Turnkey
Requirements
“Sun Rice” is a popular puffed rice and chocolate snack in the German retail sector. Rübezahl Schokoladen GmbH invested in a premium performance system in order to sustainably secure its product’s success. The mandate for Schubert Packaging Systems was to ensure high-speed packaging with practically zero error tolerance.
Puffed rice snacks and bars coated in chocolate are packed into flow-wrap bags. Loading into trays is another possible variant for the snacks. Format changeovers must take place quickly in order to react flexibly to demand.
Solution
A Schubert pickerline is at the heart of the system, combined with a fast-moving chain conveyor for snacks and a separate transport system for trays. The snacks are transported at speeds of up to 58 metres per minute. Placing products at these speeds means that the robots require a correspondingly large working area. This is one of the most impressive features of Schubert’s leading robot technology.
The packaging line provided by Schubert Packaging Systems works in an extremely flexible manner, allowing for packaging into trays, as individual bars, or even both at the same time. The foundation for achieving both high output and high efficiency lies in the hardware and the system control software. The automation solution is reliable and ideally suited to synchronising the processes involved. For this reason, it is also possible to compensate for fluctuations in production or to master situations such as starting up after a format change so that very few empty packs are produced.
The design and construction of the system is in line with applicable standards in the food sector. The software is simple to use for the operator with a clear and intuitive control System.
The Schubert Packaging Systems team asked us the right questions, which in my view is so important in turnkey projects. This being the case, a good result can be achieved much faster and the solution suits us really well. We are already a convinced customer when it comes to Schubert plants. I can imagine the same for Schubert Packaging Systems in the future.
UWE ZINKE
Head of Technology at Rübezahl Schokoladen Gmbh
High-speed packaging line
The delectable snacks move, unsorted, onto the conveyor belt of the packaging line. A vision system with four reflected light scanners note their position and orientation in the subsequent four TLM sub-machines. Seven TLM F4 robot units (14 arms) gradually take all products and place them on the infeed chain of the flow-wrapping machine, either naked or into plastic trays.
Feeding in trays is the task of both two-axis robots in the final TLM sub-machine on the line. They transfer the trays from magazines and place them onto chain conveyors to the left- and right-hand sides of the conveyor belt. A storage tray is available as a buffer for the trays before these are packed into flow-wrap bags. The packaged snacks and bars are then immediately moved to a transfer belt for subsequent packaging processes.
Rübezahl Schokoladen GmbH has invested in a premium performance system in order to sustainably secure its product’s success. Schubert Packaging Systems’ mandate was to deliver high-speed packaging with practically zero error tolerance.
The position and orientation of individual products are recorded by the scanner, then taken from the belt with a single-pick process.
The bars are only picked if the surface of the respective products as well as the length and widths lie within the defined tolerance range.
The double-picking process increases the possible picking output per arm.
If the tray’s internal dimensions are tight, the double-picking process facilitates the insertion of paired products.
Products are placed on the continuous flighted chain at up to 60 m/min and they move directly from there into the flow-wrapping machine.
