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Sandwich
wrapping paces productivity
Recent
film and machinery changes and subsequent upgrades complement the
100 sandwich/min output of a servo-drive wrapper/sealer
custom-tailored to achieve fast changeovers for Stovers Kitchens'
array of vending and retail sandwiches. PACKAGING
DIGEST® November 1994
Day- and
night-shift sandwich wrapping keeps Stovers Kitchens Inc. sleepless in
Seattle. More than half of Stover's wide variety of sandwiches are
distributed in the Pacific Northwest by independent lease operators of
mobile catering trucks, vending companies, airlines and other large food
distribution enterprises. The company also produces trayed and
shrinkwrapped entrees for vendors. Much of the remainder is Stovers' Oven
Pride® brand,
distributed to retail outlets in California, Alaska, Hawaii and Guam.
By day, the line wraps and seals 90
sandwiches/min using a clear biaxially-oriented polypropylene film
pre-affixed with a pressure-sensitive label. Those sandwiche s are packed
into plastic bins for chilled storage.
By night, however, the line wraps and
seals at 100 sandwiches/min. approximately 20 different Oven Pride products.
They are packed into six-, eight- or nine-count corrugated trays,
shrinkwrapped, and placed into master corrugated containers for frozen
storage. Stovers' flexible
wrapper/sealer, viewed from the discharge end, handles three film and 20
product changeovers per shift. Retail products are sold in nine-count
trays, top, with a printed insert that adds color to packs of fish and
breakfast sandwiches.
All sandwiches are wrapped and sealed by a
Fuji-Formost Model FW-3710 machine from Formost Packaging Machines.
Installed in early 1992, the servo-drive machine wraps and seals about 65
percent of Stovers' nine million food products packaged annually. In
addition to wrapper machinery upgrades made this summer, Stovers has also
recently down-gauged the OPP film and added a printed insert to retail
tray packs of sandwiches.
One of the wrapper's key attributes is
flexibility - a typical day shift involves all 20 different products and
three film changeovers.
"Changeover settings had to be
adjusted manually on the old wrapper," notes Bill Vander Meer,
president of the 51-year-old company. "That cost us a lot of time.
And even though our individual sandwiches are not all the same height,
this wrapper handles the differences at full speed and is more forgiving
of problems than our previous wrapper.
The computer-controlled servo-motor-drive wrapper automatically adjusts sealer dwell time, print registration,
infeed to end-sealer timing and temperatures to match wrapping speed.
It can store
up to 30 program changes, each with up to eight variable functions.
Stovers also selected several machinery options that have boosted
efficiency including cut-less and pack-less features. The former helps ensure
that product misloaded in an infeed flight isn't sealed--and smashed--but
can be recovered intact and rewrapped. The pack-less option senses empty
flights, temporarily halting film advance to conserve film until product
is present.Other features tailored to Stovers' unique requirements have
further increased line productivity.
Wrapping with options
"The custom-designed wrapper does a
multitude of things," explains director of purchasing John Hawkinson.
For starters, the infeed was designed with an 18-ft-L belt parallel to the
wrapper's infeed that accommodates sandwich assembly. While most of the
belt's length is geared for operator sandwich assembly, the last four feet
are side-by-side with the wrapper infeed.
That enables up to two
workers to slide the fully assembled sandwiches across it into the infeed
flight. The machine wraps and fin-seals the bottom of the film and, in a
single stroke, seals the trailing edge of the package and the leading seal
of the next while cutting between the two seals. Clear
film is used to wrap about 75 percent of Stovers' sandwiches. Designated
CBS25, the 1-mil OPP film is supplied by Transilwrap in roll widths of
10.5, 12, 14 and 15 in. Before the film is applied around a sandwich, an
Auto-Labe Model 110 labeler applies a 3x3 in. p-s label, supplied in roll
by Relm West Labels. Label stock comprises high-gloss thermal-transfer
coated 60# paper face stock flexo-printed in two or three colors with a
cold temperature adhesive backing (to withstand chilled storage) on a 40#
paper stock liner.
Sandwiches intended for local distribution are
refrigerated; for those, the label is printed by a Markem Model 984 coder
with a five-day use-by date. For product that will be frozen, the
production date is printed.
"The neat
wrap provides better eye appeal than we had before," notes Vander
Meer, "which makes them more attractive to customers." Packaged
product appearance was enhanced further in June when Stovers had Formost
retrofit the wrapper with mechanical film tighteners and an air evacuator
system. Those improvements produce a tighter film around the sandwich.
Sandwiches wrapped in the clear film
include king submarines, steak hoagies and a steak and egg sandwich.
Oven Pride products are usually packaged
only on the night shift and include, among others, the largest volume
products--a Fish Royale®
sandwich and a sausage, egg and cheese muffin. Presently, only the
breakfast sandwich is wrapped in a printed film. The 1-mil OPP film, flexo-printed
in six colors, is supplied in 13 in.-W rolls by Ellehammer Packaging. Fish
Royale is currently wrapped in pre-labeled clear OPP film. However at
press time, Stovers was in the process of converting all Oven Pride
products to one standard printed film that marketing vice president Curt
Arneson says "will enhance the products' merchandising and graphics
appeal at retail" The label will differentiate the various products.
"Two and a half years
ago, on our old wrapping machine, we couldn't run print-registered
film," Vander Meer points out. "That's part of the reason we
replaced it with this machine, which precisely positions the printed film
on every sandwich.  Secondary packaging is more complicated
for Oven Pride sandwiches, which are instead trayed and cased. On the
return leg of the U, nine sand-wiches are manually packed in a single layer into a 200#-test, E-flute
corrugated tray that measures 11x11˝ in. Supplied by Allpack Container,
the white trays are flexo-printed in four colors for the fish sandwich and
three for the breakfast sandwich and other sandwich trays.
In
addition to sandwiches, the Fuji-Formost machine also wraps and seals
entrees packaged in Fresh View®
MW6B microwavable trays from Anchor Industries. The 4x6-in. oblong
black-pigmented trays are made of a blend of high-impact polystyrene and
GE Plastics' Noryl®
polyphenylene oxide (PPO) resin. Hawkinson says these are the only trays
they've found, other than the aluminum trays they've used fro years, that
are appropriate for reheating on the back of mobile trucks. Trays are
wrapped using the prelabeled clear OPP film. Hawkinson says film changes
have helped them cut overall film costs in half from the 140-ga cellophane
film used years ago. Earlier this year, Stovers down-gauged from 125-ga to
1-mil OPP.
Stovers has
been highly pleased with the wrapper's performance. "We're very
fortunate to have a company of Formost's caliber right in our
backyard," Hawkinson says.
"We not
only wanted fast changeovers, we also wanted greater reliability and
higher wrapping speeds with minimum downtime," adds Vander Meer.
Packing 'round the bend
Downstream of the wrapper, sealed sandwiches round a U-shape conveyor from
Formost designed to accommodate Stover's space concerns. Vending-destined
sandwiches wrapped in the clear OPP film are packed into 24- to 30-count
plastic service trays, identical to that used for loaves of bread, then
stacked on carts that are wheeled either into refrigerated or frozen
storage.
After tray packing, a
paperboard insert measuring 10˝ in. W x 9˝ in. L is placed atop the
sandwiches. Made of .010 paperboard offset-printed in four colors by
Minuteman Press of downtown Tacoma, the insert was added starting in June
and is used only for the breakfast and fish sandwiches, which are Stovers'
largest selling retail items. Printed with a large picture of the
sandwich, product logo and description against a black background, the
insert is scored so a flap can be folded over to extend along one edge of
the tray. "Although
we're still assessing the sales impact of the insert," says Arneson,
"retailers have said that it's a terrific packaging
upgrade." The
tray is then sealed using clear 60-ga Cryovac D955 shrink film, a
polyethylene coextrusion supplied in 16-in.-W rolls. The shrink film is
provided folded on one side to facilitate sealing by a Shanklin
semi-automatic L-bar sealer and Shanklin shrink tunnel installed at the
same time as the wrapping machine. Hawkinson says they anticipated
potential needs by installing a sealer and tunnel configured to handle the
largest packs possible. Trays are then
packed into 12-count 200#-test, C-flute corrugated containers from Allpack
Container flexo-printed in three or four colors to match tray graphics.
Products for local delivery are kept in refrigerated storage while all
other products are frozen.
The growth of the Oven Pride
brand has been met by Stovers' increase in production efficiency.
"Over the past five years, we've been getting more involved in the
retail side of the business," explains Vander Meer.
"Oven Pride lends itself
to long production runs, which increases our efficiency." That's one
less worry that management won't be losing any sleep over.
More information is available:
Custom horizontal wrapper/sealer,
conveyor--
Formost Fuji Corp.,
19211 144th Ave. NE,
Woodinville, Washington 98072, U.S.A.
END
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