“In the past, we always had to temporarily recruit 50 temporary workers before the Spring Festival. Now there is only the sound of machines running in the workshop.” Li Wei, production director of a roasted nuts factory in Hunan, sighed in front of the brand-new packaging production line. This 30-year-old old company has completed the transformation from a traditional workshop to a smart factory by introducing the sixth-generation PLY-PACK melon seed packaging machine.
On the eve of the peak season in 2023, a roasted nuts factory in Hunan faced severe challenges: the original semi-automatic packaging machine had an average daily processing capacity of only 3 tons, while the number of e-commerce orders increased by 230% year-on-year. The confusion of specifications and leakage caused by manual sorting have caused the customer complaint rate to rise to 12%. After multiple investigations, the company finally selected the PLY-PACK melon seed packaging machine, which was chosen for its "flexible production line + AI vision" intelligent packaging equipment combination.
The PLY-PACK technical team tailored a phased upgrade plan for the roasted nuts factory. The two melon seed packaging machine production lines deployed in the first phase use a modular architecture to quickly connect to the existing conveying system. The AI sorting unit equipped with the equipment captures the melon seed flow image in real time through a 20-megapixel high-speed camera, accurately removing particles and defective products with a diameter deviation of more than 15%. What's even more surprising is that the flexible production line design allows functional modules to be added at any time-when a customer temporarily receives an order for a high-end gift box, PLY-PACK deploys the spiral metering module and the nitrogen filling and sealing unit overnight, and completes the production line upgrade in just 36 hours.
After the new equipment was put into production, the changes were immediate. The stable production capacity of the melon seed packaging machine of 120 bags per minute has increased the daily processing volume to 8 tons and reduced labor costs by 70%. The intelligent grading system has increased the accuracy of selecting premium melon seeds to 98%, pushing the premium of the "Emperor's Grain" series of products to 25%. "Now our caramel melon seeds can accurately control the error of ±1 gram per bag, which was unimaginable in the past manual packaging." Wang Fang, the quality inspection supervisor, showed the finished products neatly stacked at the end of the production line.
Relying on the quality control guarantee brought by the PLY-PACK melon seed packaging machine, a roasted nuts factory in Hunan not only stabilized old customers, but also successfully entered high-end markets such as Beijing and Shanghai. During the Spring Festival in 2024, its "AI Selected" New Year gift boxes set a record of 100,000 boxes sold out in seconds on the e-commerce platform. "Intelligent packaging equipment is not just a machine, but also a strategic partner for us to conquer the national market." Li Wei said at the acceptance meeting. Today, the company has planned to introduce 3 more PLY-PACK production lines to accumulate strength for the upcoming peak season for nut consumption.
The setting sun shines on the shiny melon seed packaging machine through the workshop glass, and the robotic arm at the end of the assembly line is stacking the finished gift boxes into neat squares. In this intelligent transformation of the traditional food manufacturing industry, PLY-PACK and its partners are writing a new industry paradigm.
