Pianoro (Bologna) – From March 15th to 18th, the Marchesini Group will be at the most important packaging venue of the African continent, Propack Africa (Expo Centre of Nasrec, Johannesburg, Hall 6 Stand A26). Business partners Gary Wills and Myles Davis will be hosting the Marchesini stand, which has been set-up to showcase the horizontal continuous-motion cartoning machine MA 352 and the MF 910 Mini wrapper/overwrapper. Working together, these two machines create a combi unit capable of meeting every need of versatility and speed to package different types of products, such as blisters, syringes, vials and rigid and squeezable tubes. Specifically speaking, the machines on show at the exhibition have been purchased by a renowned company of the cosmetics industry that was looking for an end-of-line solution capable of packaging 250 plastic vials a minute.
Technical Focus
The MA 352 combines the typical strongholds of Marchesini’s cartoners, being the position of the carton magazine in an easily accessible place, very quick size changeover times and minimal maintenance, plus the ability to manage high production speeds, which is what the market demands mostly.
The model exhibited at Propack has a feeding scroll that arranges the vials on a conveyor belt.
In the meantime, a rotary drum picks up the carton from the magazine and opens and squares it by 150° by means of mechanical rotating arms. Some rods with suction cups at the ends transfer the opened carton from the drum into the toothed chain. The product delivered from the infeed chain is inserted into the carton, together with the instruction leaflet, by means of pushers positioned opposite the operator, which follow the continuous motion of the carton conveyor chain.
Once the carton is complete, it is sent to the MF 910 Mini wrapper/overwrapper. The panels of this unit can be completely opened to make it very quick and straightforward to replace the reel underneath the machine. This type of arrangement offers customers many advantages: first and foremost, any work to be carried out can be done much quicker, consequently cutting machine shutdown times drastically, which results in higher production rates. The production flow is also much more visible so that the operator can monitor the products while they are being wrapped and intervene promptly if necessary. This also offers greater safety and simplicity of movement, thanks to the possibility to lift the hood of the machine right up. To finish, the design of the MF 910 Mini is the same as the other machines to which it is connected, which is a purely, yet equally important, advantage to the eye.
The South African packaging marketplace
The Marchesini Group is a key player in South Africa as regards the sales of blister lines and liquid packaging machines (both syrups and cosmetics) for pre-filled syringes (especially vaccinations) and rigid tubes for effervescent tablets.
Dealings with multinational and local customers are held successfully by the renowned trading partner MGSA, which takes care of the markets of Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg, these are the three core centres from which most of the demand for pharmaceutical and cosmetic packaging machines comes.
The strategic work and the negotiations fulfilled by the commercial partners Gary Wills and Myles Davis is backed by the just as appreciated work of their expert technicians who know every single secret of the machines installed at the production factories of the customers. These professional technicians attend a certified training course at the Group’s Italian Headquarters in Pianoro (Bologna) and can guarantee assistance within 24 hours from being contacted. Together with the work carried out locally, there is also that carried out in Italy by Carlo Galli, director of the Meca countries and that of the area managers of the Marchesini Group, whose technical and commercial support is fundamental in managing the South African marketplace innovatively and competitively.
