Toad-Ally Snax Inc., Bristol, PA, specializes in the production of chocolate-coated snacks such as pretzels and caramel corn. The company, whose name is derived from a play on the word “totally,” also does private label contract manufacturing and packaging of snacks for a variety of large retailers.
To package its diverse product line, Toad-Ally uses various horizontal and vertical form/fill/seal systems from Ilapak. These machines include Carrera and Vegatronic models. The Vegatronic vertical form/fill/seal machinery can produce pillow packs, block bottom bags, 4-corner-sealed, and 3-side-sealed pouches in various sizes, all with or without recloseable zippers. The equipment can accommodate a range of heat-sealable materials such as polypropylene films, laminated structures, and barrier film structures for modified atmosphere applications.
One of Toad-Ally’s newest installations is the Ilapak Vegatronic 2000 OF rotatable-jaw machine. To provide the functions Toad-Ally wanted, Ilapak supplied a Vegatronic 2000 OF intermittent-motion film bagger with customized options, including a gusseting unit, an in-line zipper applicator to apply recloseable zippers from Zip-Pak, powered film-feed rollers, vacuum belts, a header hole punch for pegboard displays, and a special forming tube for executing 3-side-seal stand-up pouches.
Toad-Ally Snax uses a proprietary OPP/metallized PET/LDPE rollstock material supplied by SunFlex Packagers, Inc. and has married its new Vegatronic 2000 OF bagger to an existing 14-head combination weigher from Parsons-Eagle Packaging Systems. The Vegatronic 2000 OF vf/f/s bagger gives Toad-Ally Snax the ability to produce three-side-sealed stand-up pouches quickly and economically. Toad-Ally President Darlette Jenkins notes, “We are running the seven-ounce, 3-side-sealed, flat-bottom pouches at 45 bags of chocolate-coated mini pretzels per minute. I am advised by my production supervisor that the Vegetronic 2000 OF is capable of producing this size bag at 55 per minute.”
