The installation of the new equipment allowed Lakome to pack the product in two different types of packs (450 g and 1000 g) on one Basis-60 cartoner. In addition, the machine could reach up to 60 packs/min speed . For comparison: old equipment is capable to reach up to 30 packs per minute only.
PACKAGING PROCESS
The whole packaging process is proceed as follows:
- product is recieved by the dispenser;
- process of forming a pack is taking place at the same time;
- gripping mechanism fixes the blank and puts it into the holder while the blank gains the shape of a pack;
- system of holders are moving continuously in a circle along with the pack. The upper flaps are folded and the lower flaps are sticking at the same time;
- futher on, information about the date of manufacture, series and batch number, etc., is printing, after what the final product is going outside the packaging machine;
- as soon as the pack is installed under the funnel dispenser, the product reachs the pack;
- after loading, during further movement, the upper and lower valves are folding over, the glue is laying and the pack is closing.
PROJECT RESULTS
Oat flakes are quite a dusty product, which creates two problems at once: first, the pack gluing is difficult, and second, it is necessary to clean open surfaces too often. To solve this problem, the machine is equipped with aspiration nozzles connected to the central aspiration system. As a result, achieving high quality of pack gluing and minimizing downtime due to sanitization.
The cartoner's control system is based on Schneider Electric hardware and software complex. The staff has easily learnt the working techniques with the machine thanks to a convenient, intuitive interface along with visualization's elements(animation) - color images, etc. The control system displays the results of autodiagnostics and provides multilingual support. The operator panel is located on the console which can easily be moved to the right place of the area serving. Moreover, it can adjust the machine parameters, coordinate the phases of work and quickly change operation modes.