Food for thought

25 February 2010



Foodex Meatex is one of the largest trade exhibitions in the UK food and drink calendar. The show will run at the NEC Birmingham from 21-24 March. Mike Taylor looks at some of the exhibits.


S ecurity system specialist AlertSystems (stand X049) will be displaying its GrandEye 360 degree camera, which has no moving parts and features a single fixed wide-angle lens. Its powerful signal processing is said to ensure that the area is continuously available for intelligent image analysis and the system can create multiple views of the scene in addition to a single overview image. Powerful signal processing generates multiple views from the large overview image, including panoramas and ‘virtual cameras’ which can be controlled using PTZ commands. A single lens enables viewing in multiple directions with the ability to zoom in to different parts of the scene simultaneously.

Beatson Clark will showcase its glass packaging products and services on stand S199. The company says its flexibility allows it to service smaller volume, premium product ranges and niche markets, while a £2 million investment in an additional production line has enabled it to supply an extra 75 million units of clear glass containers, in many shapes and sizes.

The company also offers a free design service to assist with the development of packaging for new product ranges. This has proved particularly successful for customers such as Premier Group for products like the Oxo concentrated stock, which is packaged in customised glass containers from Beatson Clark.

Dolav (stand V069) has introduced the Ace heavy-duty pallet box to meet hygiene regulations for food handling and storage. Made of food grade HDPE with no enclosed cavities, the ‘infection-free’, one-piece unit has built-in, integrally moulded runners and rounded internal corners.

While most HDPE pallet boxes stack by allowing the base of the upper box to sit within the top rim of the supporting box, the Ace stacks on the rim of a supporting box and most of the load is transmitted through the very strong corner and side pillars. This gives full use of all of the volume of the supporting box and allows heavier, safe loads of up to 5,000kg in a stack of up to eight boxes high.

Making their Foodex debut on the Domino UK stand (QO18) will be the V400 thermal transfer coding device for flexible packaging and the G-Series thermal inkjet printer. The G-Series expands the range of compatible print materials, while opening up new application possibilities. Domino claims to be the only supplier to offer a multi-substrate, fast-drying ink for this technology. The capability to quickly switch between water- and ethanol-based inks enables printing onto porous and nonporous materials.

With a 600dpi resolution and speeds of up to 300m/min, the G-Series is capable of producing superior quality logos, graphics, barcodes, data matrix codes and large amounts of text.

Domino’s V-Series range of thermal transfer coders range are particularly suitable to food applications. The V400 is a traversing system for high speed printing for wide-area print requirements on intermittent multi-lane applications.

On stand RO51, Fortress Technology will highlight its Phantom range of metal detectors for the food industry. On display will be the company’s latest Vector Integrated Conveyor System, which has been enhanced to meet new supermarket retailer standards. For example, it now features an alarm, either audible or visual – to indicate when there has been metal rejects in order to help identify potential issues early.

Fully compliant with BRC and EFSIS specifications, the Vector conveyor system is an ‘all-in-one solution’ developed to achieve the most accurate detection results by optimising the performance of Phantom metal detectors.

Among the exhibits on the Ishida Europe stand (W02), will be the CCW-NZ-106 Fresh Food Weigher, which provides another alternative for handling and weighing sticky products. It features a linear multi-head design, fed by belts from an infeed table. Two operators are then stationed within comfortable reach of the product infeed, and adjust the flow of product so that each pool hopper receives a roughly equal amount.

The future of high speed tray heat sealing’ will be unveiled by Packaging Automation (PA) on stand X040. The ‘revolutionary’ Eclipse TL6 Twin Lane is designed for rugged reliability and high performance.

To help manufacturers minimise the impact their operations have on the environment, the Eclipse range also offers the inside cut option and the capability to run sealing film as thin as 17 micron, which reduces film usage by 20% when compared with existing tray sealers. In addition the machine has been designed to cut energy costs by reducing the air consumption of the machine by 50%.

Sealing packs at up to 180/min (90 for the SL6 single lane model) the Eclipse range includes an inbuilt tool loading system, which allows manual tool changes and accurate docking of electrical and gas connectors, removing the need for a mobile loading jig. A complete change-over can be achieved ‘within two minutes’.

PFM is on stand V060, displaying flowwrappers including the Scirocco, a high speed servo-driven machine equipped with long dwell, high integrity sealing for modified atmosphere packaging of cheese, bread, fresh pasta and meat products at up to 200/min. There is also the Pearl servo controlled model, a versatile medium speed machine for companies producing a number of different size packs, particularly in the bakery, confectionery and produce markets, and for contract packers. It is capable of speeds up to 120/min.

Heat sealing specialist Proseal (stand PO29) will launch two new machines, demonstrating the company’s ability to offer tray sealing to meet every type of food operation – from small scale production to the requirements of the fastest packing lines.

The new T2 is a hand operated tray sealing machine with a manual feed system capable of up to 6 cycles/min. It is said to be ideal for trials or development work, small scale production or for use in food shops and delicatessens.

The GT3 is Proseal’s new top-of-therange model, capable of sealing in excess of 150 trays/min and ideal for fast production lines, such as meat products and fresh fruit. Throughput is maximised by a three-axis servodrive tray transfer system which can adjust automatically for different tray heights. Another standard feature is a new internet based secure gateway connection system that enables Proseal’s engineers to remotely access the PLC and HMI (touchscreen) of each customer’s machine anywhere in the world to provide diagnostic support and implement software modifications.

Visitors to the stand of chilled food packaging specialist Ravenwood Packaging (stand PO10) will see the new Nobac 125 high speed labeller for linerless labels. The company says its labels eliminate the need for wasteful, nonrecyclable backing papers, and the absence of backing material means that reel changes are quicker and easier.

Also on show will be the Nobac 500T, a twin-sleever that has been added to the range to build on the need for higher speeds, less downtime and quicker product changes. The twin head enables continuous operation by two labelling heads in line. The in-line machine is designed for maximum flexibility and eliminates the need to turn the packs. It is capable of applying sleeves in five formats: top, top and side, top and two sides, C-wrap, and full wrap.

On stand R040, Reiser will feature live demonstrations of its processing and packaging equipment. It will also showcase Repak form fill seal packaging machines, Ross Traysealers for MAP and case-ready applications, and Supervac automatic beltchamber vacuum packaging machines.

Sirane promises some ‘revolutionary packaging options for the market’s needs – involving all-in-one solutions and some new options in film packaging, new technologies and materials’. These will include a complete range of fully compostable barrier and permeable films for meat and produce packaging. The company’s innovations in the compostable/degradable packaging area are marketed under the Dri Fresh Resolve brands. It also makes a wide range of packaging and other products, including specialised absorbents, bio-degradable, bio-compostable microwaveable and ovenable materials, and protective materials for food and other applications.

Xact’s new Matthews CX16 continuous inkjet printer is an entry level model, for applications where only two lines of print may be required for applying variable information directly onto primary packaging, such as for date or batch coding in the food industry.

This ‘cost effective’, compact (320mm x 420mm x 545mm) model prints small characters from 1.8-7mm high. In spite of its simplicity, it includes many of the features of the 5-line C84e model, such as single button start-stop control, password protection, automatic ink viscosity control, a ‘user friendly’ interface and a large message storage database. High quality print at up to 107m/min (5x5 single line) is promised.


Ace pallet box features integrally moulded runners and rounded internal corners. ACE Ravenwood promoting ‘responsible’ linerless label system. Ravenwood Weighing and inspection machines to be exhibited by Ishida Europe. Ishida Conveyor system from Fortress meets new supermarket retailer standards. Fortress Technology

Ishida Ishida
ACE ACE
Ravenwood Ravenwood
Fortress Technology Fortress Technology


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