On-demand coffee service Pact has turned to labelling equipment supplier Advanced Dynamics for a cost-effective and highly accurate automated packing solution, in order to help it cope with an increased production output.
The London-based business started a service that offers to deliver any amount of freshly roasted coffee on a flexible, recurring subscription basis, as FoodBev first reported in September 2014. In order to help it pack 4,000 bags per day at its facility in Bermondsey, London, the firm installed Advanced Dynamics’ ELF-20 desktop labeller.
The ELF-20’s aluminium and stainless steel design makes it portable and durable. It has a wide application range of up to 180mm packs, applying labels of up to 120mm wide and 300mm long, while the user-friendly operating system and microprocessor controls have many added features that can boost production.
Pact Coffee operations manager Matthew Devine said: “None of the other companies I spoke to at [Packaging Innovations in February] were able to come up with a simple solution. Then the Pack Leader machine on the Advanced Dynamics stand caught my eye. I like the ELF-20. It is small – important to us as space is at a premium – and user-friendly. It has doubled our throughput, giving us a step up in efficiency.”
Following trials, the system had to be customised to cope with Pact Coffee’s pouches – all part of the service to ensure that the company’s switch from a manual operation to an automated labelling solution went as smoothly as possible.
Advanced Dynamics’ managing director Malcolm Little added: “The ELF-20 can cope with flat cartons but Pact Coffee’s pouches are very thin when flat, so the guide rail needed reworking to cope with the packs efficiently. We also had to reposition the sensor to detect their presence.”
With these adjustments in place and averaging speeds of 30-40 packs per minute, the ELF-20 is successfully helping the company dispatch twice the volume of products on a morning than it used to while at the same time enabling Pact Coffee to move staff to more productive tasks.
Devine concluded: “If we ever need more labelling gear, we would definitely come back to Advanced Dynamics. They have been a joy to work with and their support has been fantastic.”
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