First Nigerian Order For Retail Powder Packing Technology
GEA in New Zealand has received an order for the supply of a six-head filling machine for retail milk powder and baby formula cans for a new milk processing factory in Lagos Nigeria – the first project of its kind that GEA has supplied to the country. The order has been placed by a company that is a joint venture organisation operating in Nigeria.
The machine is an Albro ICF-6V vacuum filler capable of the sanitary filling of up to 60 x 99mm cans per minute with a wide range of powders. The filling system is also height adjustable so can fill metal or composite cans of 127mm and 189mm diameter making this a flexible system that is suitable for many applications.
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Sales Manager Ivan Marovic said that the ICF-6V is ideally suited to the application in Nigeria and includes a number of important features that were critical for the customer. “The system uses vacuum filling technology rather than more traditional auger filling,” said Ivan. “This has no moving product-contact parts so any chance of metal contamination is virtually eliminated. The vacuum system is also much easier to clean thereby reducing down time and minimising the use of cleaning materials.”
The vacuum level is adjusted automatically to compensate for variations in the bulk density of the product. Importantly for the customer the ICF-6V is also capable of modified atmosphere packaging allowing the cans to be filled with a precise combination of Nitrogen and Carbon Dioxide for extended shelf life.
The ICF-V6 is a compact unit that can be shipped in one piece easily in a standard shipping container. At destination it’s a simple matter to connect it up to the plant utilities and it’s ready for production. The system can be supplied as a stand-alone unit or as part of a fully integrated, automatic retail filling line. GEA received the order in February. The machine has now completed pre-delivery testing and is ready for shipping to the customer.
