Part 4 The Whiffler Road Machines
The Tobenoil Years (1966 to 1976)
Flow-Wrapping Machines
The new packaging technology was sweeping the industry, "Flow-wrapping" also known as Horizontal Form,
Fill, and Seal (HFFS), this style of packaging produced a pillow pack style wrap, and is still the most popular
form of food wrapping today, and apart from the introduction of cold sealing in the early 90s it has not changed
much over the last 50 years,
Auto
Wrappers
developed
and
manufactured
its
first
flow
wrapper
in
the
early
60s,
and
called
it
the
"AT"
machine,
which
was
manufactured
at
both
Edward
Street
and
then
at
the
Whiffler
Road
factory.
In
the
late
60s
(when
at
Whiffler
Road)
due
to
the
High
demand
for
flow
wrap
packaging
and
the
quality
and
efficiency
of
the
AT
machines
Autowrappers
was
contacted
by
SIG
(
now
Bosch
)
and
and
asked
to
produce
SIG's
range
of
HSU
flow-wrappers
under
licence
in
the
UK,
Autowrappers
manufactured
these
machines
until
1971
but
by
this
time
the
redeveloped
AT
machine
had
become
the
Mk1
Versoflow
and
was
becoming
the
"must
have"
flow-wrapping machine of the time.
The Auto-Wrappers "AT" Flow-Wrapper
Photo Ref: AW0571-72 The "AT" Flow Wrapping Machine flyer
Photo Ref: AW0575 The "AT" Flow Wrapping Machine
Photo Ref: AW0573-74-76 The "AT" Flow Wrapping Machine data
sheets
Photo Ref: AW0577 The "AT" Flow Wrapping Machine flyer
The SIG HSU Flow-Wrapper
(made at Autowrappers under licence)
Photo Ref: AW0605 The SIG HSU Flow Wrapping Machine (made at Autowrappers under licence)
Photo Ref: AW0608 The SIG HSU Flow Wrapping Machine (made at Autowrappers under licence)
Photo Ref: AW0600 The SIG HSU Flow Wrapping Machine (made at Autowrappers under licence)
Photo Ref: AW0601 The SIG HSU Flow Wrapping Machine (made at Autowrappers under licence)
Photo Ref: AW0603-06 The SIG HSU products produced on the machines (made at Autowrappers under licence)
Photo Ref: AW0607 The SIG HSU Flow Wrapping Machine (made at Autowrappers under licence)
Photo Ref: AW0604 The SIG HSU Flow Wrapping Machine (made at Autowrappers under licence)
Around
1970
the
AT
machine
was
re-developed
into
the
MK1
Versoflow
Flow-wrapper,
this
machine
became
very
popular
with
Autowrappers
customers
and
started
to
outsell
the
SIG
HSU
Machines,
this
did
not
please
SIG
and
they
now
saw
Autowrappers
as
a
main
competitor
and
withdrew
the
licence
to
manufacture
the
HSU
machines
The
MK1
Flow-wrappers
became
extremely
successful
and
took
a
stronghold
on
the
UK
packaging
market,
partly
because
of
its
flexibility
but
mostly
because
of
its
robustness,
proven
by
the
fact
that
a
lot
of
these
machines
are
still running today, 47 years later
Photo Ref: AW0653 Versoflow
Photo Ref: AW0654 Versoflow Data sheet
Photo Ref: AW0655 Versoflow Biscuit On Edge version (BOE)
