Assured pallet stability has been a key achievement for one dairy farm in Lancashire, since their purchase of a semi-automatic rotating arm pallet wrapper. Supplied by automated packaging specialists Yorkshire Packaging Systems (YPS), the new equipment was purchased to wrap pallets of bottles of milk and complements their existing packaging machinery, previously supplied by YPS.
The farm has been owned and managed by the same family for more than six decades. The milk produced by their dairy herd is sold as raw milk, raw cream, natural live yoghurt, cheese and ghee. They also offer beef, eggs and fruit, with all items being produced on the farm. The purchase of the new pallet wrapper adds speed and consistency to their end-of-line packing, enabling them to continue to grow and ensuring the protection of their products for storage and transit.
A rotating arm wrapper keeps the pallet stationery while its robotic arm circles it with the pallet wrap. This makes it ideally suited for loads of smaller, individual or heavy items, such as milk bottles, where keeping the pallet still reduces movement and maintains load integrity throughout the wrapping cycle.
As well as increasing packaging efficiency, the new pallet wrapper improves pallet containment and stability in transit. This particular model offers a choice of wrapping programme, ensuring an excellent wrap for the selected products now, and flexibility to wrap other products just as perfectly in the future, if required.
Space on the farm was limited, so the compact design of the rotating arm wrapper – which requires no turntable – was ideal. The intuitive HMI was simple for the dairy staff to learn to use, so they could be confident of operating it very quickly. In addition, the robust build of the equipment is ideal for a busy dairy environment and delivers a long-term solution.
Advanced technology integrated within the pallet wrapper can be used to monitor and optimise film consumption, leading to a reduction in materials use for many users by ensuring the wrap is consistently applied, avoiding over-wrapping and improving material efficiency.
This dairy is using the pallet wrapper in conjunction with fully recyclable packaging, a commitment they have made for all of the packaging they use for their full range of products. They selected blue film for use with the pallet wrapper, identifying the contents as a food product and providing clear identification during handling and distribution.