Thermoforming line for MAP-packed ready meals
The customer
A Bangkok-based contract packer running eight thermoforming lines for chilled ready meals. Each line forms a PET tray, fills it, evacuates, gas-flushes with N₂/CO₂, and seals — at a rate of 18 cycles per minute.
The challenge
The original setup used three small rotary vane pumps in parallel per line. Pull-down to packaging vacuum (10 mbar) was taking 3.4 seconds, eating into cycle time. Oil mist was carrying over into the food zone, and the plant was getting through 48 L of oil per month per line.
The solution
We replaced the three small pumps on each line with:
- 1× MB Series mechanical booster (1,500 m³/h)
- 1× V0301 single-stage rotary vane (300 m³/h) as backing pump
- An oil-mist eliminator on the V0301 exhaust
The booster does the bulk evacuation work; the V0301 maintains the foreline. The oil eliminator captures 99.9% of oil mist before it can reach the food zone.
The result
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Pull-down time to 10 mbar | 3.4 s | 2.1 s |
| Cycle rate | 18/min | 22/min |
| Oil consumption | 48 L/month | 19 L/month |
| Pumps per line | 3 | 1 + booster |
ROI: 14 months based on cycle-time gains alone.