Jean Marc Passemard, sales promotion manager at Cermex, said that the SW23 is designed for low speed application, and is targeted at food sectors such as biscuit, fresh product, ready meals, and jam manufacturer.
He told FoodProductionDaily.com that the newly developed unit meets manufacturers’ demand for compact packaging and production equipment layouts while integrating additional functions such as labelling and wider pack functionality.
“The SW is combined in this instance with a 6-axis polyarticulated Fanuc M710iC robot into a particularly compact unit that has a footprint of less than 13m2,” said Passemard.
Multi-functionality
The equipment can handle rectangular cardboard cartons in terms of primary packaging and in regards to secondary packaging it has been designed to work with both pre-joined regular slotted containers (RSC) and wrap around blanks, he added.
Ergonomics informed the design of the SW23, he continued, with adhesive tape reels assembled on the front side to make refilling easier; in addition, as the operator removes a filled pallet, a buffer stock of cases is created by the palletizing robot.
“With case labelling between the case packer and the palletizer, the unit is a complete concentration of functions,” claims Passemard.
Clean design
He said that the clean design also means the operator is not required to step over any structural elements; lower elements are encased to ensure products do not become lodged inside, while a single control interface operates all the components.
According to the manufacturer, the process starts with the collation of individual products for which the primary packaging is a carton, after which the products are then loaded into the RSC by the case packer.
The company explained that at the outfeed of this module the cases are immediately labelled by the M710 iC palletizing robot, which also confirms the label is positioned and printed correctly by passing it in front of a scanner; the robot then palletizes the case if the operation is validated.
The rate of product infeed speed is 22 products per minute; in the case of the side-loading case packer, the outfeed speed rate enables one case to be formed, loaded and taped per minute, while the overall outfeed speed of the unit - case packaging and palletization – is 3.5 cases per minute, added the manufacturer.