ANUGA FoodTec 24: Our most Flexible Journey Yet

ANUGA FOODTEC 2024

Showcasing ‘Flexibility – Down the Line’

In March 24 ANUGA FoodTec was held in Cologne, Germany. With our largest booth yet and high anticipation on telling the tale of flexibility within Food Packaging industry.

As always, we had a splendid time in Cologne, meeting many of our current partners and customers and building relations for new interesting projects and solutions in the future. Thank you to all who stopped by our booth.

Our booth theme was ‘Flexibility – Down the Line’. We wanted to highlight the importance of embedding flexibility within packaging operations to meet the many demands for new tray materials, batch sizes, and loading patterns needed to stay competitive as a food manufacturer.

But we also wanted to highlight flexibility as something to expect from both equipment and partners, as well as to showcase how technology adapt to the before and after in the operations. At QUPAQ, we have a modular and scalable approach to designing products that always allows customers to scale and adapt to different layouts, use cases, and demands, while ensuring a high return on investment, increased capacity, and an uptime next to none.

The Birth of the QUPAQ Flex Loader

Our main attraction at ANUGA FoodTec was our newest innovation and addition to our product portfolio: The QUPAQ Flex Loader, which we believe meets all the criteria of what a flexible solution should be.

Being able to gather more than 100 people for a product launch on the first day of the fair is something we take pride in – and didn’t even have to set a world record to do it. With music, visual effects, and live demonstrations we believe the QUPAQ Flex Loader was introduced in the perfect setting possible.

To flex our muscles live, we did three different use cases on stage for the demonstrations, including:

1: Minced portions loaded in single-load mode

2: Patties loaded in single rows in step-load mode

3: Sliced steaks stacked in staggered layers in step-load mode

On stage: The QUPAQ Flex Loader in front with a table added on the right side, to better demonstrate the precision of the output. Connected to the QUPAQ Flex Loader is the ANYTRAY LeanOne Buffer, on the left side, that denests trays on a curved conveyor underneath the product belt of the QUPAQ Flex Loader. This layout can come in many different forms and adapt to the need of the customer, as the Tray Denester can be in any position near the Loader.

Flexibility and Speed Is the Key

With its small inline footprint, ability to adapt to any tray denester, and changeover to many different loading patterns and tray types within minutes, the QUPAQ Flex Loader is the perfect for solution for any food manufacturer that have a high mix of products and batches. The QUPAQ Flex Loader will increase the performance and capability of any existing line, and thereby also increase the ROI of the connected equipment.

But make no mistake. The QUPAQ Flex Loader also performs extremely well in Low-Mix/High-Volume scenarios, reaching speeds previously unseen from off-the-shelve solutions. In a standard configuration it can reach 150 products per minute – and we believe it has the potential to go even higher in certain use cases.

What better place to show this to the world for the first time than at ANUGA FoodTec, renowned for focusing on innovation and new products?

Here you can see how the product launch went:

We want to thank everyone who attended the Product Launch and the positive feedback we received during ANUGA FoodTec. And a special thank you to Mr. John Lennon from Sealpac UK, who joined us on stage and gave his 3^rd party view on the technology and market today.

Also read: Exclusive Interview with Sealpac UK at Anuga FoodTec 2024

The Smart Tool Has Become Even Smarter

There is a lot going on within tray materials. Retailers and end-customers have a higher demand for sustainable materials that are still easy to recycle while maintaining the core features of keeping food fresh for as long as possible to prevent food waste.

However, many new tray materials and tray types have not been designed for automatic tray denesting. Adapting to these new demands could in fact lower the capacity drastically or enforce a higher price that could end up on the retail price. This is something we have tried solving at QUPAQ.

So, we had also brought something fresh from our R&D Department for ANUGA FoodTec 2024: The QUPAQ Smart Tool – Flex. With the Smart form factor, it will fit any INTRAY tray denester in operation today. The tool has a new innovative approach to denest trays – even very difficult trays with rigid materials and uneven nests, but also trays without lips; the edges needed for a tray sealer traditionally.

The QUPAQ Smart Tool – Flex was demonstrated on an INTRAY Smart Buffer at ANUGA FoodTec 24. If you notice the cardboard trays on the picture – they have no lips or edges, why a normal screw denester will not work with these trays. With the QUPAQ Smart Tool – Flex, you can use many different tray types on the same line and equipment, with a standard tool changeover.

This means the QUPAQ Smart Tool – Flex is able to denest trays made of cardboard, pulp or other materials typically used in the produce segment, which most traditional denesters have difficulties handling.

With the QUPAQ Smart Tool – Flex you get a free choice of tray and enable yourself to run them on the same line and equipment as you have today by only changing the tool in your INTRAY tray denester.

This turned quite an eyebrow for anyone who looked at it at our booth, and it made many people stop while passing by noting – Hey, what is going on here… that’s a tricky tray.

The QUPAQ Smart Tool – Flex is currently Patent Pending in its final stages of field testing before it is released to the market, and we will give it a proper Product Launch at Pack Expo 24 in Chicago, November 3-6. If you are interested in participating in a field test, please contact us.