Fruit packaging: ZZ2 now seals their cardboard boxes with 64% less glue

ZZ2 in South Africa was facing two problems with their fruit packaging’s hot melt delivery system. One: the farming enterprise was spending too much money on hot melt to glue their fruit boxes. Two: nozzle blockages were causing liability problems. Switching to the InvisiPac hot melt packaging system proved to be the answer. ZZ2’s packaging manager Ferdie Jacobs talks you through the decision making, the integration and the results. 
 

ZZ2 produces and exports various crops, such as tomatoes, apples and pears. It’s one of the biggest farming conglomerates in South Africa, operating mainly in the Limpopo Province. 

This story starts in 2020, in one of their packaging houses in that same province. 

Their packaging manager Ferdie Jacobs wanted to cut back on the amount of hot melt they used to glue their cardboard packages. So we set up a test. We replaced one of their glueing machines with our InvisiPac.
 

The integration of InvisiPac on one of ZZ2’s fruit packaging lines.

The test was supposed to last six months. But ZZ2 already placed a first order for five units after just two months. “By that time it was clear that we could save around 60% glue, while also improving the uptime of our packaging lines”, says Ferdie.

One of the cardboard fruit boxes we are talking about. But as ZZ2 has to pack different sorts of fruits for import ánd export, the boxes vary in size.

Quick fruit packaging line conversions

“Together, we replaced our old glue systems with the InvisiPac. One pack house at a time. Although our fruit packaging lines vary in size and we have different brands of packaging machines, it was pretty straight forward.” 

The InvisiPac is designed as a drop-in replacement. It fitted on the same platform as their previous system. On top of that, we could simply reuse the configuration we made for one particular InvisiPac for other units handling the same cardboard fruit boxes. This saved a ton of time.

We even swapped out units that were still working fine. One of the glue systems we replaced was only three months in use. But even for that new unit, it made sense to convert it.
 

ROI: savings + uptime + maintenance + …

Swapping out a brand new hot melt delivery system… how can that make sense?

Well, next to the glue savings and improved uptime, four other factors contributed to a high ROI.

1. We were able to keep the original hose routing. Hendrik: If you need to switch out the hoses altogether, you are talking about a bigger investment. In this case, their existing set-up was compatible with our InvisiPac.
   
   
2. No more need for unexpected maintenance or clean ups. Blocked nozzles not only mean poorer uptime, but also that one of your operators loses time to solve the problem. Likewise for extra clean ups. ZZ2’s previous set-up tended to drip, spilling glue on the rollers and other components. These drips also prevented boxes to be positioned correctly.
   
   
3. No more time being wasted refilling the hot melt granules. “Before, an operator had to climb up the machine with a bucket to fill the glue reservoir. That costs time. And it’s also a dangerous task to carry out, as the machine is still running. InvisiPac works with a feeding system and a separate container. Faster and safer to refill.”
   
   
4. No more need for their operators to come in early. “Our previous system had to heat up for two hours”, says Ferdie. This meant that on each and every of their sites, ZZ2 had to pay an operator overtime to come in early to start up the machine. “Now we just switch on the InvisiPac, and after ten minutes it’s good to go.”

The new set-up

And actually, there’s a fifth and final pro argument. Because ZZ2 could not fully rely on their previous hot melt dispense systems they used to prepack boxes. So when the line came to an unexpected shutdown, they had a back-up. They would prepack 30.000 boxes. That’s a warehouse full with empty boxes. Wasted space.

Front runner

The final word is for our Graco Africa sales manager Hendrik Papenfus. “ZZ2 is one of the biggest agricultural companies in this country. They are front runners when it comes to technology. That such a big name put their trust into us and our equipment – that feels great.”