The newly developed vertical form, fill and seal machine for sachets produces 4-side sealed pouches for convenience, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. The output of the machine is up to 76,800 sachets/h – depending on the format and product properties. At BIGFOOD, the 6-lane version of the F600 is mainly used for filling dressings and sauces into small pouches (sachets) with a filling volume of 80 and 100 ml. The F600 was not only suitable for BIGFOOD because of its output range, but also because of the fast format changeover.
The range of applications for the F600 includes virtually all liquid and paste-like products from the convenience sector, from dressings, sauces, dips, ketchup, and mayonnaise to mustard. It can also be used for filling cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. The launch of the machine was in 2020 and 30 machines have been sold so far, of which more than 25 are already in production at customers. In Germany, the first machine was installed at BIGFOOD; other machines are already in operation in the United States, in Italy, Malaysia and in the United Arabian Emirates.
At BIGFOOD, the filled sachets go onto a conveyor belt with a counting function and are then poured into erected, reusable plastic boxes.
‘With the F600, we have installed a machine on which our sauces and dressings are packaged in easy to handle and user-friendly portioned sachets. With this machine, we have significantly strengthened our portfolio and expanded our machinery future oriented.’, reports Marc Neumann, Plant Manager at BIGFOOD.
BIGFOOD is part of the HACO Group, which was founded in Switzerland in 1922 and today serves customers around the world from twelve locations on three continents. The group employs 1,600 people worldwide. BIGFOOD is present throughout Germany and beyond with culinary products based on liquid / viscous technologies. The plant offers customized culinary solutions based on numerous technologies for dressings, dips, sauces, spreads, vegan products and desserts with a variety of packaging options for food service and industrial applications as well as home consumption. A new product category is currently soy sauce and wasabi for freshly prepared sushi menus of a large German supermarket chain.
Another HACO Group company in the United States has also ordered an F600 for filling dressings in easy-to-handle sachets.