At this year’s ProSweets Cologne, Hastamat presented its Vertical Multilane Wrapper (VMW). This high-performance machine efficiently packages square and round sandwich cookies and cookies. “The machine concept of the Vertical Multilane Wrapper brings together a grouping facility for piece goods and a vertical wrapping process”, explained Olaf Piepenbrock, Executive Partner of ­Hastamat’s parent company Piepenbrock. This design combines the advantages of a horizontal packaging machine with those of a vertical machine. Two different loading positions make it possible to package products upright (on edge) as well as one above the other (on pile) on the same machine. This is achieved by a newly developed grouping module. “The machine can be retooled from one packaging format to the other within five minutes,” said Olaf Piepenbrock. “This allows the Vertical Multilane Wrapper to cover a large range of different packaging sizes”. A space-saving, compact design is another of the machine’s key advantages.