Tech Pak Canada
Full Electric Drive – Tech Pak relies on Kurtz POLY FOAMER
Kurtz Shape Moulding Machines with e-Drive, i.e. pure electric drive, have now arrived on the market. Today, Tech Pak Canada Inc., an “early adapter”, reports on its experience with the Kurtz POLY FOAMER.
In the southwest coastal area of the Province of Nova Scotia Canada is a town called Yarmouth. Here is where you find the company Tech Pak Canada, Inc. which serves the local fishing industry with packaging products. Lobster, scallops, and various fish varieties including Cod and Salmon are processed here and shipped all over the world in boxes made by Tech Pak.
For many years, the TrueFoam family of companies have utilized Kurtz shape moulding machines for the production of various EPS packaging products, with fish boxes being the main stay of their offerings. Their subsidiary Tech Pak Canada, Inc. needed to increase capacity, and considered the Kurtz POLY FOAMER machine (formerly called A-LINE) to meet this growing demand.
In 2020, Tech Pak Canada, Inc. received their new Kurtz machine, equipped with e-Drive. The electric drive feature replaces the hydraulic system on the shape moulding machine, a trend which several companies in the food packaging industry are very excited about. The installation of the unit was not typical, however. During the global pandemic COVID-19, travel restrictions prevented Kurtz Service Technicians from being on-site. Therefore, Tech Pak´s resourceful plant manager, Robert Cunningham, had to rely on his many years of experience as well as the remote support of the Kurtz Service Team. The machine assembly, connection to utilities and final testing of all the machine functions was accomplished remotely!
The ability for the system to be connected remotely via an internet protocol allowed the same Kurtz technicians who helped build the machine in Germany to effectively communicate the process of bringing the POLY FOAMER to life in Yarmouth. The installation took longer than it would have under “normal” circumstances. But the experience gave Robert Cunningham a unique perspective. Shortly after assembly and connection to utilities, the machine was commissioned, and has been in production for the last two years while maintaining a very high efficiency standard.
According to Robert Cunningham, “The current technology available on this latest Kurtz shape moulding machine has advanced our capability by decades! Information available at the HMI (Human Machine Interface) allows for immediate feedback on machine function and confirmation of changes made in process.” The interaction with the control screen is like putting a cell phone in the hands of a young person. Information is readily available, and it is useful when trouble shooting is an issue. What may have taken a number of days to find the source of a problem, can be solved in minutes – saving valuable production time which translates to higher operational efficiency and, in the end, a better service to their customers.
And due to the electric movement, it is very quiet as compared to a hydraulically operated system. A bonus is that hydraulic issues are a thing of the past. It was based on the experience of Tech Pak that another TrueFoam Limited subsidiary, Newfoundland Styro, Inc., will receive additional equipment from Kurtz in 2023 with e-Drive. TrueFoam is a valued customer of Kurtz Protective Solutions and a shining example of a trend across an industry which looks to optimize production efficiency with the latest in processing technology.