Framptons invest in Makro technology
Framptons of Shepton Mallet in Somerset have had a long association with Innocent as one of their contract packers for the market leading Smoothie and high-end juices. Production needed to be further increased for line four at Shepton, so Framptons went out to tender for the project which included a new conveyor system, conveyor controls, drying tunnel and a labeller.
A number of presentations were made to the company, and Framptons then opted for the Makro solution, which included a full turnkey project from the filling clean room through to an existing packer. Makro Labelling designed the conveyor system in conjunction with Walsall Engineering and the project includes a Makro Mak 3, 14-platform labeller with an electronic cam and a parallel infeed and outfeed conveyor. The Mak 3 will be able to label either hot melt wraparound body labels with a Tamper Evident Lollipop label, or a body and back self adhesive solution again with a Lollipop Tamper Evident label.
For continuous running, both hot melt and self-adhesive labelling solutions will have tandem stations to avoid downtime due to stopping the labeller to refill the labels. This aspect of the Makro solution was extremely important to Framptons, as it is essential to get the filled and labelled product out of the production hall as quickly as possible.
The Mak 3 will run at 14,000 b.p.h. on both square and carafe style Innocent bottles, in bottle sizes from 300cl to 1.350L.
Richard Portman, Managing Director of Makro Labelling UK said, "We have developed a good relationship with Framptons in recent months, and were delighted when they asked us to tender for this project. We were able to demonstrate to the Framptons' team that we can not only supply labelling systems but complete turnkey systems as well, working in close collaboration with selected partners to achieve a viable solution to suit the customer's needs. The new line is due for delivery late summer."
