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For various reasons, Kalogrias says the company prefers to deal with Canadian-based packaging suppliers, citing the September 2006 purchase of a new FDS2500 model filling machine manufactured by ControlGMC Inc., a well-established designer and manufacturer of fully-automatic tub, tray, bucket, and pail filling and closing lines based near Montreal in Boucherville, Que.
Photo by Pierre Longtin
Featuring a modular design configuration that enables it to fill liquid, dry, viscous or sticky products on the same machine in many different shapes and sizes of plastic, paperboard and aluminum containers, the machine’s high performance features include a one-by-one lid and container escapement system, an air-removing closing head, and a user-friendly touchscreen Simatic HMI (human-machine interface) control panel from Siemens.
“It’s been a very good machine for us, running at a speed of 40 cycles per minute,” says Kalogrias.
“We’ve found that the set-up time for our dips only takes about 20 minutes or so,” shes notes, while also complimenting the high quality of 12- and 16-ounce plastic tubs and five-liter pails—supplied by the Goderich, Ont.-based Jokey Plastics North America Incorporated—used for dips and sauces dispensed by the FDS2500 filler.
“We’ve been using the Jokey plastic tubs for quite a while now,” she remarks, “and the strength of their product translates directly into the strength of our product—providing the ArahovA brands with great visual appeal on the retail shelves.”
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Photo by Pierre Longtin
In addition to Jokey tubs, the FDS2500 filler also handles clear, 500-gram plastic PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles—supplied by the Anjou, Que.-based plastic container manufacturer Summum Plastiques
Inc.—for packaging sauces and condiments such as the popular Tzatziki spread, using a shrink-tunnel manufactured by Saturn Packaging Equipment Ltd. of Ville St-Laurent, Que., to apply colorful fullbody
shrinksleeves for maximum shelf appeal.
To take care of its product coding and traceability requirements, the Arahova plant employs a Hitachi model PB-260U CIJ (continuous inkjet) coder supplied by the Edmonton-headquartered automated identification
technologies distributor Harlund Industries Ltd.
Positioned right above the ControlGMC filler, the two-line small-character coder—rated for moderate line speeds and equipped with a specially-designed ink circulation system for minimizing fluid evaporation—is programmed via an 8.9-inch monochrome LCD (liquid crystal display) touchscreen panel, with its easy-to-use on-screen menu to facilitating fast operation, maintenance and troubleshooting.
According to Hitachi, the coder’s nozzle and gutter are automatically cleaned prior to shutdown to avoid clogging, thus requiring no special procedures, while its viscosity and density control features ensure stable ink drop formation and high print quality when applying the best-before dates, lot code data and other variable product information onto the plastic tubs, just below the lidding.
All the filled, sealed and coded Arahova products—some of them packed into folding cartons supplied by the Kingsey Falls, Que.-headquartered Cascades Canada Inc.—are then readied for shipment by being hand-packed into pre-printed corrugated boxes supplied by the Cascades’ corrugated division Norampac, which also manufactures POP (point-of-purchase) displays for some of Arahova’s product lines.
Photo by Pierre Longtin
While the Arahova plant’s packaging operation is not about to break any speed or capacity records in the near future, Kalogrias says it does a nice job of helping maintain the company’s carefully nurtured upscale image.
“I think that being able to maintain a healthy respect for the culinary traditions of our native Greece here in Canada is what has helped Arahova grow into the successful and well-respected company that it is today,” Kalogrias states.
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