Multi-variable packaging lines can be hard work to design, develop and eventually control, but Cama says its domain experience and high-tech solutions are more than up to the task.
Naked chocolate products, three shapes, 15 packaging counts, 14 packaging formats, five SKU styles and 1500 ppm throughput. Just two of these variables are enough to put most packaging companies off, but when you’re Cama Group, these six are all in a day’s work. A case in point is its recent packaging solution for an artisan chocolate manufacturer.
Hawaiian Host is a North American confectionery company, which was started nearly 100 years ago in the founder’s parents’ attic on the island of Maui. The company claims it is the original maker and the world’s largest manufacturer of chocolate-covered Macadamia nuts.
A local souvenir
The products are all associated with the Japanese word ‘omiyage’, which means a local souvenir gifted to friends and family, the company says. As such, the packaging has to reflect and support this meaning and intention in its design.
“We first met the company five years ago at PackExpo,” explains Alessandro Rocca, group sales director at Cama Group. “They came onto our booth, holding a tray of chocolates and asked: ‘Do you have a robot that can pack this?’ After significant design work and customer liaison, we won the order for a huge line, which would see over 1500 chocolates per minute being packed precisely, positively and delicately in an array of different packaging formats.”
Specialised turnkey line
According to Cama, the turnkey line it developed is highly specialised and is designed specifically to handle the demands of this particular packaging exercise. In operation, robots equipped with Gimatic grippers are used to pick naked chocolates from feed rows on a conveyor and then gently place them into PET trays that arrive in parallel from a de-nester. The chocolates’ quality, shape and position on the belt are determined using a special 3D laser scanner supplied by Univision.
Once each tray is full, they are loaded singly or in pairs (with a cushion sheet) into carton trays, before a lid is formed and tucked into the tray, the finished product being a completed box containing anything from four to 32 chocolates. The boxes are then fed through an x-ray machine and check weigher before heading to a case packer at the end of the line.
Cama says that the line is also capable of bulk packaging, which is also used as a fall back in case of any line issues. In this instance, carton sheets can be fed through the line and the delta robots can directly load chocolates into the carton, which are then passed onto a manual loading section requested by the customer. This approach prevents any significant downtime, according to the company.
“The confectionery industry demands optimum efficiency,” Rocca explains. “You can’t just stop a 1500 ppm line. Our adage is: ‘never stop the line unnecessarily and be as efficient as possible when it is running’. And this counts as double, as phase two of this project will see another line going in.”
According to Chris Rabago, director of manufacturing at Hawaiian Host: “Cama established confidence with our team by taking a collaborative approach on finding the best solutions to our top-level priorities. Clear communication and collaboration was essential, as equipment projects have a high number of variables, and it’s critical that an open dialogue exist around cost/benefit solutions, as well as build decisions that may impact the equipment capabilities in the future. In respect to the technology, we look for an intuitive user interface, simple changeovers, and remote service support, which is especially important to our Hawaii-based production facilities, as it is often a challenge to quickly bring technicians onsite.”
Digitalised demands
The variables in this project demand a digitalised solution, which Cama has developed over the last five years.
“This line benefits from our full Industry 4.0 offering and is one of the first to deploy our new AI-driven line supervisor software,” Rocca tells PKN. “And to keep uptime to an absolute maximum, it exploits our ‘tool-less’ RFID-managed changeover solution and an automated gripper system, both of which help deliver some of the fastest batch-swap routines in the industry.”
The digitalised approach also makes operator training, machine interactions and maintenance routines simpler, thanks to immersive augmented reality (AR). All operational parameters are collected, collated and disbursed using a centralised PC, which can share instructions and alarms to tablets, the PC also monitors energy consumption as part of a sustainability package, which is also supported by the machines ability to handle and package trays made from sustainable materials.
“This is a fantastic deployment of our entire package,” Rocca concludes, “from mechanical design, through advanced electromechanical automation solutions from Rockwell Automation, and onto AR and AI to deliver even greater efficiencies and ease of use. As I have said, the confectionery industry demands maximum efficiency and we have to make sure that none of our technology is a weak link in the bigger process. In fact, in the majority of applications, our machines tend to be governed by up and downstream processes. It is our goal to never limit line speed in any industry.”
This article was first published in the March-April print edition of PKN Packaging News, page 32.
