Fresh inspiration with Theegarten-Pactec’s FPC6 flow-wrapping line

A major focus on flexibility and ease of use has been cited as a core focus for Theegarten-Pactec’s latest flow-wrapping line to be unveiled shortly at interpack this Spring, writes Neill Barston.

The company’s new FPC6 is reportedly targeting a broad range of markets with its fresh innovation, including the chocolate, cereal, protein bar, and wider confectionery and snacks markets.

As the business explained to our title, it will be using the major Düsseldorf trade show taking placed at the city’s Messe venue between 7 -13 May, to showcase its fresh system, which has placed additional emphasis on digital networking and fully automated maximum process reliability for manufacturers’ packaging operations. 

As the firm noted, with the  FPC6, which is an entirely new generation of machine, it has moved away from the principle of ‘faster, higher, further’, but rather on stable, reliable and sustainable efficiency throughout the entire life cycle.

With the new machine, the company is also implementing an automated system from a single source, which transfers the flow packs directly to the BLM high-performance cartoner developed in-house.

In addition, as the company noted, the FPC6 reliably packs chocolate, confectionery, cereal and protein bars, functional foods and snacks into flow packs. It processes a wide variety of product formats without major retooling and masters several sealing types – cold sealing, heat sealing and cut-seam welding for water-soluble films.

Integrated design
An integrated preheating section also enables the reliable processing of sensitive materials such as paper or recyclable mono films, even in high-performance operation. The line reportedly offers maximum flexibility combined with consistently high packaging quality – a decisive advantage for manufacturers who are increasingly working with changing packaging materials and sustainable material solutions.

Furthermore, as the company explained, the FPC6 was consistently designed to make machine operation largely independent of the operators’ qualifications and experience level.

As it noted, the Dresden-based firm’s goal is to enable customers to operate their systems independently, reliably and with a high degree of efficiency in times of skilled labour shortages.

A key factor is the improved identification of error causes and their effects. Enhanced visualisations on the touch panel and graphic replacement images provide operators with targeted support in systematic troubleshooting, even if the cause and the fault are physically separated. For example, the machine recognises when faults at the machine outlet are caused by upstream process steps such as the synchronisation of unpackaged products. In such cases, the control panel specifically indicates possible sources. This reduces downtime and avoids unnecessary interventions.

Theegarten-Pactec also focuses on maximum user convenience and reproducibility when changing formats: all relevant settings are recorded electronically and stored in the recipe management system. Electronic counting scales ensure repeat accuracy during format changes; manual adjustments via trial and error are no longer necessary.

Significantly, as it added, critical components can be removed and cleaned without tools. All replaceable components are designed in line with the ‘poka-yoke’ principle (a Japanese method for avoiding errors in production and work processes), which prevents incorrect installation.

The company also consistently simplifies product feeding. Instead of replacing the entire product lug chain – a time-consuming and error-prone process – operators can quickly and safely replace individual lugs of the chain when changing formats. This allows a format-specific arrangement to be created without removing the entire chain, ideally matching the packaging process to the product and packaging material. At the same time, mechanical stress is reduced – a decisive advantage with increasingly sensitive products.

The FPC6’s web edge control also allows the course of the film web to be adjusted directly on the HMI (human-machine interface) – for example, depending on the batch or when changing flavours. Old and new values are automatically stored in the recipe management system. Manual settings that were previously necessary are no longer required, and the original target value is retained.

In addition, the FPC6 combines high output with a compact design. Despite its performance range, it requires a significantly shorter product feed and takes up less installation space overall than previous machine generations. The compact design is the result of Theegarten-Pactec’s many years of engineering expertise.

Configuration excellence
At an early stage, the machine configuration is precisely tailored to the products to be processed later. This is based on comprehensive tests with original products, which provide a reliable picture of the subsequent process behaviour. This ensures maximum process reliability right from the start. Product speeds of up to 100 m/min can be reliably achieved on this basis.