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LE Machines - Case Studies

Line Equipment Customer Case Studies

Filling Your Bags with Peace of Mind For Over 30 years

Pillow-BlockillustratLine Equipment has been building VFFS machines for over 30 years, with almost 400 machines installed all over the world, renowned for their reliability. We believe we offer customers machines that deliver both high efficiency and value for money and here you can read our customers stories and opinions.

The entire LE VFFS range is constructed in stainless steel to suit even the most demanding environment, making them, amongst many applications, excellent wet food machines.

Below we highlight some specific cases studies and testimonials from our customers across VFFS, HFFS and Bespoke machine usage.

Talking to Engineering Manager Leigh Henshaw at Delicious Alchemy about their LE360 PDQ 

The LE360 PDQ is the latest machine to developed by Line Equipment specially to meet our customers demand.

More and more of our customers, whether they are contract packers or supplying own brand products into supermarkets report that they are being ‘guided’ to supply more ‘stand up pouch’ Doy style packaging. Like most manufacturers Line Equipment build and supply a dedicated Pouch machine as part of their range.

However if you are a producer / contract packer and have already invested in a line of machines that produce the ‘standard’ range of Pillow, Block Bottom, Quad bags then this Supermarket driven move towards Stand Up Pouches will have implications in terms of investment and space.

What do you do? Rip out and replace one or more standard VFFS baggers. Swap completely to Pouch bagging.

As our own customers came to us with those questions we made a decision. To develop one machine capable of producing most styles of bags, including Doy style, while keeping to the same quality and cost effectiveness that the rest of our range is renowned for.

The PDQ is a solution that allows customers to produce various bag styles from one machine, filling the gap to a move to dedicated machines for each product bag range, as and when the production levels demand

After a year of development and testing we finally launched the PDQ at the beginning of 2018.  The first commissioned machine is now up and running and we can hear feedback (video below) from Delicious Alchemy Engineering Manager Leigh Henshaw.

About Delicious Alchemy

After being diagnosed as coeliac, Emma Killilea very soon became a little miffed at the lack of natural, healthy and delicious gluten free food there was. Not one to quietly grumble in the corner, she did something about it.

Emma packed in her job as a computer games producer, studied food science and marketing at university. Not long after, Delicious Alchemy was born.

That was 2006. Today, a hat full of awards. Bulging Gluten Free product range. And supplying to leading supermarket and professional catering companies has been ticked off the TO DO list.

Now surrounded by a team of talented, passionate and equally motivated people, Emma and the Delicious Alchemy team are 100% committed to extending the range further. Making gluten free options commonplace. And doing whatever they can to help more and more people live happy and healthy lives. None of this is easy, but as the saying goes, ‘if it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.’

Everything Delicious Alchemy make is free from artificial flavours, colours and GM ingredients. And of course, gluten. We know it’s important. So that’s a promise.

Delicious Alchemy exists to make a gluten free diet interesting and varied. It’s why we’re always working hard to bring you new things. But only when we’re 100% satisfied they are right. And yummy.

In the video below we talk to Leigh Henshaw, Engineering Manager at Delicious Alchemy.

Delicious Alchemy logo

Engineering Manager Leigh Henshaw talks about the PDQ

I would definitely recommend Line Equipment to others!

Leigh Henshaw

Engineering Manager, Delicious Alchemy

Talking to Engineering Manager John Harris at RM Curtis

RM Curtis - Contract PackagingRM Curtis are a long established and leading supplier of dried ingredients including edible nuts, dried fruit and seeds. From the initial bulk supply of these ingredients under the Curtis brand they have also launched their own retail brands, such as Funtime, healthy snacks for kids and Snacking Essentials, mixed fruit, nuts and seeds snacks. In addition they offer a Contract Packing service of complete one-stop design, manufacturing and packing service for brand owners in a wide range of pack types and sizes.

Their packaging production line, in it’s current format, as been running since 1988. The first VFFS bagging machine they installed came from Line Equipment. The production as grown in tandem with business growth and they now deploy 10 VFFS machines. Each one is from the Line Equipment range. In fact most of the production line as either been built or supplied by Line Equipment, including the gantries, take-off conveyors and multi-head weighers.

In the short video below Engineering Manager John Harris talks about his experience in using Line Equipment as a supplier.

All our production is based around LE machines, we standardised all our packing line, we currently run seven packing lines all running LE packing machines. They are very reliable, very simple to maintain.

John Harris

Engineering Manager, RM Curtis

Which VFFS Machine Is Best? – Talking to David Robey at Dri-Pak

Customer Case Icon 1Dri-Pak is a family owned business spanning three generations whose business has continuously evolved since the 1960s, from packing food salt for the grocery trade into producing and supplying traditional cleaning products to the retail trade. Whilst food salt and dishwasher water softening salt remain a key part of the business, growing interest in traditional and natural cleaning products has led to developments and extensions within the range.

In addition Dri-Pak provide own-label and contract packing to leading UK stores and welcome enquiries for this service or any of their product range.

Contact details for Dri-Pak are at the bottom of this case study.

I spoke to David Robey, Head of Production and asked about his criteria in choosing a Form Fill bagging machine and his relationship with Line Equipment as a supplier.

David has worked for Dri-Pak for over 30 years and is pragmatic in his supplier choices.

Around the time we had become fully automated we were running mainly Sandiacre machines and when I went to market for further machines it became a straight choice between more of the legacy Sandiacre machines or the “new” Line Equipment machines. (The first LE machine was built in 1994).

The final decision came down to one question – could the lower priced LE machine do the same job as the proven Sandiacre machine?

I decided it could and put one online. We haven’t looked back”.

Price was important to DriPak, their products are mainly in the commodities market and therefore carry low retail price points, so profit margins are related to volume, making the Return of Investment (ROI) on new VFFS machinery around 6 to 7 years.

Line Equipment machines are robust and the bag speed per. minute we require means we run them well within their maximum output capabilities, so we have had very few problems over the years and Line provide excellent, fast service anyway.

In addition to buying new machines from the LE range David has also taken advantage of Line’s upgrade and refurbishment service.

Although Sandiarce stopped supplying spares and servicing for their machines (TG3B) after 5 years end of life, Line still produced spare parts for them, and eventually we took advantage of Line’s PLC and electrics upgrade to give extended life to those TG3B machines.

John Blashkiw says; “VFFS machines can provide 20 plus years of reliable service, depending on environment and usage. Changes to technology may enable faster and greener machines, but sometimes it is possible to upgrade the legacy machine. The original chassis of a machine is quite a chunk of the new build machine cost so why scrap it if it is capable of refurbishment for extended service?”

Talking to Customer Fabio Laurenti at Giorgio’s Continental

Giorgios logoGiorgio’s Continental import cheeses, pastas, meats, olive oils and vinegars, plus wines, spirits, beers and ciders from Italy and process and supply as ingredients to industrial customers, both those who use the ingredients to produce finished items, such as ready meals to supermarkets and to large groups to supply their own restaurant chains.

They also produce a pasta range branded as Pastaficio, which can be found in major retailers, national restaurant chains and brewery groups. Contact details for both are at the bottom of this case study.

Giorgio’s operates from within FSSC 22000 accredited sites.

Going back to a relationship that started some14 years ago with their first machine, Giorgio’s now have 5 Line Equipment baggers in total, one of which is a twin machine. On the grated cheese packaging line Giorgio’s use Line Equipment machines to fill and seal 5 kilo bags.

The bagging speed is dependent on the speed of the grating process rather than the machines capabilities, we achieve 6 to 8 bags per minute”.

It is he reliability of the machines that has kept Giorgio’s loyal to the LE range.

Engineering Manager Andy Lazenby talks bagging Ice

I like the simplicity of the machines and so do the operators!

Andy Lazenby

Engineering Manager, Keystream Ice

The New Multipack Machine from Line Equipment in use at Big K 

A number of companies use a mixture of manual and automatic bagging processes.

Moving from a semi-automated process of filling pre-made bags to the faster and more cost effective use of film and automatic bagging is often a gradual way to develop and ensure there is sufficient orders to justify the initial outlay.

Even more established production lines may still have an element of manual packaging, usually at the end of the line.

One area Line Equipment has been helpful in both increasing speed and allowing the re-deployment of labour is in Multipacking.

We have recently added a Multipack Machine to a Charcoal/Wood Fuel company and an Ice packaging company.

In the case of the Charcoal company, Big K, besides the increase in speed in automatically adding the 1Kg bags to the 10Kg multipack, this has allowed for 4 members of staff to be deployed elsewhere.

You can see the Multipack Machine in action in the video below.  

Many thanks to Big K for agreeing to use of the video for this case study.

Big K Logo - used with permission of Big KBig K Lumpwood Charcoal is 100% natural and additive free and the 1Kg bags are put straight onto the home barbecue and lit, so less packaging to dispose of.

Big K supply a range of professional and home use BBQ charcoal as well as a range of FSC® certified and Woodsure Ready to Burn accredited hardwood logs, all manufactured from 100% UK timber. The winter fuel range also includes recycled waste wood heat logs, and eco-friendly natural wood wool firelighters.

You can learn more about Big K products here…

Talk to us about your bag filling requirements

Call us on 01773 717 007