The trend towards convenience products continues unabated. Just as the focus in the catering sector is on ready-to-cook products, consumers at home are also primarily looking for food products, which are either ready to eat, or which just have to be heated in the tray. In order to meet the growing demand for turnkey end-to-end solutions for packaging convenience products, MULTIVAC is presenting at interpack 2014 a complete traysealer line including a denester, drag-chain infeed conveyor, filling unit and inspection and marking equipment.

Convenience products do not just have to taste good and be easy to consume; they also have to look good. The tray packaging plays a decisive role in the buying decision. The format of the pack should make it simple to prepare and consume the food - for example with oven-ready and microwavable trays or with multi-compartment trays. At the same time the food should be presented attractively, and it should convey the brand values as well as highlighting the product benefits.

In order to enable manufacturers and packers of convenience prod-ucts to have end-to-end automation of the packaging procedure, MULTIVAC is presenting at interpack 2014 a complete traysealer line including a denester, drag-chain infeed conveyor, filling unit and in-spection and marking equipment.

Traysealer line for packing convenience products
The heart of the line is the fully automatic T 600 traysealer, a machine in the medium-output range, which seals up to 40 trays per minute. The T 600 is very flexible as regards the types of pack it can produce: This model produces MAP packs with and without LID film, Isopak skin packs and packs with the Slicepak concept.

The trays are denested by a MULTIVAC Tray Denester (MTD), which is characterised by its lightweight construction and simple handling. The MTD complies with the MULTIVAC Hygienic DesignTM and is therefore ideally suited for use in high-risk areas. The denester can be converted very easily to different tray formats, which means that it can be used very flexibly. Its machine control is integrated in the MULTIVAC HMI 2.0 user interface of the T 600. There is therefore no requirement for a separate terminal.

The infeed of the trays into the traysealer is provided by a MULTIVAC drag-chain conveyor (MDC), which positions the trays precisely at the tray gripper of the traysealer.

The trays are filled by a SD-M series filler, which is manufactured by Maschinenfabrik Leonhardt GmbH. This filler is particularly suitable for the gentle filling of sensitive foodstuffs, which are not capable of being pumped. Its dosing output is in the range of 30 to 60 cycles per minute.

Quality control is performed by a curtainless X-ray inspection system from MULTIVAC Marking & Inspection. With an inspection speed of up to 120 m/min, the system checks the packaged product for foreign bodies, proper shape and completeness.

A L 301 conveyor belt labeller of the new generation from MULTIVAC Marking & Inspection is integrated in the line for labelling the trays. This is equipped with a label dispenser of the new generation, which is characterised by its very high level of precision. The L 301 is oper-ated via the HMI of the traysealer.