Tension between feasibility and safety
The hygiene demands are becoming stricter globally. Marcel Oldenziel doesn't see a country region that is ahead of this. "In the United States the demands are being tightened, but also in the United Kingdom, for example." He does see differences between countries. The rules in the United Kingdom tend to be stricter than in other European countries. Not just for machines, the clothing regulations for employees are also stricter.
The M10 XL machine from Manter.
Stricter demands in other sectors
For Manter's weighing machines this mainly translates into the application of conveyor belts. "All parts that could come into contact with the product have to be made out of plastic or RVS," says Marcel. "In the past we still occasionally used boards with a power coating, but we're no longer allowed to do that."
"It's not too bad in the fruit and vegetable sector," says Joan Berkvens. According to Joan the demands in the meat industry are much stricter. "This is mainly due to recent scandals in the sector. We already have machines there that can read the barcodes so that the products can be followed throughout the entire process." Scandals in which products are sold as something else, such as mixing horse meat with beef, is more difficult in the fruit an vegetable industry. "But I expect the demand for fruit and vegetables to be much stricter in the future," believes Joan. "Consumers want to know where a product is from."
Specialisation in packaging machines
"Those stricter demands also apply to packaging machines," adds Jan van Prins. This year the company is celebrating its 35th anniversary. The Prins packaging machines, which were recently given a new design, are made completely from RVS. Besides this, the machines are shaped so that there are no flat parts that products or water can lie on. Due to changes in the weighing segment Prins Verpakkingstechniek decided to focus more on the packaging machines.
Innotech Revo 3200 from Prins Verpakkingstechniek.
"We used to have our own factory in England where weighing machines were made," says Jan. "But the labour costs in that factory were high and we didn't always have products comparable to those of our competitors." This is why the machine builder decided to collaborate with a number of long term partners and specialists for the weighing machines and to focus on packaging machines. "These two, weighing and packaging machines, are close together. So we still offer the complete package," explains Jan. "Customers can also come to us for maintenance and service for the weighing machines."
Weight reliability more important
To improve the weight reliability, among other things, the entire weighing machine park at Manter was fixed up. "The machines were adjusted internally, mechanically and electrically," explains Marcel. For instance, vibrating parts were placed in a new rubber buffer and RVS vibrations plates were replaced by plastic. "The challenge for us is to make the machine as calm as possible, so that the influence on the weighing is minimal. The rubber buffer catches the vibrations, which makes the machine even more accurate."
The software was also completely turned around. The old package, based on DOS, was replaced by a software based on Linux. "We replaced the control panel with a touch screen and we can log into the machine remotely with the Manter Gateway," continues Marcel. This means a problem can be solved faster. "For instance, there was recently a customer abroad who phoned about a problem. Because we could log in at a distance, we could see that a button was 'off' when it should have been 'on'. Nine out of ten times it's small adjustments like this. The software does a lot for the customer." Setting the weighing machine from a distance is more difficult. "This also depends on the product. There is a big difference between wet and dry, dirty and clean products, so we don't programme from a distance. In that case it's better to just be there."
Three CL64 Case Packers are assembled at the production unit of CPS.
Safety demands too strict?
“The safety demands for machines are tightened on an almost annual basis," says Jan. "Of course, safety is important to us, but the machine has to be able to work." According to Jan it seems like when certain rules are tightened there is no concern for the professionalism of the operator and the people on the packaging line. "You have to follow the rules, and we do, but sometimes it's almost denigrating to the operators."
"According to the new demands each part that moves has to be screened off," adds Marcel. "This could make the maintenance of the machines more difficult. It's our challenge to close up the machines completely whilst making sure they still work. It has to be easy to work on the machines. To allow this, we have a few brain boxes in engineering."
"The stricter demands could have consequences for maintenance", continues Jan. "On the other hand, the techniques are becoming better and more maintenance friendly. If this has an equal development, it doesn't have to be a bad thing."
Electronic security
Joan says that CPS can use principles and demand these stricter rules from other sectors. "We are originally from the frozen sector. There is high demand for packaging frozen vegetables and chips, which we apply to all our machines." For instance, it is not always a requirement in the fresh sector to build the machine entirely with RVS. Due to their background in an industry where this is required, CPS builds all machines from RVS and hard anodized aluminium components.
At CPS they also see that stricter safety demands aren't necessarily bad for the operation of the machines. "Moving parts can also be electronically safeguarded. You can screen everything off with caps, but you can also use a light screen. This means you can't just take a bag of potatoes from a moving machines, but when the power is off, it's easy to access the parts of the machine. This means the machine doesn't work any less because of the stricter demands."
More information:
Manter
Marcel Oldenziel
E: m.oldenziel@manter.com
W: www.manter.com
CPS Case Packing Systems
Joan Berkens
E: j.berkvens@c-p-s.nl
W: www.casepacker.nl
Prins Verpakkingstechniek
Jan Strijbos
E: jstrijbos@prinsbv.nl
W: www.prinsverpakkingstechniek.eu