Baking & Snack - June 2015 - 128

SECONDARY PACKAGING

Although traditional bagin-box products remain on
the shelf and in demand in
grocery stores, there are
some newer uses as well.

A robotic carton loader designed are always going up," Mr. Parlour observed.
for production environments can
Flexibility is also a priority among food brands,
hit speeds up to 400 products including snack food makers and bakeries.
per minute. "Manufacturers are going from side loaders and end
Adco
loaders to top loaders. That allows them flexibility for
variety, like getting different styles of bags in the same
carton," Mr. Fucetola explained. "A top loader also allows them to use flat stock rather than folded cartons,
which makes [such packages] easier to transport."
Because of their versatility, Mr. Fucetola said that
top loaders also meet the ever-growing demand for
efficiency. "A top loader can be faster because it's not
dedicated. In the old way, you'd have three baggers
lined up, and the product went into cartoner at a certain speed. With a top loader, you load it robotically,
so if you want to increase the speeds, you can add
more robots," he said.
BluePrint Automation offers different types of machines for bag-in-box applications for the baking and
snack industries, including a standard pick-and-place
machine. "I call it a glorified robot," Mr. Fucetola said.
"We also offer something more elegant, a true robot
that moves on vision. A product could come out in a
random way, and the machine corrects for disorientation as well as for different varieties."
Adco has also added a new robotic carton loader to

128 Baking & Snack June 2015 / www.bakingandsnack.com

its top load cartoning system lineup. The Adco RCL2x (2-axis) robotic carton loader was designed for the
most demanding production environments and is capable of achieving rates of up to 400 products per minute. The top loader features 100% native Allen-Bradley
machine controls and can be configured with a wide
range of end-of-arm tool and product infeed designs.
Mr. Reed also underscored the versatility of a toploading cartoning and the fact that flat cartons are generally easier and less costly for end-users to purchase,
transport and store. "There are certain types of bag-inbox packages that are conducive to being picked and
placed rather than pushed," he said, citing other advantages like recloseability and the fact that top loading
offers options for interleaving pack patterns, among
other things. In keeping with offering more options to
food companies, Mr. Reed said that Adco is also set to
roll out a new horizontal end load cartoner that offers
medium speed auto-loading in a smaller footprint.
The equipment innovation work also continues for
Kliklok-Woodman, which provides total solutions for
bag-in-box applications, according to Mr. Parlour.
The company is currently working on a new system
that it hopes to introduce at Pack Expo Las Vegas later
this year.
In addition to packaging equipment like loading and
cartoning machines, there have been some changes and
improvements in bags and films. For example, Bemis
Co., Oshkosh, WI, offers the FeatherWeight highbarrier line of films that protects moisture-sensitive
cereal in boxes. The film also helps extend shelf life of
RTE cereals while keeping costs down and allowing
sustainability benefits because of its lighter weight.
As packaging evolves, bakers and snack makers can
still find new and innovative solutions in the classic
bag-in-box format that marry speed and versatility
while giving consumers the comfort of familiarity.

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Find resources for secondary packaging by visiting
www.esourcebaking.com. Browse by category under
Equipment, and click on Package for listings.
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Baking & Snack - June 2015

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