Shawpak, based in Derby, is the machinery manufacturing division of Riverside Medical Packaging. Its range of thermoformers has been in development for three years and secured £1m in sales in 2017.
The Shawpak machine is designed for a variety of packaging markets including medical device packaging, pharmaceuticals, food, consumer goods and protective transit packaging, and comes in a range of sizes and speeds to suit customers from low-production start-ups up to multinational operations.
Sales and marketing manager Tony Crofts said: “Our thermoforming machines come with a number of USPs. The size is at least one third of any competitor, it has no film trim to save on both money and waste, requires no water cooling and runs on low-consumption single-phase power.
“Rigid and flexible films can be applied on the same machine with the same tooling, giving flexibility to the customer at no extra cost. Full product and tool change with a single operator can take 10-30 minutes, which is 70% faster than competing machines.”
The Shawpak thermoformers comprise a range of eight machines with web width ranging from 220-620mm and pack depth from 80-100mm. They are designed to compete against horizontal linear thermoform machinery from manufacturers such as Multivac, Colimatic, Ulma and GEA.
They are capable of cycling from 1.8 seconds with multiple cavities on a soft blister and from 3 seconds on rigid at an output speed up to 9,500 packs per hour. Using an indexing drum to convey materials through the machine, they eliminate the need for a gripper chain.
Machines will be supplied by Friedheim International in a deal announced last month.
Shawpak has invested £1m to create a production and showroom facility that has also seen the recruitment of a team of 25 members of staff across engineering and design to cope with forecast volume increases. If Shawpak reaches its £3m target, Crofts believes another 15 jobs will be created by 2020.
Established in 1979, parent company Riverside Medical Packaging turns over £12m and employs more than 200 people.
