Food manufacturers play a key role in the global economy and have a strong responsibility towards the planet. For these reasons, they rely on suppliers’ innovative solution in order to adopt strategies able to ensure the responsible use of resources.
Furthermore, consumer habits change more and more frequently. This trend requires industry operators to continuously keep up to date to catch the opportunities offered by the market, thus adapting the production processes accordingly.
More and more often, the companies of this sector tend to opt for flexible and environmentally sustainable packaging solutions, suitable for meeting any new market requirement in terms of convenience and product use, as well as awareness towards environmental matters.
This can only be achieved thanks to versatile bottling and packaging plants, which quickly and easily switch from one type of production to another thanks to advanced automation and smart technologies.
SMI experience in end-of-line packaging has led to the development of increasingly efficient solutions, such as the new combined packer from the CM R ERGON range that stands out for the innovative revolving quick format changeover system, which enables to quickly switch from a film-only packaging to a tray + film or wrap-around box without any manual intervention for the replacement of components or the adjustment of machine devices. Everything, in fact, is carried out by means of the selection of parameters from the operator panel.
Fast format changeover thanks to the innovative revolving system
The CM R ERGON combined packers combine the functions of a wrap-around case packer, a tray packer and a shrink wrapper in a single system.
They are thus the ideal solutions for those customers who have to frequently switch from one product to another or from one format to another and need to pack a wide variety of containers in the following types of packages:
1) film only
2) flat cardboard pad+film
3) tray+film
4) tray only
5) fully closed wrap-around boxes
6) partially closed boxes.
The new CM R ERGON packers by SMI have been developed with the aim of offering an extremely innovative solution to those companies that opt for a combined packaging machine for processing various products and realizing several packs at a maximum production speed of 80 packs/ minute (depending on the type of container and pack).
The versatility of combined machines involves frequent format changeover operations. Thus, the idea of SMI designers to revolutionize these operations by developing a new revolving system to ensure easy, quick, fast and repeatable format changeover operations. Furthermore, mistakes by the operators are removed, as the adjustments to be made are set by the machine system control.
What is the revolving format changeover
The CM R models are equipped with the innovative revolving format changeover system (supplied as standard) which consists of two rotary modules:
• the first positioned in the cardboard/loose product advance area (rotary module 1)
• the second positioned in the area of box/tray formation and loose product flow (rotary module 2).
The two rotary modules are supplied with double equipment: (a) that required for working in film only and (b) that for packaging in tray or wrap-around boxes.
By rotating 180° a single rotary module or both modules, it is possible to obtain different pack configurations with the CM R combined packer. All this without any mechanical adjustment to be manually made by the operator.
The format changeover of yesterday and today
In most packers available on the market, the change of the pack format involves the adjustment of several axes, an operation that is generally performed manually by means of hand wheels. This type of operation can take a lot of time for the operator and can lead to mistakes during the adjustments with effects on the production efficiency.
On the contrary, thanks to the new revolving format changeover system, it is possible to save time during the tooling operation, the number of rejects is reduced, the machine downtime caused by wrong settings is eliminated, thus ensuring high quality and maximum efficiency of the packaging line.
Main advantages of CM R ERGON with revolving format changeover
• when you have to switch from one working condition to another (i.e. from film only to wrap-around case), it is sufficient to rotate 180° one or both modules;
• no mechanical adjustment is required for the machine reconfiguration;
• no manual intervention is required for the component replacement;
• the format changeover, totally automated, is a fast, repeatable and precise operation;
• drastic reduction of format change times;
• greater precision, as module 1 (cardboard/loose product advance area) and module 2 (box/tray former) are already prepared to process the new type of packaging;
• greater production efficiency for customers who need frequent switches between running film-only and tray or box;
• reduced maintenance and installation costs.
