A manufacturer of thermoforming machinery has made its biggest ever capital investment to help it target new business in the food and medical sectors.

Shawpak, which is a division of Derby-based Riverside Medical Packaging, has spent £600,000 with Engineering Technology Group (ETG) on purchasing a five-axis Chiron 1250 vertical milling machine that will help the company almost halve cycle times on the 80-off customer tools it will produce over the next 12 months.
The high-speed spindle, rotating bed and bespoke workholding from Hyfore means Shawpak can machine up to 20 parts at any one time, with production set to take just 40 hours, instead of the previous 80. This time reduction is a major breakthrough for the firm, which will now be able to make more tailored machinery for food customers that could generate in excess of £2m of new business over the next 12 months.
Alan Wade, works and engineering director at Shawpak, says: “Demand for our thermoforming technology is growing rapidly, which means we need to manufacture more parts within the same amount of time to keep up with demand. We initially hired a XT630 and that showed us the type of performance we could get out of a five-axis machine. However, we knew we needed an even better solution and that’s when ETG suggested the Chiron 1250 five-axis machine.
“It’s our largest-ever single purchase, but one that has the potential to really help us drive forward within the food sector,” he continues. “One contract – to build a machine that seals a double burger pack – has already been won and this wouldn’t have been possible
with the previous machinery.”
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