Savings Of Costs And Labor Time Using Gas Analyzers And Gas Mixer

The company realized that its existing gas flushing system was not efficient and that significant quantities of gas were being wasted. In addition, manual samples are taken at frequent intervals to ensure that the correct mixture is being introduced into the packages. This takes time and also incurs labor costs.

In a drive to improve efficiency and cut costs, the company invested in technology from MAP specialist PBI-Dansensor. Two new pieces of equipment from PBI-Dansensor have been installed on four of the packaging lines. These are the MAP Check 3 gas analyzer and MAP Mix Provectus gas mixer, which in tandem provide constant monitoring of the gas content and automatic adjustment of the gas flow for an improved quality and reduced cost of operation. At the same time the MAP Mix Provectus and MAP Check 3 offers a unique option to log quality assurance data on each packaging line, including information such as the gas content and the gas consumption. Other MAP-critical data can be stored in the units or a central database.

The impact of the new system has been impressive, says company engineer Thomas Jensen. “We have reduced gas consumption on these four lines by 30–40 per cent, which results in a direct saving of money. In addition we have been able to reduce our manual sampling by about half. This means that the people who do the sampling have more time to do other things in the factory so we are able to use our workforce more efficiently.”