New shrink-wrap machines at cheesecake producer Adam Matthews improve the package quality while cutting the number of packaging lines from three to two. Thinner, narrower film reduces costs by enabling the new machines to wrap almost 50-percent more product per roll of film. When you're on a first-name basis with your shrink-wrap machinery serviceman, it could be a sign that the equipment you're using, even though relatively new, has some inherent issues that may never go away. That was the conclusion at Adarn Matthews, Inc. Owner Adam Burckle says it wasn't uncommon for the serviceman to be there two days in a row to correct problems related to poor seal quality and indexing errors that resulted in as many as a dozen cakes crushed in an eight-hour shift. In fact, this happened with equipment from two different manufacturers. But after serving as a test site for a new shrink-wrapping system from Lantech.com, LLC (www.lantech.com), Adam Mathews found that such problems aren't endemic to shrink equipment. Burckle elected to replace his three existing lines with two wrappers and tunnels from Lantech. The consistency of the new machines led to a "measurable increase in output," even with one less line, says Burckle, along with a nice savings resulting from a 50-percent increase in the number of cakes/roll of film by using narrower, thinner film.
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