New Condiments Filling Machines for English Provender Company- March 01st 2016

 

English Provender Company produce a range of high quality chutney, condiments and dressings, all made using good, honest ingredients from nature’s store cupboard. Their chefs are experts in flavour combinations and their traditional open pan cooking methods create naturally delicious products that taste every bit as good as home-made.

To satisfy a new 6 month contract for a major client, EPC required new filling machines to deposit sauces and chutneys into bottles, buckets and plastic tubs ranging in volume from 2.5 litres to 15 litres. Amongst EPC’s filling equipment suppliers are Riggs Autopack, a Lancashire manufacturer of high quality volumetric depositors. EPC has used their depositors for the last 6 years and been extremely pleased with the machines reliability, hygiene and fill accuracy. Subsequently, they contacted them again to assist with the supply of new equipment.

EPC were working to a tight deadline and needed equipment quickly, Riggs Autopack was able to facilitate this. As they design and manufacture equipment in-house at their Lancashire factory, within weeks of the initial contact they supplied two of their Series 3 semi-automatic maxi depositors with a frame supported 250 litre product hopper, on a 6 month hire term.

To help meet the specific production requirements of EPC’s contract, Riggs Autopack combined the two machines into a single twin head depositor; the purpose of this bespoke configuration was to enable one operator to fill two containers at once. With each depositor capable of depositing between 500ml and 5000ml per cycle, these machines are specifically designed for bulk filling applications.

To keep up with the high throughput, a single start feature was incorporated within the control panel for the 2 depositors which enabled both machines to simultaneously deposit product by one press of the foot pedal. To ensure the depositor hopper is constantly topped up with product, a level probe was fitted and a transfer pump control panel was also supplied. EPC free issued their existing lobe pump with inverter, and Riggs Autopack integrated this into the depositing machine process.
 
To maintain high throughput, a single start feature was incorporated within the control panel for the 2 depositors which enabled both machines to simultaneously deposit product by one press of the foot pedal. To ensure the depositor hopper is constantly topped up with product, a level probe was fitted and a transfer pump control panel was also supplied. EPC free issued their existing lobe pump with inverter, and Riggs Autopack integrated this into the depositing machine process. To enable the operator to efficiently fill containers over 5 litres, the depositors were also fitted with multi-cycle counters. This allows the operator to set a cycle count of 1, 2 3, 4 etc to automatically provide multiple deposits of product without having to repeatedly press the foot pedal.

Riggs Autopack’s Technical Sales Engineer Kim David said “EPC were clear with their project requirements which made it easy for us to match their needs and expectations. Due to Riggs Autopack’s manufacturing flexibility and experience in producing bespoke upgrades, we were able to satisfy their urgent needs.”

Within the first 4 weeks of the hire term, EPC received the good news their contract was to be extended and approached Riggs Autopack to convert the contract from a rental agreement into an outright purchase. Terms were agreed and EPC were happy to place an order for the purchase of the machines.

Brain Steele says of the project “Our first response to the project due to tight deadlines was to contact Riggs Autopack; the reasons being, with current Riggs Autopack technology currently on-site in the forms of full machinery to sub-assemblies, we knew we would have the correct equipment required to meet our needs.”