By Amcor Flexibles North America

Protein producers can improve productivity and lower operating costs.  

In today’s challenging environment safety, material costs and operational efficiencies are impacting your bottom line. What worked 20 years ago could be holding you back today, restricting product flow, requiring more labor, and creating waste. What if the solution was right in front of you? 

The packaging area on your floor can be designed to leverage automation, remove limitations, and improve profit. Leading processors are installing state-of-the-art vacuum shrink packaging in expansions and existing plants for fresh beef, pork, poultry and processed meats. The packaging and equipment from Amcor Moda Packaging Solutions can streamline your floor design and make your business future ready.

Design optimized transitions: Direct-in-line or distributed product flow. 

When designing a fabrication floor, the transition from the boning tables to the vacuum packaging lines is a critical consideration. Designers of fabrication floors with multiple vacuum packing lines will need to consider their preference for a direct-in-line or distributed product flow configurations. 

In a direct-in-line layout:

• The product flows from the boning table directly to a defined packing line or set of packing lines only. From these packing lines, the vacuum packaged product may flow directly to that line’s dedicated carton pack-off
• There are a limited number of products that each bagger and carton packer must accurately identify, thus reducing the chance of operator error

• The product moves seamlessly from the boning table to the packing station without added labor or mechanical intervention

In a distributed layout:

• The raw product flows from the boning tables to a transverse or carousel conveyor, which enables any product to flow to any packing line
• This optimizes the use of a flow wrapper like Amcor Moda Pac by aligning similar width products to the same machine
• Reduces redundancy by diverting product to an alternative line if it stops
• Simplifies re-work, with a single conveyor for leaker return

The decision between direct-in-line and a distributed layout will depend on a number of factors including product mix and volume, the skill and accessibility of labor, and the number of vacuum packaging lines. The experts at Amcor Moda Packaging Solutions work with producers to identify and design the most efficient solution.

The role of vacuum packaging.

There are many ways to vacuum package fresh meat, from single chamber and swing-lid units, to belted chamber machines and rotary chamber designs. Amcor’s integrated vacuum packaging solutions includes the Moda Vac line of advanced rotary vacuum packaging equipment. 

The benefits of Amcor’s modern rotary solution to replace existing equipment or in a new packaging line:  

• Speed. One Amcor Moda Vac can run at up to 40 pieces per minute with a single operator
• Natural product spacing. Unlike belted chamber machines, each vacuumed product exits the Amcor Moda Vac in clear space, ensuring optimal shrink and chill tunnel performance, and enabling automated product ID and further automation in carton pack-off
• Flexibility. With Amcor’s unique digital dynamic seal system, the Amcor Moda Vac can run boneless shrink bags alongside thick, coextruded bone-in - Amcor CBP® - film concurrently, eliminating the need for expensive, patched bone-guard bags

Source: Amcor

Eliminate the costs and storage challenges of pre-made shrink bags.

Amcor’s equipment and packaging solutions replace traditional boxes of pre-made vacuum shrink bags with rolls of plain tubing that run on the Moda Bag, and flat shrink roll stock that runs on the Moda Pac. The benefits are compelling:

• Amcor Moda Bag can reduce the cost of shrink packaging material by up to 30%
• Amcor Moda Pac’s automated loading solution can reduce the labor required in the packaging step by 60% or more
• Reduce bag waste with on-demand, customized sizing
• Eliminate high volumes of bag SKUs in favor of eight to ten widths of blank tubing and flat roll stock
• Reduce the cost of starting bag inventory by 40 to 60%

Modern shrink and chill tunnels improve safety, shelf-life and sustainability.

Steam tunnels are commonly used in the meat industry, but for a modern packaging line, consider electrically-heated hot water shrink tunnels. 

Amcor’s Moda Shrink offers:

• Smaller footprint, plug-and-play unit with no steam piping, exhaust piping or roof penetrations
• No natural gas consumed, requires only a power supply and ambient water. This can result in up to 15% reduction of natural gas needs and improved greenhouse gas emission rates
• Digitally controlled heater elements provide precise temperature control without fluctuation

Chilling vacuum packaged product immediately after the shrink tunnel can extend shelf-life, and reduce purge by up to 50%. For these reasons many export customers require a chill bath on each line, especially in the fresh pork market. 

Amcor’s Moda Chill V3 offers:

• Plug-and-play, self-contained and compact design to just add power and ambient water
• No ammonia, which improves safety and eliminates additional labor
• High water flow for effective chilling in a short time and in a smaller space

Source: Amcor

Amcor, a global leader in packaging with a strong heritage and legacy in the meat industry, continues to invest in the future of protein packaging to enhance capabilities, leverage new technologies and innovation, and deliver meaningful expertise and insights to our customers.

 With our focus on innovation and pledge to sustainable packaging, Amcor is driven to deliver packaging solutions in the future without compromising performance.