The ability to meet food manufacturers’ demands for efficiency, flexibility and quality in their tray sealing operations will be demonstrated on the Proseal stand at Foodex, where the company will showcase its pioneering electric heat seal technology that also delivers valuable environmental benefits as well.

The Proseal GT2e is a high speed, tray sealer, capable of in excess of 120 trays per minute, which combines Proseal’s innovative E-seal® electric sealing technology with the many proven functional and reliability benefits of Proseal equipment.

A major benefit of the ‘e’ design is the machine’s flexibility in being able to handle any type of tray including atmospheric, MAP, Vacuum MAP, Skin, Skin Plus and Skin Deep. Customers can simply select the format types they require and these can be added to or taken off at any time. This allows food manufacturers to change their pack formats in line with customer demands and market trends without having to invest in new equipment.

E-seal® provides an energy efficient system that delivers a high-precision seal with an extremely strong sealing force, ensuring every seal has the tightness and reliability to meet the stringent quality requirements of the retail sector. At the same time, retaining pneumatic functions means the machine can also offer additional benefits such as date coding of pre-printed film.

Equally important, the technology achieves an increase of seal force of 260%, while only consuming 8% of the air of a machine fitted with an equivalent standard pneumatic cylinder. This delivers major energy and cost savings that also have an important impact on a company’s environmental performance and help to meet carbon reduction targets.

In addition to improved seal quality and reduced energy consumption, E-seal® can increase machine productivity through shorter seal times, reduce gas flush cycle times and ensure accurate gas flush positioning for enhanced MAP packing.

Maximum throughput is achieved thank to Proseal’s Pro-Motion system, which uses following motion and intelligent buffering technology to enable trays to feed continuously into the sealer without having to pre-sort and adjust pack spacing. This results in an increase from 15 cycles to 20 cycles per minute, equivalent to an additional 30 packs per minute with a six impression tool. Product handling is also improved with fewer lines stoppages due to misplaced trays.

The overall performance of the line can also be analysed using Proseal’s newly-developed Pro-Vision unique data collection system. Typically production lines can be affected by several small stoppages during a shift. Pro-Vision is able to capture all these incidents and provide an accumulated set of data for each connected piece of equipment on the line. This helps production managers and engineers identify recurring problems and develop suitable corrective action.

Another advanced feature of the GT2e is its Pro-Tect user login security system, which provides different levels of authorisation access for individual personnel. The system keeps a log of information inputted for full traceability in the event of any problems, and any attempt to log in above a person’s level of authorisation will also be registered and recorded.

The machine offers a rugged construction manufactured to food industry approved hygiene standards with full wash-down protection. It retains Proseal’s pioneering advanced lightweight and high strength ‘Auto Tool’ connection system, which enables tool changes to be carried out in around five minutes.

Downtime is also minimised by the use of quick-change conveyor belts, and an auto-lock film reel holder. The machine’s practical design is enhanced by situating the electrical controls above the sealing area, which also allows for safe access.

The GT2e incorporates a user-friendly menu-driven control panel for ease of set up and operation, which can be remotely accessed and controlled. The screen also provides detailed production data, production monitoring and full diagnostics. Full double-sided operation is provided by a swing arm control interface for enhanced accessibility.

E-seal® technology is available across the entire Proseal GT range of tray sealers.