CFS has recently introduced the CFS TwinStar® – an enhanced traysealer concept that has been consistently optimised according to the principles of lifecycle performance. CFS TwinStar® will help producers of case ready meal components, ready meals or sliced products to improve their performance and benefit from enhanced food safety and lower costs per pack.
“When investing in new packaging equipment, performance is essential,” says Maurizio Bersani, Product Manager Traysealing at CFS. “The machine has to ensure the product’s quality and it has to be flexible in operation. But first of all it has to achieve lower costs per pack. When developing the new CFS TwinStar® our engineers continuously discussed with the customer consultants the best way to improve the CFS TwinStar® in such a way, that our customers could take most advantage from the concept.”
From the very beginning it was evident that better performance does not necessarily mean increased cycle frequency. From an economic perspective it means increasing productivity above all, while reducing costs at the same time. Therefore with CFS TwinStar® all processes and construction details have been consistently optimised with respect to longer machine running times. In practice this means reduction of maintenance and cleaning times, increase of technical machine availability and improvement of interfaces.
An important item was the improvement of the hygienic design with the objective of meeting tomorrow’s hygienic requirements in spite of shorter cleaning procedures. According to the company, with its special wash-down design, hinged side panels as well as complete construction made of stainless steel and food approved materials, CFS TwinStar® represents state-of-the-art hygienic design and meets hygienic demands without any difficulties.
Just as important as cleaning times are the downtimes when changing formats or products. With the new CFS TwinStar® format changing is done in less than 10 minutes, even conversion from MAP to skin is done by a simple die change-over. This is due to the free access to all parts and other intelligent solutions such as the CFS die-set trolley with automatic self-positioning on the docking station. Furthermore the trolley can be used to store die-set components and be used as a maintenance cart.
Better performance also means easier and more secure operation. CFS TwinStar® features high operating safety by graphical user controls on a latest generation CFS touch-screen. More improvements can be found under the stainless steel cover: servo motor controls provide not only a more precise transport of the trays, but also secure sealing, less energy consumption, a lower noise level and less foil consumption.
CFS TwinStar® is the central module in a packaging concept. Therefore the optimisation of interfaces is crucial when enhancing performance. With the CFS FlexDenester unit the individual trays, automatically or controlled by the CFS TwinStar®, are denested on the transport conveyor. Thanks to the high buffer capacity refilling is possible without interrupting the machine cycle. Even the CFS FlexDenester can be altered to a new format by simply replacing the denester exchange unit.
A fundamental aspect of enhancing performance at CFS TwinStar® is CostFox, a newly developed business analysis software by CFS, that provides detailed information on how to optimise the efficiency of the packaging equipment and how to achieve further saving potentials. “The new CFS TwinStar® is not only a foreward-looking traysealer concept due to its flexibility and efficiency but also provides an outstanding security of investment,” says Maurizio Bersani.
