blue bell heightens foodservice brand identity and worker safety, while also enhancing cost and operating efficiencies with inplantforming of preprinted allpaper drum containers.by judy rice, contributing editorpremium ice cream maker blue bell creameries, headquartered in brenham, tx, produces and packages a broad range of yearround and seasonal ice cream flavors in pint and halfgallon round containers and bulk drums. for its institutional ice cream customers, the company initially had been using paperbased bulk drums with metal ring binding. but the metal rings had the potential to occasionally cause foodservice worker injuries such as finger cuts.in addition to addressing the foodservice worker safety issues, the company also was interested in improving its overall bulk ice cream packaging cost efficiencies and offering innovative, &ldquobrandidentity&rdquo ice cream packaging in the bulk category.related collaborate and solve supply chain challenges at rpa reusable packaging forum april 28 29 »after considering other container options, blue bell came upon the allpaperdrum&trade apd bulk ice cream packaging system from weidenhammer packaging. this system was introduced to blue bell by the creamery&rsquos longtime packaging materials broker and manufacturers rep baer & associates 6607365723 or 7138167008.the 3gallon package consists of sidewall, bottom, and lid. bottom and sidewall are joined at blue bell by drumforming equipment leased from weidenhammer.weidenhammer makes both the bottom and the lid. the bottom is an extrusion lamination of kraft linerboard to kraft linerboard that gets a coating of lowdensity polyethylene. weidenhammer makes the top in two steps. first rings are formed from a twoply lamination of kraft linerboard to kraft linerboard. the rings are then introduced to a machine that cuts a disk from singleply kraft linerboard and uses adhesive to marry disk to ring.the sidewall comes from a weidenhammersourced supplier. it&rsquos a twoply lamination not of kraft but rather of cup stock paper. it&rsquosprintedflexo in two colors. like the bottom, it gets a coating of lowdensity polyethylene. in the drumforming equipment at blue bell, the ldpe coating on the sidewall is heatsealed to the ldpe coating on the bottom. this produces a watertight drum without the need for gluing operations. also notable is that this machine can be changed quickly to form drums whose fillvolumes vary.a short distance from the drumforming machine is equipment from t.d. sawvel co. that fills the drums and applies lids. date codes are imprinted on each drum by a videojet inkjet printer.blue bell tested the new packaging in 2013, and introduced it to some customers in 2014. customers primarily are foodservice outlets such as ice cream parlors, restaurants, theme parks, and sporting venues&mdashany establishments that serve handdipped ice cream throughout the company&rsquos distribution area, currently encompassing 23 states.weidenhammer worked with blue bell to lay out a comprehensive conversion plan that began in 2013. by the beginning of 2015, blue bell had converted 100 of its bulk ice cream business to the allpaperdrum system.benefits a la modeblue bell purchasing manager mark patranella says, &ldquothe apd offered the most efficiencies of any of the 3gallon packages we evaluated. it allowed us to reduce labor and bring a unique package to the market place. our customers often had complained about the hazards of metal rings on the drums. the apd eliminates that issue. disposal of the emptied drums at the user locations is also safer, simpler, and more spaceefficient.&rdquoaccording to patranella, a plastic lid is an option on the apd. &ldquobut we opted for the allpaper lid. it mimicked our existing lid, is more economical than the plastic lid, and it works well on our filling line. we do not use any liprim sealing membrane. from a packaging materials standpoint, the apd system also incurs less freight costs because the supplier shipping location is closer to our manufacturing facility than our previous supplier was. and by directly conveying from the drum former to the filler, we have been able to reduce labor requirements.&rdquodrum formfillseal speeds have increased versus the old system&mdashapproximately 12 drumsmin now versus about 8 before. and the new system is engineered to be more operatorfriendly, requiring considerably less operator time and attention.the weidenhammer automatic container former is located on an upper floor of the plant. a line operator feeds sidewall stock and bottom disks into the machine, which rollforms the sidewalls, inserts the bottom disk, forms the top rim lip, and heat seals the ldpecoated side seams and bottom seams. the drum then is automatically dispensed onto a conveyor system headed for the filler. the container is filled, lidded, and then travels to the ice cream hardening station.according to patranella, &ldquoour staff adjusted quickly to the new bulk drum system. we did have to tweak the filler slightly to accommodate the new drum, but it was a very minor adjustment, and the transition went smoothly. weidenhammer has been a very active partner in making sure the system operates well. the training of our production and maintenance staff was comprehensive and effective. any issue that has arisen has been handled promptly by weidenhammer.&rdquooverall, blue bell has found this packaging system to be highly reliable and costeffective. no metal or plastic binder rings or messy, difficulttouse adhesives are involved. in addition, blue bell has greater control over the art printed on the sidewalls due to no interference from fold lines or spiralwound construction associated with the old containers. exact placement of blue bell&rsquos &ldquocow and girl&rdquo graphics gives the ice cream company a higher brand identity on its bulk products.blue bell director of marketing carl breed notes, &ldquothe new allpaper container presents us with a much greater opportunity to emphasize our brand. unlike our previous container which was spiralwound, our new bulk drums allow us to highlight our name and logo with a straight and more prominent layout and design. our packaging is unique in the bulk ice cream marketplace, and we have received acceptance from our customer base.&rdquo 
