Abil Snack Food, Processing Line, Trinidad and Tobago

Associated Brands Industries Limited (ABIL) is one of the leading manufacturers and distributors of chocolate, confectionery, biscuits and breakfast cereals in the Caribbean. The company was first set up in 1974 and has built up an extensive range of product brands, including 216 stock keeping units.

The company facilities are all in Trinidad and include manufacturing, packaging and also distribution. ABIL has four manufacturing plants, one for each of its product divisions. The 50,000ft² Charles Candy plant is located in San Juan along with the 50,000ft² Sunshine Snacks production. ABIL's 34,800ft² biscuit production facility is located in Arima, and the cereal plant is located at Point Lisas Industrial Estate, near the shipping port.

The company exports its products to over 20 different countries worldwide. In 2000, the company completed extensive renovation plans including refurbished production facilities, new warehousing and a new three-storey office complex.

PACKAGING UPGRADE

In April 2007, ABIL installed a new top loader robot system at the San Juan plant to package a wide range of products in several size formats. The TTL-i Toploader from Sigpack Systems can package 14 different products in seven different tray sizes.

The machine was introduced as a secondary packaging method so that collation, shipping and changeovers could be made simpler, promoting a quicker throughput of product at the packaging end of the operation.

Sigpack installed a single toploader TTL-i, which can carry out three functions such as tray forming, tray toploading and tray closing. The system has a very small footprint, which allowed it to be easily retrofitted in the space available.

The system was chosen because of its neat compact design and the fact that changeovers can be conducted easily without the use of tools. The product grippers are supplied with vacuum, pneumatic air pressure, with electrical sensors incorporated into a single connecting plate.

The gripper can be easily substituted for an alternative one just by a single operation without having to bother with reconnecting cables and plugs. In addition, the tray forming and closing tools are fully adjustable for the different tray sizes so that no major disassembling is required in changeovers. Line operators can handle format changeovers without the need for skilled maintenance staff.