Dessert producer transforms sleeve coding with Rotech RF2

Chilled dessert manufacturer Heaven Made Foods has recently invested 0.5 million in a versatile production line and chiller tunnel for its core jellies and summer puddings on the back of substantial sales growth. In addition, the Norfolk company has been busy developing new product lines, among them a new range of vegetarian jellies. Like many of Heaven Made's other desserts, the new range is packed in tubs with cardboard sleeves, which meant it needed a way of coding an increased volume of sleeves with batch codes and use by dates.

Heaven Made had existing online coding capabilities, but was coming up against several issues. Oliver Elmer, managing director of Heaven Made Foods, explains: "A lot of our products use card sleeves, and the shapes and angles vary considerably. It is a difficult process to set up with each product change, and we have never been totally happy with the quality."

Exasperated with the performance of their existing coding equipment and with the new range coming on stream, Heaven Made Foods was aware that coding efficiency and quality had to be addressed.

Oliver says: "With the new range, quality was paramount and in order to achieve the targets set within the costings, we needed to date code the sleeves far faster." Heaven Made Foods found Rotech via an internet search. A face-to-face meeting convinced the dessert producer that Rotech was the right partner for this project.

Oliver notes: "The company was very clear about its abilities. The quality looked very good. Its machines are British made and the after sales support and advice is only a phone call away."

Rotech recommended its RF2 - a standalone friction feed overprinting system that would enable Heaven Made Foods to code sleeves offline and bring them to the production line already printed. Engineered specifically for the food industry, the RF2 uses Rotech's stack-to-stack feeding technology to pick sleeves from a stack, accurately print date or batch codes, and place the printed sleeve neatly onto another stack for collection, all at speeds of up to 400 per minute.

Oliver says: "The ability to code offline whilst the sleeve is still flat makes for a far better job, and enables the exact amount to be produced for that batch."

Adjustable for different sleeve dimensions

It was also important to Heaven Made Foods that, unlike its existing online coder, the offline coder would be adjustable to accommodate different sleeve sizes and designs. The hopper guides on the RF2 can be quickly changed via a simple mechanical adjustment to suit different sleeve dimensions, and the same system can switch between rectangular, curved and watch strap sleeves as well as cartons. The producer also liked the fact that with the RF2 there are no restrictions on where the print area can be.

Richard Pether, Rotech's director, explains: "Rival systems feed into a side gripping belt, which limits where on the sleeve you can print. Our machine feeds down the middle of the machine, which means the full width of the sleeve surface is available to the printer."

Knowing that Heaven Made Foods did not have 24-hour engineering cover, Rotech specified a system that used TIJ (thermal inkjet) printing, for reasons explained by Richard: "Thermal inkjet coders are extremely easy to use and require zero maintenance. All the user needs to do is change the cartridge when the ink runs out, which literally takes a couple of minutes. TIJ also alleviated this customer's quality concerns, as it is capable of printing very clear codes at very high speed."

Heaven Made Foods were impressed with the short turnaround from placing the order to having the system having the system installed and running. Oliver says: "Turnaround was first class. They delivered ahead of time and within budget."

Responsiveness is one of Rotech's strengths: the company now keeps an inventory of systems built for sleeve printing, to enable it to offer ultra-speedy turnaround.

Richard says: "We can easily deliver systems within a week of a customer placing order, and that includes building in time to test a sample in our factory. If customers need a machine really urgently, same day delivery isn't out of the question."

The RF2 is located within the high-care packing section of Heaven Made's factory, and the operator prints off however many sleeves are required for that packing run. Oliver reports that the system is "performing very well indeed" and that "speed and quality is excellent".

He said that with the Rotech system, date coding is done in about 10 per cent of the time that it was taking. He continues: "The Rotech system has overcome all quality, time and consistency issues. It has freed up time within packing. It has increased quality and efficiency. We have not had any downtime with the system since it was installed. Once it is set, it can be left to print off the required number of sleeves. Should we require further printing/feed systems, Rotech will be our first port of call."

Please visit www.rotechmachines.com to learn more about the offline RF2 coder from Rotech.