Gerhard Schubert installs gentle handing packaging line for Bonomi

01-May-2017 - Last updated on 27-Apr-2017 at 09:20 GMT

The Schubert TLM packaging system. Picture: Gerhard Schubert.

Italian confectionery manufacturer Bonomi has partnered with Gerhard Schubert to install a TLM packaging systems for gentle handling of products.

Bonomi, which makes Sfogliatine and ladyfingers, packs different products and formats at its site in Roverè Veronese, Italy.

Pre-glued RSC cartons

Schubert’s TLM technology allows different products to be packaged using a single machine packing flowpacks in sizes of 135g, 200g, 400g and 500g in display cartons or pre-glued RSC cartons.

The flowpacks can be grouped into the display cartons in different orientations via three sub-machines.

Antonino Lanza, sales engineer, Gerhard Schubert, said Renato Bonomi, co-owner, Bonomi was satisfied with its existing technology for packaging Sfogliatine (puff pastry with icing) and ladyfingers, but over time, the systems could not handle different product formats.

The family stayed in touch with Schubert sales representatives and they started discussions about an alternative to the existing top-loading machines the company was using.

“Renato Bonomi and his son made the final decision following a visit to Crailsheim, Gerhard Schubert’s head office in Germany,” said Lanza.

“We were able to convince the customer that the combination of F44 pre-grouping with the Transmodul conveying technology represents overall a more compact, more accessible and especially a more flexible technology.

“The customer immediately understood the advantages of the TLM technology whereby standard components, simple mechanics and an intelligent control system are brought together. And since Bonomi can also benefit from the investment over the long term, he finally decided on our technology and ordered several identically built systems.”

Puff pastry

The project assignment was to package the flowpacks in different configurations: either lying flat, standing on the short side or standing on the long side.

Schubert did this with a combination of a pivoted product belt, specific tools and intelligent control.

Puff pastry and ladyfingers are by nature very delicate. With this in mind, Schubert installed vacuum cups that suck in the packs without exerting any pressure on the fragile contents.

“Quick and easy format changing was very important to us. Overall, the machine is easy to operate and we only need one employee at the packaging system,” said Bonomi.

On the product infeed conveyor, a Schubert 3D scanner detects the position of the packages and passes this information on to two F4 robots, that pick up the products in the first sub-machine and pre-group them on the belt.

If products are packed standing, the product belt is oriented so that an F2 filling robot can pick up the formations in the correct orientation and place them in the cartons.

The erection of the base section is carried out in interaction between an F3 robot and an F2 robot. In the third sub-machine, an F2 robot removes the boxes for the cover from the magazine and closes the open cartons. In this way, the system achieves an output of up to 115 packages per minute.

“In the future, thanks to the modular design of Schubert machines, we will be able to integrate further modules to achieve higher volumes or more formats at any time,” added Bonomi.