Flexible packaging formats in the U.S. have been on the rise in recent years. Packaging machinery conglomerate Pro Mach has enhanced its capabilities in this area by forming a new Flexible Packaging Group.

The group consists of existing "Powered by Pro Mach" companies Matrix (vertical form/fill/seal) and Rennco (vertical bagging equipment), along with new offerings as the exclusive distributor in North America from Toyo Jidoki (pouch packaging systems) and Inever (stickpack and sachet packaging machines).

Inever stickpack machine

"This is a win-win for our customers and a tremendous growth opportunity for Pro Mach," says Barry Heiser, president of the Flexible Packaging Group. "We see a strong demand for flexible packaging in the North American market and we can now provide our customers a full range of high-quality flexible packaging solutions supported by over 100 employees operating from over 135,000 square feet of manufacturing space. Additionally, many of our retort, filling, material handling, end-of-line, and identification and tracking customers are already using pouches and other flexible packages for their products or have plans to use them in the future. This will allow us to offer them an enhanced, single source solution across their packaging line, all backed by our industry leading Pro Mach technical engineering, sales and ProCustomer service teams."

Toyo Jidoki (TYJ), based in Tokyo, Japan, manufactures automated pouch packaging machines for food, retail and industrial applications, and specializes in retortable pouches and solutions requiring fitment dispensing systems with high-quality seals and precise filling accuracy.

Inever, based in Barcelona, Spain, makes stickpack, sachet and 4-sided seal machinery for liquid and powder applications and offers a range of solutions from 2-lane to 20-lane ultra-high speed filling systems.

Heiser tells Packaging Digest that Inever's web handling is the best he has seen in 20 years. It is one of the reasons Inever is able to produce foodservice condiment packets that are printed in register on both the front and the back.

Visitors at the show can see the Inever BY300 stickpack machine, as well as the Toyo Jidoki TT-8D-N pouch filler/sealer in the Pro Mach Flexible Packaging Group booth C-2221.

See a short video of the TYJ filler/sealer at http://youtu.be/xV3aCQmr_TY.

Pro Mach video clip TYJ fill-seal

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