Inventor seeks partner to commercialise novel packaging concept

CCL Concepts & Developments' md Ted Coulson, who has 25 years’ experience in the packaging machinery trade, is seeking firms interested in commercialising his ‘Bandalero’ concept.

The Bandalero is a corrugated wide film to produce pockets that is covered by another film, which can then be perforated to create single portions.

“Bandalero packs are made by special devices that linearly corrugate the base film, fill the corrugations directly from multi-lane auger feeders and apply lidding as per flow wrap or sachet technology​”, said Coulson, who has secured an EU registered design (001025258-0001-0002) and a US design patent (D602376S) for his concept.

“One eight-lane Bandalero machine will dose multiple portion packs side-by-side at speeds of 150-190 multipacks a minute or 1.4-1.8t of coffee per hour.​”

Speed and labour savings​

One Bandalero machine could replace between five and 10 flow packers and operate at the same speed, claimed Coulson.

By dosing multiple portion packs side by side, manufacturers could speed up their lines significantly, reduce labour and cut packaging costs as groups of fruit or cereal bars could be sold without outer packaging, he added.

In this instance, multipacks could be perforated between portions so that shoppers could tear off individual bars and use them for kids’ lunchboxes.

Speaking to Foodmanufacture.co.uk at the Foodex trade show at the NEC, Coulson said he had identified two packaging machinery firms that were prepared to build the machinery from scratch were a manufacturer to commit to buy it. However, another option would be to modify existing flow wrapping equipment.