Single source snack solutions showcased at the Heat and Control and Ishida Open House

Heat and Control and Ishida have demonstrated their complete solutions in snacks food production Open House event at the Ishida factory facility in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Over a two week period in June 2018, around 100 snack food producers visited the Ishida Demonstration Centre to see a live snacks factory setting in action, with lines of Heat and Control and Ishida snacks equipment in operation.

The Open House provided a great opportunity for snack food producers to not only see the equipment in action, but to participate in a series of information and training sessions, a factory tour and see live product demonstrations from leading Heat and Control and Ishida snack food experts.
 

Customers could also visit the Ishida Quality Control display room and view the latest in product integrity technology with demonstration of X-ray machines and check weighers.

HCI Snacks Solutions – providing complete snack food solutions

Heat and Control and Ishida have come together to form a strategic alliance that provides snack customers with full ‘end to end’ processing and packaging solutions.

The alliance, known as HCI Snack Solutions, specifically targets the EMEA region, and builds upon a long-standing partnership the two companies have elsewhere in the world.

In Australia, New Zealand and the USA, Heat and Control is the exclusive distributor of Ishida packaging and inspection technology. In India, Heat and Control is the exclusive distributor for snack food packaging.

Bobby Kane, Director of Business Development UK, Europe and Middle East:
 

“The Open House has been a fantastic way for customers to interact with snack food experts from both Heat and Control and Ishida.”

“Given the automation benefits of Industry 4.0, engaging with a single source supplier like HCI Snack Solutions can add value through increased connectivity levels and digital data exchange, along all stages of the processing and packaging production lines.”

“Working with one supplier like HCI is a far easier and cost effective process, as customers only need to speak to one team.”

“We are like a one-stop-shop for snack solutions.”

Equipment on display

Snack food producers were able to see demonstrations of product moving through key sections of the processing and packaging lines.

One example was potato chips moving from the SwitchBack conveyor and up into an incline conveyor, which can move your product vertically to where you need it and reduce drop damage.
 After reaching the top of the incline conveyor, the potato chips are transported down the line through Heat and Control’s FastBack® Revolution Proportional Gate.

The Revolution Gate eliminates product breakage during gate closure and provides an accurate feed of product to weigher via the FastBack® Left Right Center (LRC).

The LRC is a double multihead weigher feed solution designed to provide a precise and consistent product stream to Ishida’s patented back-to-back 218 twin weigher, which provides superior weighing accuracy to meet production requirements.
 The product then moves from the weighers into the Inspira twin or single snack food bagmakers, the next evolution of vertical form fill seal (VFFS) bagmakers further improves accuracy, sealing integrity, ease of use, and productivity.

For quality control, Ishida DACS checkweighers will verify correct product weight or count, eliminate underweights, and protect profits by eliminating costly product overweight giveaway.
 The snack product was then packed using the ACP-700 Case Packer, which can be integrated into any snacks production line, ready to portion, pack and seal to suit your production requirements.

Automation of the line was controlled using Heat and Control’s New Horizon and Ishida’s Senital controls and data solutions technology, which enabled operators to fully oversee the production line and provide real time feedback to the operator.

The continuing surge in the popularity of snack food has seen manufacturers look to innovative ways to increase output, through high speed production lines to cook and season snacks in smaller batch numbers but with a wider range of product lines.

The ability for fast changeovers and flexibility will see snack products reach the end customer faster, with reduced operational costs.

The Global Ishida and Heat and Control alliance acknowledges today’s environment of increased machine automation and system integration. With a combined 200 years of experience in the snacks industry, together we offer complete integrated snacks solutions to producers worldwide.