Proseal’s contribution to Big Prawn’s success
The GT1
The installation of a Proseal tray sealing line at The Big Prawn Company has provided the increased capacity and flexibility to cope with growing demand for the company’s extensive product range.
The Proseal’s GT1 Tray Sealer is combined with the company’s OC conveyor and integrated with the Big Prawn’s existing multihead weigher, sealing six different types of trays and pots, with gas flushing for extended shelf life. Thanks to the high speeds and fast changeovers of the GT1, overall throughput on the line has doubled compared to the previous sealing operation.
Formed in 1995 the Big Prawn Company’s original area of expertise was brined shellfish and the company soon became the largest brining operation in the UK. Since then, its product range has been extended to include ready to eat and convenience products and an extended shelf life MAP range.
“As a growing business, we needed a fast and reliable tray sealing operation that could cope easily with increased throughput at busy periods, such as the Christmas season,” explains Richard Kemp of The Big Prawn Company. “Equally important, quality is key to our success so the integrity of the seal is paramount.
“The Proseal solution is able to deliver on all these requirements and has enabled us to plan production better and respond quickly to customer demands.”
The GT1 features an advanced Touch Screen Control with full graphical operator interface that allows complete machine and tooling set up to be fully ‘recipe’ controlled, meaning all settings are easily stored for fast retrieval. The Touch Screen can also be viewed and controlled remotely from any PC and provides detailed production data and monitoring and full diagnostics.
A servo-driven infeed conveyor and a high accuracy tray positioning system maximise sealing speeds, while an intelligent film feed system provides enhanced control for improved seal quality, with easy film threading and dynamic control of the movement of the film throughout the film feed cycle in order to maintain constant tension. Proseal’s pioneering Auto-Tool’ connection system allows fast tool changes.
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