Tray Filling Line Manufacturers

Tray filling lines — integration and components

A tray filling line assembles individual food product components into retail or food service trays and seals them. A complete line typically includes: tray denesting machine (separates individual trays from a stack and places them on the line conveyor at the required pitch); component filling stations (a combination of manual placement, depositors, and portioning machines that place each component into the tray in sequence — solid components placed first, liquids and sauces deposited on top or last); inline weigher or checkweigher (verifies the total fill weight before sealing); tray sealer (heat-seals a film lid to the tray; MAP tray sealers flush the tray with a controlled gas mixture before sealing to extend shelf life); labelling machine (applies product label to the sealed tray top or bottom, or to a belly-band); metal detector or X-ray inspection; and secondary packing (multipack assembly, retail shelf-ready display, or bulk carton packing). The line layout, conveyor speed, and number of filling stations are determined by the target throughput and the number of components in the meal recipe.