Companies in the US, Europe, and other parts of the world all require a high degree of safety in their secondary packaging equipment, as well as machines flexible enough to handle a broad range of product. Steve Heston, owner of palletizer manufacturer TopTier, spoke with FoodProductionDaily on trends and concerns in the secondary packaging market.
What concerns are food firms and packaging partners faced with?
Safety is an increasing concern in the US market comparable to European expectations for many years. Product handling flexibility and compact size are also important. Our concurrent stretch wrapping while palletizing is a unique capability that stabilizes the load as it is build reducing consumables such as tie sheets and reducing floor space needs.
How do such concerns in the industry differ between US companies and those overseas?
There is increasing harmonization of safety standards between the US and Europe. We build our machines using metric components because that is the international norm and there is limited or no resistance to metric machines in the US. Non-metric designs are an impediment in the international market.
What packaging technologies does your company focus on, and what sets your products apart?
TopTier manufacturers palletizers that have higher standard safety, smaller size and that stretch wrap loads as the load is built. Our palletizers are shipped worldwide to nearly all industries in food, parasitical, manufactured goods and beverage.
What equipment will you be showcasing at Interpack?
We will display our all electric low infeed L-7 palletizer with concurrent wrapping at Interpack. The palletizer will be operational with a robot cycling product to the palletizer. Also, our high-infeed layer pre-build concurrent wrap palletizer handles 35 cpm.
TopTier is exhibiting its packaging technologies at Interpack, taking place May 8-14 in Dusseldorf, Germany. The conference and exhibition focuses on packaging equipment and technology for food firms, beverage companies, and other industries.