IMA Dairy & Food Group Introduces 'Open Mold' Thermoforming Technology For Erca FFS Machines

New System Offers Affordable Flexibility for Container Shapes & Sizes, as Well as Material Waste Reduction

IMA Dairy & Food USA – whose parent company develops and manufactures complete packaging lines and individual machines for the dairy and food industries – has introduced a versatile thermoforming technology for its Erca EF Series of Form-Fill-Seal Machines that allows food manufacturers to create proprietary shapes for cups and bottles at nearly the same cost as standard molds. Known as Open Mold, the system can be used to shape unique-to-brand containers for a variety of food products, including yogurt, cream spreads, jellies and jams, juices, water, butter, margarine, sauces and fruit salads.

Traditionally, thermoformed containers must be straight-walled or tapered out to release them from the production mold. IMA’s Open Mold technology allows a proprietary shape to be formed prior to filling and sealing.

On EF FFS Series machines, manufacturers utilizing the Open Mold technology can produce up to 18,000 product-filled portion cups, or 16,800 product-filled bottles, per hour. In addition to nearly limitless packaging shaping possibilities, a wide variety of attractive labeling options are available, including wraparound and spotside.

IMA’s Open Mold technology also serves to reduce waste; it achieves this via a special Erca plastic stretching device that minimizes the bottom thickness in unused thermoforming areas, and by limiting wasted lid material during the die-cutting and pick-and-place processes. The result is a reduction in overall scrap waste material that can lead to significant cost savings relating to packaging materials, transportation and storage.

About IMA Group
IMA Group is world leader in the design and manufacture of automatic machines for the processing and packaging of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, tea, coffee and food. The Group has approximately 3,700 employees and 24 production plants in Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, India and China as well as a global sales and service network. IMA Group is active in more than 80 countries.

IMA Dairy & Food USA serves the dairy and food industries with a portfolio covering nearly all areas of packaging machine application, including:

• Filling and sealing machines (FS) for preformed cups and bottles, and forming, filling and sealing machines (FFS) for packaging products in the food, dairy, beverage segment filled up to the aseptic level as well as wrapping machines for packaging butter, margarine, etc.
• Aseptic vertical form, fill and seal machines for stick packs / pouches (with the corresponding dosing systems) as well as FS and FFS machines for packaging single portions of coffee, honey, jam, etc.

IMA Dairy & Food’s main office in the United States is located in Edison, NJ. For more information, visit www.oystar-group.com.