Intercrop, one of Europe’s foremost salad growers and a pioneer in the mechanisation of the salad harvesting process, has reported a significant increase in productivity six months after installing a GIC machine featuring Leaf Salad Assisted Drop functionality.
Vertical form, fill and seal packaging machine specialist GIC launched its Leaf Salad Assisted Drop functionality in September 2018, following a year of development work and has since sold ten machines, with its latest machine being installed at Intercrop’s UK site at the start of this year.
The Leaf Salad Assisted Drop feature integrates seamlessly with GIC’s range packaging machines, increasing bagging speeds, reducing film usage and cutting the amount of contamination and re-work.
GIC’s integrated Leaf Salad Assisted Drop feature works by creating an area of low pressure in the product chute which draws salad leaves down into the bag in one single slug, thereby eliminating upstream choking. Without this functionality, the product mass elongates into several clumps of salad leaf, which increases the chances of causing contamination by being captured in the seal. Leaf Salad Assisted Drop also allows packers to reduce their film use to lower expenditure and bag sizes; something consumers are currently keen to see.
Intercrop’s Ventseslav Tsochev, Senior Operations Manager, says the company has seen downtime and efficiencies improve by 10% since introducing GIC’s Leaf Salad Assisted Drop machine.
“We started working with GIC last year after seeing a video of the Leaf Salad Assisted Drop system at PPMA 2018 and have been impressed with the quality of their machines,” says Ventseslav. “What they’ve managed to do with the Leaf Salad Assisted Drop feature is fantastic! In just six months, we’ve seen a considerable reduction in contamination, and our bagging rate has gone up, which is excellent!”
Based in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, GIC was established more than 30 years ago and employs 25 people. The company manufactures an extensive range of vertical bagmakers, producing a wide range of finished bag sizes from 150 to 600mm wide, in both intermittent and continuous motion variants. All GIC machines offer low-cost ownership, robustness, reliability and exceptional build quality.
GIC’s machines integrate seamlessly with upstream equipment such as check-weighers, multi-head weighers, cup fillers and counters, with the company offering efficient and cost-effective after sales to all of its customers in fresh and frozen produce, cereals, snacks, confectionery, pasta, powders and pulses, industrial hardware and liquids.
For further information about GIC and its Leaf Salad Assisted Drop functionality, email info@gic.uk.net or call 01427 611885.
