Every year, tons of plastic are burned as rubbish or are disposed of in landfills and in the sea. That the consumption of plastic should be reduced is undisputed. However, replacing plastic is very difficult. This is especially true when it comes to food packaging, as hygiene considerations play a big role. There is nevertheless major potential for savings. Jetter has developed the Jetter Motion Control solution for this purpose. Sensors measure the exact shape and size of the food to be packaged and deliver this information to the packaging machine.
The bag with the three different-coloured peppers is a good illustration of the kind of savings potential that exists here. The packaging machine receives the information that it needs from the sensor so it can pack the three peppers in a compact package using as little plastic as possible, rather than in a larger plastic bag of uniform size. Approximately 3 to 4 centimetres of plastic are saved this way per package. This reduces packaging costs, allows more goods to be transported per pallet and reduces plastic consumption by an impressive 700 kilometres per year and machine.
The packaging machines are usually synchronised with the production machinery. If the packaging machine does not recognise in time when there is a gap in production, it may turn out empty packages. Jetter Motion Control reduces the large quantity of such empty packages by means of product recognition and a “no product – no bag” function.
Success story from the Sustainability report 2018