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| EDL & RICE TO GO? | Date: Sept. 2005 | Author: V Godding | 'EDL and rice to go' not a new hot dish but equally as satisfying for Veetee Rice Ltd, a leading importer and processor of a wide range of boxed and packaged rice, and packaging machinery designers and manufacturers EDL Packaging Ltd. It must be noted that since the supply of the first machines to Veetee Rice, EDL have come under the Rotolok Group banner and as a consequence broadened it's product range and added additional manufacturing capacity with the integration of the John Quinn Ltd site at Burnley and is now operating as EDL John Quinn Packaging Ltd
Veetee is one of the UK's largest volume suppliers of rice to the grocery trade, through own label and Veetee branded products. Founded in 1987, primarily to supply the growing ethnic market in London, they have expanded to a unique market position amongst rice producers with factories in India, Pakistan and a flagship production facility in Medway Kent. Now exporting to over 50 countries and importing from India, Pakistan, USA, Europe, Asia and South America Veetee is now recognised as a truly global player in the expanding rice market.
With the rapid expansion of rice production at the Medway factory in the late 90's, Veetee Rice reached a point where they identified the need to automate the collating and palletising of their rice packs, which until then had been a purely manual operation. David Crewe, Veetee's General Manager-Manufacturing Operations, faced with the task of upgrading the plant, assessed a number of UK based end of line equipment suppliers, looking specifically at their supply track record, manufacturing and design capabilities but of equal importance their after sales service. David Crewe eventually selected EDL Packaging Ltd, the long established, Barnstaple based, manufacturer of packaging machinery. Offering, shrink wrapping, case packing, thermoforming and palletising equipment along with a strong R&D history as well as the requisite spares and service backup, EDL were awarded their first order by Veetee Rice in 2000 to supply a Stretchwrapper and Palletiser.
The brief from Veetee determined the requirement to collate and wrap individual packs of 500gms,1kg and 2kg sizes at the rate in excess of 40 tonnes per shift in a total of 12 different product collations with the packs being offered in lay flat orientation from the filler. They also specified that the palletising operation should allow for the use of both,1000mm x1200mm 'Chep' and Euro pallets, again with collation variations to suit the end customer demands. The machine supplied a, fully automatic Double Stretchwrapper includes trayless collating and wrapping is linked to a SIG filling machine by a slat chain conveyor, which directs the packs to the collator in a flat position. Included in the machine design and located at the beginning of the in feed conveyor is a pack rejection system, which identifies packs outside the specified parameters, occasionally caused by a reseal label stood up. As the packs are collated an overhead, belt style, conditioning conveyor, which oscillates on a slight taper trajectory across the packs, gently regulates their size, thereby improving both collation and pack stability. The next stage is the double stretch wrapping around both axis, which ensures that the pack is totally enclosed and hygienically wrapped. The stretch wrapped units are conveyed through a fully controlled shrink wrap tunnel, which applies a light heat to ensure the pack is clean, tidy and suitable for safe handling at the retailers premises. From the tunnel the pack is directed to the Palletiser, a Gantry style unit where a gripper head moves collated product to the pallet and once at the pre determined product level the palletised unit is automatically stretch wrapped with an LLDPE film prior to uplifting and storage.
By the middle of 2001 with the success of their products really impacting on the factory, Veetee increased capacity dramatically with the introduction of an additional filling line utilising a Rovema machine to compliment the SIG on the first line. Pleased with performance of the EDL equipment and the continuing development discussions, a further order was placed for a Stretchwrapper and Palletiser. In the intervening 10 months EDL had worked closely with the customer in developing improvements including a servo controlled 'pusher' for pack collation. This adaption was added to the second machine and like the first stretchwrapper continues to operate daily at the designated throughput.
The continuing relationship between the two companies moved to early 2004 with the purchase of a third Stretchwrapper and Palletiser, this time working along side a second, Rovema vertical form filler. Again, ongoing dialogue between the parties encouraged development of an improved version of the machines with the incorporation of a double belt, vertical, conveyor conditioning system to handle the collation of packs now in the vertical mode. Improvements were also made to the palletiser, which incorporates an auto feed pallet magazine and transfer conveyor to the integral pallet wrapper. The wrapper is equipped with automatic film attachment, variable tension control and automatic film cut off when wrapping is completed. Also improved sophistication of the plc control functions was identified as an expected improvement, as was achieving a minimum down time between pack and collation changes. With regard to the latter point, both pack and collation change down time has been reduced to around15 minutes and meets with the design criteria agreed.
The latest chapter in the relationship between Veetee Rice and EDL is the 2005 purchase of a further fully automatic Palletiser, to work in conjunction with a new Rovema case packer operating at a throughput of 15 cases per minute. However, the ongoing supply of equipment fully utilised by a buoyant food processor brings it own problems, machines will need to be serviced and upgraded, spares must be available and suppliers personnel must understand the users problems. Back in 1999 these issues formed part of David Crewe's original selection criteria and today EDL are meeting his expectations in the spares and service field as well as equipment quality, design capability and big ears to listen with.
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