Australian packaging company Propak Industries has received glowing independent reports for its pallet wrapper and Macro Wrap, from two of Australia's largest companies.
The MAS350 wrapper and Macro Wrap for palletising and transporting produce will be on show at Hort Connections, after receiving some positive feedback from Costa Group and Aldi, in terms of its banana application.
"We developed this machine with horticulture in mind, so it's a combination of the machine and the macro wrap," Propak Managing Director Garry Sandercock said. "To be able to give great load stability, to reduce waste, to give ventilation we combined the two together. In this case for bananas we came up with a particular pattern, and many different variants. We came up with a pattern that suited customers with open boxes, but also closed lids. That pattern is currently used within the industry at different farms. There's a range of different farmers who have taken on this system."
Mr Sandercock says the report, conducted by Costa's Technical Manager - Banana Category, Matthew Oliver, found that the customers are getting a better quality of fruit to market.
"There was less damage, meaning less rub, less bounce and it gives them the right ventilation for ripening as well," Mr Sandercock said. "The whole system worked out cost effective, because the time to wrap a pallet was reduced to 55 seconds, and the amount of film needed was below 100 grams, and the film is fully recyclable. The cost for the grower was worked out to be 1.1 cents per box."
Aldi also conducted an independent secondary packaging trial, which used variant controls such as corner boards and memory tape, fibre pallet stabilisers and capping - the aim was to compare the MAS350 with other stabilisers.
'Each load was sent down for three weeks, and had vibration loggers in them," he said. "Each load was assessed along with the pallet stacking integrity, of both the trial pallets and the controls. So, over that they inspected the fruit, checked the boxes and found that the integrity of the fruit was maintained and there were no signs of transit rub."
After the initial loads needed to be loosened, after causing the top layers to move out of shape, Mr Sandercock says the report found that each consignment after that gave very good results, adding the "proof is in the pudding".
"After all the variants, the staff agree that these pallets remain straighter and more stable when moving with a forklift," he said. "The trial between the machine applied macro film, with or without corner posts, showed no difference to the pallet integrity or quality of fruit. So, what they are saying is you don't need corner posts, which saves considerable money. There were no signs of telescoping or realignment at all, and the fruit ripened evenly with no impairment to airflow."
Propak Industries not only works with bananas but across a wide range of fruit and vegetable produce lines, and now has machines in Argentina, with particular interest from the citrus industry. For the company, Hort Connections will be about promoting the system, with the main messages of reduce costs, keep pallet integrity in place, and reduce environmental impacts.
Propak will be in booth 315 at Hort Connections, where the reports will be available to view, along with the companies other products, such as butterfly wrap.