Greenfield sites give companies the blank slate they can use to build best-in-class production and packaging facilities.
Unhindered by an existing installed base, operators have the opportunity to invest in technologies, machines and processes that define the very latest in agility, flexibility and efficiency. These technology choices can then act as a foundation for easier and more streamlined investment in future capabilities.
The construction of a new production facility for a pet food fupplier in Southeast Europe
What makes investments like these even more attractive is the deployment of machines and process that already have in-built flexibility to cater production and packaging changes without wholesale re-engineering or even investment in new hardware.
A case in point is the recent construction of a new production facility by a leading European pet food supplier, in The Balkan region of Southeast Europe. In this instance, the company called upon the design, machine and domain expertise of global secondary-packaging-technology leader Cama Group.
The solution developed for the customer comprises two of Cama’s popular IF296 monoblock loading units with integral two-axis robot forming and lidding capabilities. The IF296 is used to package two different petfood pouches – either 85 or 100 g – into boxes of 12 or 24.
In all instances, changeover from each pouch or batch size requires the absolute minimum of re-engineering to keep overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) as close to the maximum figure as possible.
According to Cristian Sala, Executive Sales Manager at Cama Group: “The petfood industry has undergone a renaissance in the last decade or so, with so much more emphasis being placed on packaging designs and shelf appeal. Our pets are an important part of the family, so producers are treating them as such with packaging that mirrors the quality and appeal of food for human consumption.
“It is up to us as a global packaging technology supplier to meet these needs, which we are more than capable of doing thanks to our broad machinery portfolio and multi-industry domain expertise. Our range of machines and packaging technologies gives customers the ability to choose a packaging process and architecture that suits their exact needs as opposed to modifying something from a more limited and less capable machine range.”
From primary packaging to the IF296 machine
In operation the IF296 machine receives the filled pouches from the primary packaging process on two in-feed conveyors, both capable of delivering 200 pouches per minute. An equaliser is used to evenly space the pouches before they are fed into a carrousel that groups them into the pre-defined product count.
A robot with a specially developed gripper head then picks the multi-pouch array and deposits it into a carton running parallel to the main line. These cartons are constructed in a concurrent process using the machine’s integrated forming unit. Once filled, the boxes are glued and closed.
Sala continues: “The machine’s design is such that the customer can add third-party peripherals, including in this case, a label-printing system, and camera and photocell unit, which as well as communicating seamlessly with the primary PLC, also feeds into a case-reject system in case of incorrect labelling. The machine also leverages our Industry 4.0 based control architecture, which gives the customer deeper data-based insights and more granular control, not just now, but for future modifications too.”
“A clean slate doesn’t come around very often,” he concludes, “so when it does, it makes sense to deploy the very best solutions you can to ensure optimum OEE and total cost of ownership (TCO). Machines with in-built flexibility also offer superior longevity, as the ‘one machine for one job’ mantra is very rare these days. More often than not it is ‘one machine for multiple jobs, and some of these jobs might even be on the drawing board yet, so you have to have a platform that can more easily adapt.”
