GIC introdces retrofittable salad leaf packing system

GIC has developed a way to retrofit its innovative salad leaf packing technique, which reduces both film use and contamination levels, to already commissioned Vertical Form Fill and Seal machines.

Packaging machinery manufacturer, GIC, introduced its Leaf Salad Assisted Drop feature last year. The system eliminates upstream choking by creating an area of low pressure in the product chute which draws salad leaves down into the bag in one single slug. Without the feature, the product mass often elongates into several clumps of salad leaf, which increases the chances of causing contamination by being captured in the seal.

Until now the Leaf Salad Assisted Drop technology could only be incorporated in new machines. However, following several months of development work, GIC’s engineers have developed a way to fit the feature to machines that are currently running.

“We think this is a potential game-changer,” said Andy Beal, managing director at Gainsborough, UK-based GIC. “Salad producers are keen to reduce the amount of film they use, and they want to see fewer salad leaves sticking in the seal as it can cause contamination and downtime. They also want to increase bagging speeds. That’s why we developed Leaf Salad Assisted Drop machines. The range has attracted a lot of interest, and we’ve sold machines to some of Europe’s largest salad producers.

“Obviously, there are a lot of packaging machines in use, and while people have been bowled over by the new technology, they’re not in a position to buy brand new machines with it in. So, we tasked our design team with developing a way to retrofit the Leaf Salad Assisted Drop functionality to machines currently in use.”

The retrofit includes all the mechanical and electrical parts plus a software update. The process takes around 8 hours to complete and, based on reports from current users, delivers around a 10% increase in productivity, vastly reduced seal contamination levels and downtime.