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ARPAC Aims High To Produce Ultimate Shelf-Ready Packing
ARPAC has been carrying out a development programme aimed at combining its well-proven shrink wrapping technology with a wide variety of automatic tray packing machines.
The aim of this programme is to provide the ultimate shelf-ready pack in terms of low cost, efficient shelf utilization and strong transit performance.
Tony Hacker, General Manager of Arpac Europe explains how this programme came about: "Customers kept telling us about the pressure they are under to produce different packaging styles to create competitive advantage or new shelf-appeal, as well as cut costs and operate ever more complex machinery with untrained or temporary staff. So we decided we needed to come up with systems and machine combinations that would help them deal with these new demands."
"It is often assumed that when replacing a standard case with a shelf-ready format that a fully enclosed corrugated pack is still required," Tony tells us, "Whereas in fact a tray with shrink wrap is often perfectly acceptable and lower cost. This is not new to the beverage and canned produce industry but there is still work to be done with other products such as those with cartons as primary packs."
Arpac has used its experience in case and tray packing to ensure the designs of its shrink wrappers complement a wide range of tray packing machines, both its own and those of its OEM partners. This ensures that Arpac's systems are more versatile, compact and user-friendly to give customers greater freedom to automate and reduce costs.
It is easy to inter-connect the controls of Arpac's machines with others, which means that the customer can choose to run the tray packer and shrink wrapper separately or as one system. Arpac can go further by capturing warning signals, status signals and production information from upstream and down-stream machines and feed it to a central computer system either on a pull or push system. The result is all the flexibility of a modular system with the productivity of a combined system that produces shelf-ready packs using a mix of corrugated and shrink thereby delivering low production and low packaging costs.
Typical of these machines is Arpac's 708 shrink wrapper, which can accept two inputs from two separate tray packers thereby saving the space and cost of a second shrink wrapper.
Arpac believes that the provision of this kind of technology will encourage customers to review their current shelf-ready packaging designs to assess more fully whether two-piece corrugated packing really is the answer or indeed, whether a combination of corrugated tray with shrink wrap might be a more cost-effective solution.
Alert Launch New Variant To Its Microwavable M'steam Lidding Solution
Alert Packaging has launched a new variant of it M’steam™ , its easy to use and safe solution for lidding applications.
We all know Steam cooked food maintains the highest nutrition in food. M’Steam® Diamond Retort is seen as a significant development for convenience applications.
M’Steam® Diamond Retort allows the product to be cooked or pasteurised in the container by the food producer. During this the system will vent and allow for product expansion. On cooling the packaging reseals, which allows for shipping and containment. It will vent again without piercing by the end customer.
To round off for ultimate convenience Alert Packaging have developed the film give a strong peal seal to PP Pots and trays.
M’Steam® Diamond Retort is being used with great success for a number of steam pudding brands. A number of ready meal producers are also at the validation stage.
Key Benefits of using M’steam® Diamond Retort: • Microwave Steam Cooking • Cook from Frozen • No Need to Pierce Film • Packs on Existing Production Lines • Hermetically Sealed – unlike other Steam Film Application M’steam® maintains the Barrier you require • M’steam® Diamond Retort is designed for retort cooking at manufacturer and secondary Microwave cooking by consumer
RPC's Thor Pot Perfect For Glorious! Winter Warmer Stews
Rapidly-growing fresh food brand Glorious! has chosen the Thor Pot from RPC Containers Blackburn for its successful new range of premium stews.
The Thor Pot is RPC Blackburn’s microwaveable, tamper evident food pot solution, with proven functional benefits matched by strong aesthetics.
Injection moulded in polypropylene, the Thor Pot’s robust design and wide opening ensure safe, convenient handling for consumers – essential for the Glorious! single-serving stews which are designed to be microwaved in the container.
A tamper-evident tab delivers product security while the snug-fitting, resealable lid maintains product freshness after opening.
For Glorious! the Thor Pot is supplied in a clear 480ml size, for filling with a 400g portion. The impact of the range is enhanced with eye-catching label designs to provide additional visual presence.
The range has been launched to build on the successful Glorious! A-Z of Global Flavours and comprises three brand new stews – Bengal Chicken Masala, Moroccan Lamb Tagine and Smoky Hungarian Goulash.
Matthew Stephenson, Marketing Manager, Glorious! said: “Year-on-year growth in excess of 100 per cent made it possible to explore and develop new ranges for the increasing number of customers. We needed a pack which would support our ambition for this premium range and RPC Blackburn has been able to give us exactly what we wanted.”
The stews are now on-shelf in Asda and Morrisons supermarkets.
ARPAC has been carrying out a development programme aimed at combining its well-proven shrink wrapping technology with a wide variety of automatic tray packing machines. 
Alert Packaging has launched a new variant of it M’steam™ , its easy to use and safe solution for lidding applications.
Rapidly-growing fresh food brand Glorious! has chosen the Thor Pot from RPC Containers Blackburn for its successful new range of premium stews.