STiR coffee and tea magazine

32 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 3, 2017 (June/July) U.S. states. "We are getting more and more calls. I even had one person putting a Viagra-type medicine into a cup. There are all different kinds of applications that can be put into a single cup." GIMA buys Mapster To address a broad range of customer fill-and-pack expectations, IMA, through its subsidiary GIMA, recently acquired majority interest in Mapster (See, Coffee Report, pg 21). Mapster, located in Parma, Italy, near GIMA's Bologna offices, de- signs, manufactures, and markets single- serve capsules. With the acquisition came a variety of equipment capable of handling capaci- ties from 60 capsules to 360 capsules per minute. Included in that group is the Ca- maleonte filling and sealing machine with its three production lanes that can be op- Eastsign International's DCC-1-1500 GIMA's new Camaleonte fill machine erated one lane at a time and each with a different capsule style. And like its name – camaleonte means chameleon in Italian – manual changeovers take no more than 15 minutes, Winberry said. "This helps address the growing trend wherein smaller companies are seeking to bring packaging into their own facilities," he said. The addition of Mapster adds to the IMA/GIMA collection of systems serving a variety of industries such as dairy, confection, teas and herbs, pharmaceutical, coffee, and more. The company regularly applies technology developed in one segment to another to improve a process. "For example, with our liquid pharmaceutical experience, the GIMA division has been able to offer innovation in liquid flavor dosing of coffees, teas, and solubles, thereby saving the client the added complexities and expenses of adding dry flavoring," Winberry said. "We are able to do so with flavor drops right into the capsule on the fly before the lid is applied." Eastsign's entry-level packaging machine Eastsign International's new entry-level packaging machines are smaller and more ver- satile to appeal to small- and mid-size companies, Wang said. "To meet the market needs, we have modified our mass production machines to balance the cost and the production capability," Wang said. "Specifically, to reduce the cost we have designed a single-lane packaging machine with a lower speed of 25 to 30 cups per minute." The machine is also smaller, a compact 80 inches long, 26.5 inches wide and 70 inches tall. "At the same time, we have designed our machine with multiple functions such as adding nitrogen flushing and interchangeable modules for producing both compatible K-cups and Nespresso cups," he said. Fresh advantage Widmer said the United Home Technologies product line fills the needs of roasters wanting to market quality with convenience. The company starts with the iFill800 that produces 800 cups and scales up to the iFill9000XP at 50,000 cups an hour. Four other models fit in between. The company's iFill cups are deep channel in design and therefore hold more grams. While a standard K-cup holds about 10 grams of product, the IFill cup takes 15. "We've also taken the filter all the way to the very bottom (of the cup)," he said. "Our machines are volumetric. We can fill any powder into a cup. We could very easily do a soup."

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