Walking into the assembly workshop of ply-pack, technician Xiao Li is gesturing to a snack packaging machine that is being debugged: "Look at this robotic arm, now even cat paw-shaped puffed food can be accurately grasped!" As the snack industry enters the era of "appearance economy", this factory, which has been deeply engaged in packaging equipment for 20 years, is redefining the production line with technological innovation.
The evolution of packaging from "satisfaction" to "fun"
"Today's consumers not only want delicious biscuits, but also want to be able to take photos and post them on WeChat Moments." The production director of a popular snack brand revealed to reporters that the Planet Cup co-branded snack packaging machine they customized last month successfully upgraded the traditional round can packaging to a space capsule shape, and the sales of the product soared by 150% in the first week of its launch. This is exactly the "packaging is content" concept proposed by the ply-pack R&D team - making the snack packaging machine no longer just a sealing tool, but a realizer of product creativity.
In the ply-pack test workshop, reporters witnessed the "transformation" of the snack packaging machine. In response to the current hot pet snack market, engineers have developed a visual system that can automatically identify special-shaped snack packaging such as bones and fish shapes. Technical director Wang Gong demonstrated on site: "Even for teething sticks with uneven thickness, our dual-channel vacuum packaging machine can achieve millimeter-level error control."
"Flexible philosophy" in the intelligent production line
Facing the trend of small batches and multiple varieties in the snack industry, ply-pack has focused on upgrading the "flexible production" capabilities of snack packaging machines this year. Master Zhang, the assembly team leader, pointed to the equipment being assembled and introduced: "This machine packs 100g of mixed nuts in the morning, and switches to 30g of children's preserved fruit in the afternoon without stopping for debugging." According to industry observations, this "one machine with multiple functions" feature is helping small and medium-sized snack companies to respond quickly to market demand.
When the reporter visited the customer again, he encountered an interesting scene: Sister Liu, an operator of a local specialty pastry factory, was using a mobile phone APP to remotely adjust the parameters of the snack packaging machine. "It used to take a long time to change the packaging specifications, but now it's as simple as adjusting the washing machine mode." She smiled and showed the intangible cultural heritage twist that had just been packaged, "Our old craftsmanship is equipped with a new machine, and we can even take orders from outside the province!"
Industrial temperature hidden in the details
In the R&D laboratory of ply-pack, the reporter noticed a special design: a temperature compensation device was added to the heat sealing module of all snack packaging machines. "This is an improvement forced by the shrimp cracker factory customers." Project manager Chen recalled that last year a customer reported that the shrimp cracker packaging was damp, and it was found that the temperature difference between day and night caused the sealing strength to fluctuate. This improvement has now become an industry standard, helping many companies reduce product rework rates to 1/3 of the industry average.
Before leaving, the reporter saw a special set of data in the factory showroom: 67% of the snack packaging machines delivered in the past three years are equipped with environmental protection mode. This just confirms the factory director's point of view: "We must not only make packaging smarter, but also make every seal reflect our sense of responsibility for the industry."
