EQUIPMENT SOLUTIONS

Our equipment solutions are durable, reliable, and compliant to accommodate food products ranging from raw marinated chicken to fruits, vegetables, herbs, and ready-to-eat meals. With MARCO North America, manufacturers gain productivity benefits such as:

• Reduced packing costs and labor dependency
• Identifying unaccountable losses throughout handling, portioning, and packing operations 
• De-skilling the labor force and reducing manual operations with intuitive equipment designs and easy to use software.  
• Ensure the correct weight of every package by eliminating under packed product and reducing product giveaway
• Quicker sanitation regimes 
• Easy and rapid product changeovers 
• Ability to forecast production with actionable data that tracks when jobs will be completed based on speed.

MARCO North America supplies modular and tailored equipment designs suitable for use in the field or at your manufacturing facility. We aim to simplify your processes while maximizing postharvest yield and productivity.

Discover some of our popular equipment solutions below.

Workstations

Our modular and customizable workstations include table-mounted scales, red-light / yellow-light / green-light LED indicators, and raw product totes with overhead light fixtures for when you need to grade products at the table. As the scale is integrated into the workstation table, it reduces the risk of damage to protect your investment. Optional extras include tray storage, angled tray holders, and waste chutes for improved worker ergonomics and efficient processing and lights for product inspections. 

Features:

• Can accommodate up to four operators at one workstation with buffer zones for constant flow
• Comes with a range of optional extras to maximize productivity on the line while keeping operators safe
• A durable and sanitary design suitable for dry or wet food processing environments including soft fruits, grapes, herbs, and RTE products

Tabletop Scales

Made from 304 stainless steel with fully welded, folded channel or tubular construction, our high precision tabletop scales are affordable and incorporate RFID logon to maintain worker traceability during weighing and packing operations.

Features:

• Available in a variety of models and sizes according to application
• Stainless steel construction with low-care design for improved sanitation
• Digital display with LED red-light / yellow-light / green-light indicator to enforce portion control with noise acceptance as a second feedback.

Manual Packaging Conveyor Lines

Automate the movement of products between processing stages with sanitary conveyor solutions for your packing facility or processing plant. MARCO North America provides straight-line conveyors, sanitary spirals, and transferless configurations that increase throughput and improve cycle times with reduced labor dependency.

Features:

• Sanitary, washdown-friendly designs that provide smooth movement of products throughout the facility
• Automated stops and buffer zones to accumulate trays and release batches as upstream operations complete
• Completely fit-for-purpose and customizable configurations available with modular designs that can fit within your facility’s available space

Combination Weighers: SelectMaster & Super SelectMaster

Designed to handle wet environments, MARCO’s combination weighers are semi-automatic solutions that have a toolless design for easy changeovers. Each scale pan weighs individual portions to ensure you never over or under-pack a product and are easy to use, reducing your dependency on skilled labor.  For the greatest impact, the combination weighers are best used when both weight and count are relevant factors during packing operations.     

Features:

• Toolless design for easy changeovers between product lines
• HMI display indicating each weight per scale to maintain portion control
• Available in a variety of designs that are fit for purpose according to the application

Case Packing Solutions: PunnetMaster

Our tray or “punnet”  case packing solutions incorporate automated weigh stations that divert any under-filled tray to a different workstation for corrective action. Whether you are packing fresh foods or RTE products, MARCO’s automated case packing solutions ensure you have consistent and uniform packing throughout the last stages of your product lines.

Features:

• Automated pick and place operations to complete the packing process for consumer-ready products
• Reduces labor requirements at the end-of-packing line while maintaining process quality
• Flexible designs to handle different pack weights, pack dimensions, and finished tray dimensions

Checkweighers and Metal Detectors

End-of-line checkweighers and metal detectors provide additional assurance that each product meets the production requirements. Verify that no foreign, metal objects are contaminating your products while ensuring that each tray or pack weight meets the customer’s specifications. Our checkweighers and metal detectors link with our software solutions, ensuring you can maintain demonstrable compliance with your QC checks before releasing products from the facility.  There is also a single touchscreen control to set up the entire MARCO production line reducing the dependency for technical expertise to set up.    

Features:

• Supermarket compliant specifications including lockable reject bin with divert available using Air, Divert Arm or Mechanical Pusher
• HMI touchscreen interface with integrated weigh bed and metal detector
• End-of-line integration to police the production process before releasing products

Integrated Scale Based Workstations

Our scales are fit for purpose and come with an open-channel hygienic design. The red-light / yellow-light / green-light indicator head includes a gesture sensor to initiate tare when an operator reports to the station. In wet environments, across-the-line scales provide better safety and ergonomics while providing buffer zones with constant flow of raw materials to help maximize productivity. 

Features:

• Ergonomic design with integrated scale pan and accessible raw product tote
• Adjustable hygienic feet or rollers for increased mobility around the facility
• Flexible designs that accommodate any weighing application and operating environment

Labeling Machines

Labeling and scanning solutions enable you to maintain traceability over all your operations and track each product through your manufacturing process. For maximum availability, a double head and auto-changeover labeling machine will reduce downtimes and allow for restocking without stopping the line.

Features:

• High-speed labeling with alternate heads applying the same label
• Auto changeovers to reduce downtimes and increase availability
• Top and bottom labeling systems that can include primary and secondary (or promotional) labels

Semi-Automated Solutions

Our equipment solutions can integrate with additional systems to provide semi-automated operations at critical stages in the process. With automated end-of-the-lane case packing systems, integrated checkweighers and metal detectors, as well as combination weighing solutions, you can expedite labor-intensive processes while maintaining product quality with increased productivity. 

For more information about our semi-automated solutions, get in touch with MARCO North America today.

MARCO North America is a sales and service division of MARCO based in the UK