Driscoll’s, a Watsonville, Calif., distributor of fresh of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries, produces 60 pallet loads of berries every hour and then trucks pallet loads them from its packaging facilities in California and Mexico to distribution centers across North America.
After trying different solutions, then shipping test loads across the country, Driscoll’s worked with Orion Packaging Systems, Alexandria, Minn., and Associated Packaging, Inc., Gallatin, Tenn., to develop the solution that protects its berries and meets the demands of its production cycle. That solution is an Orion FA turntable automatic stretch wrapping system that bands the stretch film and applies it in a pattern that creates the needed downward holding pressure without completely sealing the load. Banding leaves open space that allows the modified atmosphere to circulate throughout the load. The Orion solution met Driscoll’s load-per-minute productivity, saves labor by being an inline automated process and is one-third of the cost of the taping solution Driscoll’s was originally using.