Taunton, Massachusetts-based Harpak-ULMA, a major supplier of smart, connected packaging systems, has announced a strategic distribution agreement for sales, service and support of Cabinplant multihead fixed-weight packaging equipment in the United States and Canada. Haarby, Denmark-headquartered Cabinplant develops, manufactures and markets innovative, complete food processing, high-speed weighing and packaging systems for frozen food producers as well as other sectors of the food industry including meat, poultry, seafood, vegetable, fruit and vegetable sectors.
“Expanding our solution footprint to embrace more units of production for a customer makes a lot of sense because it lifts the burden of interoperability from the buyer,” said Harpak-ULMA CEO Kevin Roach. “A single, automated pre-integrated solution reduces the risk and time typically associated with patching together technology from multiple vendors. Not only that, but it also eliminates onsite testing iterations, improves machine performance, simplifies diagnostics, and streamlines the entire planning, install and startup process to deliver optimized production sooner. That translates into faster time to market, better ROI, and faster payback than more complex, multi-vendor solutions – on top of the return customers realize by implementing more efficient and accurate fixed weight packaging automation.”
The agreement significantly increases the range of automation and packaging combinations available to Harpak-ULMA-served markets. Cabinplant’s North American customer base gains access to pre-integrated Harpak-ULMA packaging platforms as well as the company’s extended services offerings such as package design, the Harpak-ULMA [training] Academy, and OEE monitoring, plus an extensive North American support services and parts supply operation.
The value of multihead weighing is derived from a combination of automated pre-packaging product processing, distribution and feeding, highly accurate portioning, and dramatically lower manual labor costs
Lars Ryholl, chief executive officer of Cabinplant, commented: “Delivering food products at a fixed weight without automation poses significant challenges due to the natural variability in product size and yield management complexities. Traditional, manually intensive packaging processes are notoriously inefficient and costly, both in terms of labor and product ‘give-away’ which can run up to 5-6% of packaging yield. Cabinplant’s solutions ensure the the lowest give-away on the market for the customer— which is substantial in terms of profit optimization, not to mention the significant labor savings.”
Cabinplant’s solutions will be pre-integrated to allow for seamless plug-and-play connectivity with Harpak-ULMA’s existing automation and packaging platforms. A consistent digital thread across production enables real-time packaging visibility, exposing key information to advanced manufacturing software applications designed to drive production performance improvements.
Harpak-ULMA’s OEE monitoring and Augmented Reality Solutions will expand to include the Cabinplant line. In addition to ensuring seamless connectivity with its own automation equipment, the company plans to offer open, pre-configured integration compatible with virtually any vendor’s packaging equipment. Integrated systems are not only easier to operate and maintain, but they also improve overall solution modularity, elevating Producer flexibility, thus improving their ability to meet evolving retailer and market demands.
Harpak-ULMA CEO Roach added, “We’re thrilled to welcome Cabinplant to our family of packaging platforms and automation solutions. It’s a value-add play for both existing and prospective customers. We are particularly excited by the variety of feeding and weighing configuration options they create for our tray seal, thermoformer, vertical form fill/seal, flow wrap and carton solutions. That kind of customizable, modular packaging approach is very much in line with how we see the market evolving across every one of the industries we serve. We believe that the ability to deliver highly accurate, automated portioning is very much in demand, not only in case-ready applications, but also in frozen and fresh prepared foods as well as packaged meats snd seafood. The fact that their accuracy is so good as to all but eliminate product giveaway, will turn a lot of heads.”
