TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to "Package This", your guide to packaging machinery and materials.
Today our focus is on multipacking equipment – the machines that consolidate and group multiple items together into a single, convenient consumer unit. Multipacks are increasingly popular in club store retail, so let's dive in to learn about the different machines used to make them.
One of the most common types of multipacks is carriers. Handle and carrier applicators make it easier for consumers to carry multiples of products. Think of six-packs of beer, four-packs of specialty soda, or jars of sauces or liquids as we will see here.
You’re looking at Graphic Packaging International’s high-speed paperboard clip applicator. This carrier applicator provides a sustainable, recyclable alternative to plastic clips and is an ideal solution for consumer multipacks in club stores. Operating at speeds of up to 90 packs per minute, the applicator accommodates both plastic and glass bottles and jars in two-pack and optional three-pack configurations.
As a screw conveyor spaces out jars of white vinegar, a vacuum system picks and stages flat paperboard carrier tops. The tops are then placed snugly on the jars before the machine folds and glues the sturdy paperboard, forming a solid carrier for the multipack. The pitched product side transport chain and unique overhead clipping system create multipacks with great pack integrity that are made for easy consumer use.
Next up: tray formers. These machines create sturdy corrugated trays for shipping multiple, heavy items, such as 24 cans of soup or a variety pack of 12 bottles of sports drinks. Tray formers transform die-cut corrugated flats into three-dimensional trays with sides and flaps, ensuring secure transportation of goods on the multipack.
Shrink bundlers and heat tunnels secure multipacks with shrink wrap film, providing protection during transit and tamper-evident features. In this example, the machine applies a loose wrap of heat-activated film over the tray of cans. As it passes through the tunnel, the machine applies either electric or steam heat at a high temperature that shrinks the film and envelops it over the product to form a tight shrink wrap. Now our tray of soup cans is ready for shipment.
Sleever machines wrap paperboard sleeves around multipacks of smaller, lighter items like yogurt or pudding cups, making them stackable and easily identifiable in stores. After cups are collated together, a sleever wraps paperboard around the top and bottom of the multipack. One side of the multipack is left open, making it easy for the consumer to open after purchase.
Banding equipment secures multipacks with plastic or paper-based strips for a flexible bundling solution. This family of machines includes stretch film banders, strapping equipment, paper-based banders, and other tying equipment that ensure products stay together securely. For example, banders may be used to place a tight plastic band around a group of three flexible bags of peanuts that are sold as a single unit.
And that’s a wrap on our video about multipacking! We hope you learned something new.
While you’re here, check out other videos in the "Package This" series. For more packaging videos, subscribe to the "Package This" series on YouTube and share with your colleagues on LinkedIn.
And if you’re exploring multipacking equipment for your operation, why not head over to PMMI ProSource, a curated directory of the top 1,000 packaging and processing suppliers in North America. Go to ProSource.org to search for suppliers by package type, material, or features.
Until next time, thanks for watching, and keep on packaging!