Acepak Tray Forming and Wrapping Ease Summer Beverage Peaks

Every November, South African beverage and dairy plants start feeling the summer squeeze. Rising temperatures push up demand for bottled water, soft drinks, juices and chilled dairy, while the run-up to the festive season loads production plans with extra retail orders, promotional runs and multipacks. Cape Town based Acepak, which builds end-of-line packaging machines, is using the month to put the spotlight on the equipment that turns filled bottles, cartons and tubs into secure packs ready for the shelf and for transport: tray forming machines, sleeve tunnels, label applicators and stretch wrappers.

According to the company, the filler is seldom where a busy season falls apart. The pressure point is usually the end of the line, where products must be collated, packed, labelled and wrapped at the same pace they arrive. With suitable secondary and transit packaging equipment installed, the entire line keeps flowing.

Forming trays around collated products

In beverage and dairy, trays are a familiar way to keep bottles, cans or cartons together for handling and retail display. On Acepak's Automatic Tray Forming Machine, a die press with pneumatic systems folds pre-scored cards around collated products, and hot glue holds the folds in place. A related tray forming machine wraps pre-scored cardboard around collated products to create sturdy trays, a good fit for operations that need accurate, repeatable tray formation with products held securely inside.

Higher-volume producers can look to the Inline High-Speed Case Erecting and Packing Solution, which slots into the production line, feeds in pre-scored cards and synchronises them with the incoming products. Acepak also offers pneumatic and servo operated case and carton erectors and sealers, with or without automatic product loading, plus an automated product insertion system that uses pneumatic or magnetic grippers to place products into preformed cartons.

Shelf-ready sleeving and labelling

Shrink sleeves and transit labels play a big part in summer promotions and festive multipacks. The Acepak Sleeve Tunnel is a stand-alone heat tunnel that shrinks pre-applied sleeves or shrink film tightly around individual or bundled products. Built for retail multipacks, tray-packed food items and individually labelled bottles and jars, it distributes heat in a consistent, controlled way to deliver a clean and secure finish.

On the secondary and transit side, the Mechanical Case and Outer-Pack Label Applicator combines a roll-fed label system with a sensor-activated motor to label cases, outers, shrink bundles and collated packs. Correct labels on outer packs make it easier for distribution centres and retailers to cope with the additional volume that comes through in the weeks leading up to December.

Keeping pallets stable with stretch wrapping

Formed packs still need to arrive at the customer intact. For pallet stability, Acepak supplies a range of stretch wrapping machines. The ATLANTA REVOLUTION series is built to wrap all kinds of products efficiently, including loads that are unstable, very light or easily crushed. The SFERA mobile wrapping machine begins as a low cost model with a pre-stretch film system and can expand as a business's needs grow. SYNTHESI is an economical stretch wrapper that is easy to operate and can take three different film carriages, putting power pre-stretch within reach of producers at an affordable price.

Beyond wrapping, Acepak's palletising solutions and robotic depalletising heads, using magnetic or pneumatic gripping technology, help move full pallets into and out of production.

One partner for the whole end of line

Acepak is a family-owned packaging machine manufacturer with more than 40 years of experience, and it designs, engineers, assembles and tests its equipment at its Cape Town head office. The portfolio spans automated case packers, automatic packing machines, shrink wrap machines, banding machines, pouch fillers, palletising and full line integration.

Because that capability sits in-house, producers can deal with Acepak as one packaging machine supplier for a complete end-of-line system instead of piecing together machines from multiple vendors. The team works with each client to understand their objectives and to design solutions matched to their products, volumes and available floor space.

Beverage, dairy and other industries

Alongside dedicated solutions for the beverage and dairy industries, Acepak serves food, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics and other sectors. Bottles, jars, cartons and tubs all come with their own handling requirements, and the company's collating, forming, sleeving, labelling and wrapping equipment can be combined to meet them.

Acepak works with clients in more than 36 countries, from South Africa to the United Kingdom, through offices in Cape Town, Midrand in Johannesburg, Pinetown in Durban and Skelmersdale in England. Its service and support teams help with programming, maintenance and servicing for the full life of the equipment.

Bundling promotions with banding and shrink wrap

Many festive promotions involve bundled products, for example two packs joined together or a free item attached to a main product. Acepak's banding machines and automatic shrink wrap machines are built for exactly this, holding products together securely without extra cartons. Paired with the company's case packers and tray formers, they let a producer move between standard packs and promotional bundles on one line as orders shift during the season.

Preparing before the festive rush

Acepak suggests that producers already under pressure from summer orders take a close look at where their end of line slows down. A manual tray or wrapping step that is manageable in quieter months can turn into a bottleneck once volumes rise. Talking to an experienced packing machine manufacturer early leaves time to weigh up the options, whether that is upgrading a single machine or installing a fully integrated line, before the next peak hits.

To browse Acepak's solutions by industry and machine type, download the catalogue or get in touch with the sales team, visit https://acepak.com/.

About Acepak

Acepak is a family-owned manufacturer of end-of-line packaging machines and turnkey packing systems with more than 40 years of experience. Its equipment is designed, engineered, assembled and tested at its head office in Montague Gardens, Cape Town, and it also has offices in Midrand, Pinetown and Skelmersdale in the United Kingdom. The range covers case packers, shrink wrappers, banding machines, pouch fillers, tray formers, stretch wrappers and palletising systems for the beverage, food, dairy, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, with clients in over 36 countries.