In 2003, the Pack Expo in Las Vegas helped introduce companies, like Marich Confectionery based in Hollister CA, to new packing equipment and technology.

According to Marich, which has become one of the premier suppliers of premium confections, the equipment dramatically increases line speed and aids in efficiency. As business has changed over the past decade due the influence of online shopping and increase of private-label brands, their need for faster, streamlined processing of their products increased as well. Executive vice president Van Dam and plant manager attended the Pack Expo hoping to procure packaging machinery that could properly pack the companies chocolate covered cherries and coffee beans into hexagon shaped containers and replace his one lane scale, which was not performing at sufficient speed requiring additional hands to keep up with the customer demand for their products.

The Expo introduced Van Dam to the  VRC-12 Vertical Rotary Cartoner from Nuspark Engineering. Originally the candies were being packaged by hand, which amounted in a 25 carton per minute speed for packaging. The new equipment allowed the company to erect and fill 40 cartons per minute, resulting in a 60% speed increase.

Additionally, Van Dam selected the F109x dual scale system from Tridyne Process Systems to increase productivity on a different packaging line. The company customized the two lane, two load cell indexing conveyor to Marich’s specifications allowing them to replace their one lane scale system.

Over 19000 visitors from over 60 countries were expected to attend Pack Expo Las Vegas 2005. Van Dam claims that he found the experience incredibly helpful to his business, as it allowed him the opportunity to speak directly with knowledgeable individuals about their equipment.

For the full magazine article check out this  PDF  from Packaging World’s July 2005 edition.