgium, trapezoidal “ballotin” boxes have for many years been considered as the ideal gift box for the high quality chocolates contained within. Whether the ballotin is to be wrapped with heat sealable polypropylene film, cellophane film or heat sealable paper, Marden Edwards machines accurately handle such packs to ensure that although the top of the box is wider than the bottom of the box, high quality end seals are maintained.

A development of the ballotin box is the “gold block” of chocolate. This format was recently wrapped on a Marden Edwards machine for National Chocolates in Columbia. Even though the box has an extended lip, the resulting overwrap was of a high quality and provided the product with the protection that it needed.

An even more extreme development of the ballotin box is the hexagonal box. This pack has the end folds placed along the bevelled sides of the box. A clever tucking mechanism and an extra side sealer heater pad ensure that this pack is wrapped on a standard machine. To return to a purely rectangular carton was purely a matter of following the standard, rapid, changeover procedure.

In the tobacco industry the bevel edged 10s or 20s pack has become something of a standard for some brands. The outer carton which contains 10 packs of 20s has had to follow suit to provide a facsimile of the individual pack. The video shows a bevel edged pack running through a Marden Edwards S4B100FF machine which has only had new pack support fingers to enable this pack to be wrapped.

Marden Edwards has also had success wrapping trapezoidal perfume and fragrance boxes. For the perfume industry, quality of wrap and position of trailing edge seal is paramount. At a recent installation of its TM100 overwrapper in a French company, Marden Edwards wrapped a full trapezoidal pack with the lateral seal placed on the angled trailing edge. The adaptations necessary have become part of the regular size changeover procedure.

The growth of the market for home use hair dye has over the last twenty years has seen a dramatic explosion in the range of products provided as well as the colours available. In fact, the total market for hair dye in Europe alone was worth € 2.6 billion in 2004 with 60% of women and 5% of men colouring their hair.

The three major home hair dye suppliers, L’Oreal, Clairol and Schwarzkopf all produce their products contained within a similarly sized, high quality card carton. The contents of the carton typically contain the hair dye, an application bottle, protective gloves and conditioner.

Overwrapping hair dye cartons performs two functions, and with Marden Edwards machinery it is possible to accomplish both on the same machine. In some markets it is customary to overwrap the individual carton. Because hair dye is part of the cosmetics industry, the overwrap style of wrapping projects the same high quality feel as if the product were pefume. It also acts as an excellent method of tamper evidence. This is important as it can be an easy task to remove the valuable dye from the unwrapped carton whilst in the shop.

The typical individual store sales unit is a 3 pack of the same shade or colour. The overwrapper must therefore also wrap a triple pack of the hair dye cartons. Again, since the product is part of the cosmetics industry the high quality of the overwrap projects a high quality product. Overwrapping is also economic as it uses Polypropylene film which is lower cost that the equivalent Polyolefin shrink film. In addition, overwrapping uses very small amounts of heat to seal the film which ensures there is no product damage during the packaging process.

Marden Edwards has had twenty years experience of supplying overwrapping machinery to the hair dye industry, in Europe, North America and the Far East. Its extensive range of overwrappers means that all required line speeds can be catered for and the machine’s in built flexibility means that triple packs, as well as singles, can be wrapped on the same machine.

Marden Edwards has recently delivered a B125LH8 collator overwrapper to the Mexican production facility of a major skin care pharmaceutical manufacturer. The B125LH8 bundling machine takes a single stream of individual products, in this case cartons of medicated soap, and produces a six pack bundle.

The new overwrapping machine has been purchased to replace the existing shrink wrapping system. The reason for this is to reduce the cost of packaging.

Overwrapping has traditionally been used for display packaging. However, it has always also been used for the bundling of products for transit or distribution purposes. The B125LH8 uses the same wrapping components as a display overwrapper except that an integrated collating system is built into the machine.

The customer, the end user and the consumer all save money.

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