ECOVE, 100% plastic-free: the perfect paper wrapped pack is created
ECOVE, 100% plastic-free: the perfect paper wrapped pack is created

Infinity Machine & Engineering Corp. teamed with Little Rapids Corporation to target market leadership with their new 100% recycled fibre paper overwrap. Ryan Holmer, technical sales, Infinity, is now claiming impressive results.

By Ryan Holmer, Technical sales, Infinity Machine & Engineering Corp.
By Ryan Holmer, Technical sales, Infinity Machine & Engineering Corp.

Over the past six months Infinity has partnered with Little Rapids Corporation to develop advanced designs in a paper overwrap material called Ecova. Advantages of the Ecova paper overwrap material versus other solutions on the market start with the fact that Ecova is truly 100% plastic free. Also, the Ecova paper overwrap material is made with 100% recycled fibre. There is NOT a thin layer of plastic applied to the paper overwrap material to make it seal inside the wrapper, which would defeat the purpose of being eco-friendly. Instead, with Ecova, a glue is applied to the paper overwrap material during the production process of the paper reel. When the production process is complete, the Ecova paper overwrap reel can be used on a wrapper just like a poly reel. During the initial tests, the Ecova paper overwrap material has been tested and verified using an Infinity Eclipse T4 multi- pack wrapper.

The Infinity Eclipse T4 multi-pack wrapper operates using four lanes of infeed from an infeed conveyor (five lanes optional) and then separates the product via a servo choke belt infeed into the flight bar stacking section. The machine then synchronises each layer into a secondary flight bar system for loading onto the elevator and then into the overhead system.

The overhead section operates using a brush style head folder system, which creates continuous forward motion on the paper wrap as the ends of the pack are folded. This forward motion helps to achieving high speeds with the paper wrap because the brush system does not pull back on the paper as it is folded, which can also cause jams. In addition, this forward motion creates a higher quality finished package. The overhead unit also features 24 overhead trolleys which reduces the amount of time required for changeovers versus competitors.

Consistency and accuracy: the Eclipse T4 unwind system is located directly opposite the roll infeed

The Eclipse T4 unwind system is located directly opposite the roll infeed and is designed to consistently and accurately place a sheet of paper overwrap material around the tissue rolls in order to ensure a high-quality finished package. As the collated pack moves through the overhead, the wrapper’s bottom sealer and side sealing belts then re-heat the glue to seal the pack, and the perfect paper wrapped pack is created. The glue which was applied before entering the machine means that there is no additional external glue system needed on Infinity’s wrapper and no contamination to the machine from an external glue system.

Infinity and Little Rapids Corporation have run the Ecova paper overwrap material in production on two formats including two-pack household towel and four-pack bath tissue. Each of these formats ran without making any machine modifications to Infinity’s Eclipse T4 multi-pack wrapper. The Infinity Eclipse T4 multi-pack wrapper was able to achieve speeds of 100 ppm.
On these production lines, this was the max output from the winder. Infinity engineering is also confident that we will be able to achieve normal production speeds on faster lines. In addition, the packs were run through an Infinity conveyor system, Infinity case packer, and Infinity case sealer to create the ultimate eco-friendly line with no plastic used at all! The Infinity case packer and case sealer are an industry standard when it comes to tissue packaging. Infinity case packers are designed to automatically erect a case or tray, collate the incoming product, fill the case or tray, and discharge it onto a live roller conveyor to the case sealer. The Infinity Eclipse T4 multi-pack wrapper, case packer and case sealer, along with the Little Rapids Ecova paper overwrap solution is all engineered to perform and provide an eco-friendly option for the future.

Whether the future of tissue packaging is paper wrap, bio-plastic, cartons, cases, bundles or standard poly, Infinity along with its various industry partners, like Little Rapids Corporation, have all the tissue packaging technology to advance your company performance.

This article was written for TWM by Ryan Holmer, technical sales, Infinity Machine & Engineering Corp.