In conjunction with its customer, leading German frozen food manufacturer Jütro Tiefkühlkost, Ishida Europe has designed and installed a bespoke packing line to handle the weighing, sealing and checkweighing of a range of IQF ready meals.
The line comprises a 20 head Ishida CCW-RV mulithead weigher, QX-1100 Flex tray sealer and DACS-G checkweigher, filling a variety of different tray sizes at speeds of up to 70 per minute. This has delivered a 40% greater yield in comparison with the company’s older tray sealing line, resulting in a fast payback on investment.
The multihead weigher is able to weigh three different products – meat, vegetables and rice or pasta – simultaneously for discharge into the trays. The RV model combines speed and accuracy with a highly robust design, which is ideal for the demands of IQF foods. Its heavy duty contact surfaces ensure minimal product adherence, while the weigher is certified to the highest level of waterproof protection, IP69K.
Speed and weighing accuracy are maximised by the use of booster hoppers, which provide temporary storage of already-weighed product. This increases the number of possible weight combinations for each weigh cycle. The weighments are collected in two timing hoppers before being transferred to the trays. “Precision is an important factor, and product giveaway through overfilling is practically zero,” says Jütro Tiefkühlkost’s CEO Michael Meyer.
The high sealing pressure, combined with precision control of the sealing time and temperature result in perfect seals and tray appearance. Modern servo technology ensures controlled, high-speed tray delivery and film supply. The stainless steel construction with quick-release belts is easily accessible for operation, maintenance and cleaning.
“In comparison with other tray sealers, the QX-1100 Flex is extremely straightforward,” says Michael Meyer. “In particular, the easy handling of the film minimises downtime.” He is also impressed by Ishida’s unique sealing head redundancy feature. “In the event of faults, the affected sealing heads can be individually disabled and the tray sealer continues to operate, diverting the supply of trays automatically to the still operational sealing heads. After shift end, the faulty sealing head can be checked over, without wasting precious production time.”
Jütro Tiefkühlkost is operating the new tray packing line in a three-shift mode.