A modern facility has to include efficient processes, flexible use of space and innovative technology. Highly sophisticated robotic technologies are revolutionising product handling in order to ensure minimal use of transport barriers, single-rejection capabilities and eliminating contamination risks from primary packaging materials.
Rob Roy, Sr. Director Aseptic Technology at IPS-Integrated Project Services, LLC (USA) talks about INJECTA’s robotic technology in a short video.
Are you ready for the fifth move?
Achieving high containment demands a combined strategy where design optimisation, regular in-place decontamination and superior isolation technologies come into play.
INJECTA achieves that objective by acting on all fronts to maximise each aspect and deliver optimum results.
Watch how INJECTA makes high containment a certainty across the entire process and follow the Queen on her way towards Checkmate in 7.
Join the INJECTA Community and watch the new video.
This year you will surely have a wide choice about where to visit us! We are glad to share with you CFT Group’s first tradeshows of this year! This is a real evidence that commitment to our customers is growing more and more, as well as the range of technologies we are going to show you around the world.
Upakovka is the number one trade fair in Russia for packaging and processing equipment and CFT Group’s Russian Team has not missed this usual appointment, ready to unveil its know-how in manufacturing single machines and complete turnkey lines for the food & beverage industry.
We took part in Fruit Logistica, Berlin, for the second time, together with our Product Treatment Sales Team and our partner Naddeo Technologies. Fruit Logistica has represented the perfect occasion to showcase CFT Group’s brand-new decoring machine for salads, already introduced on the Italian market during Cibustec 2019 edition: the COMBICORE.
CLFP Expo, in Santa Clara, Texas and NWFPA, in Spokane, Washington, have represented the perfect opportunity to showcase our know-how in processing and packaging technologies for the Food, Liquid Food and Beverage sectors and to introduce our brand new CFT Robotics platform on the American market. We have been present with our two partners for the American market. Process Resource for what concerns processing technologies and equipment and PCE for filling and packaging solutions.
We have participated in BBTech Expo, Rimini, Italy, together with our company COMAC and we have showcased on our booth two Comac’s machines. The K2 and the Smartcan 8.1! BBTech is the International fair dedicated to craft beer producers with a special focus on the Italian craft beer market and our Beverage Sales Team was there to present CFT Group’s wide range of solutions for the filling and packaging for all kind of formats.
We have been in Moscow for DairyTech Expo to present our know-how regarding processing and packaging technologies related to Milk and Dairy sector. CFT Group Sales Team was there to introduce the company’s multi-annual experience in manufacturing turnkey lines as well as single equipment specific for the Liquid Food sector, such as sterilizers, evaporators and batch systems.
New articles on our Blog! Find out more about how CFT Group is contributing to Francis Ford Coppola’s incredible innovation in the wine industry.
New articles on our Blog! Our partnership with Kagome has deep roots indeed! Do not miss the occasion to read this article where you will be able to learn how CFT Group has played a key role in helping this company to further develop its production efficiency!
With reference to the further restrictions on people mobility made effective on March 8th by the Italian Government in the Northern Italy in order to manage the COVID-19 outbreak, you can find CFT Group’s latest press release.
IMA launches “Stay Connect!”, the platform that enhances collaborative and sharing technologies.
Collaboration, Sharing Experiences, and Digital Working are the keywords that feature Stay Connect!, the digital platform launched by IMA to enhance and offer all the Group’s digital products on a single touchpoint.
Discover more about:
and stay tuned.
Thanks to the depth and breadth of its multi-industry application knowledge, Cama has been able to satisfy the unique demands of a leading pharmaceutical company that wanted to exploit a
specific, specialised approach to its secondary packaging processes.
Proving that engineers should never settle for second best or opt for solutions that just ‘nearly do’ what they want, Cama was able to create a packaging solution that precisely matched the
customer’s brief and employed all the requested features, using technology and knowhow-transfer from the other markets it so successfully serves.
According to Fabio Melli, Sales Engineer Manager at Cama: “The customer had limited room in which to site the new packaging machine and we knew that side-load packaging, so often deployed in pharma, was not an option. Instead of using side loading, for which Cama has huge experience in high-speed cartoning machine solutions, we were, instead, able to exploit our wide experience of top-loading machine technology and adapt it to the rigorous demands of the pharma manufacturing environment.”
In addition, the engineers at Cama also had to take into account a new packaging format that Cama’s packaging design team had helped the customer to visualise, prototype and create. The box not only
had to be easy to open and close, but also had to provide tamper-proofing, compounding the challenge was the fact that it had to be available in different sizes, to accommodate various content counts and package formats, to cater for differing demands across the global pharmaceutical market.
The machine that Cama developed was for the packaging of single stick packs-an ever-growing packaging trend within the Healthcare and harmaceutical markets. The machine also had to deliver full track and trace, leaflet/booklet dispensing and insertion and other pharmaceutical quality-control measures.
On top of the regulations defined by CFR21, the customer had a number of additional demands over and above the international standard too, one of which was the ability to simulate errors. This was put in place to optimise throughput, as the supervisory controller would be able to much more easily spot errors, prevent issues from propagating
and remove the risk of short counts and contamination.
“We certainly had a lot to achieve,” Melli explains. “Not only did we have the small footprint, but we also had to adapt the technology to the new box format. Couple this to an infeed of more than 500 pieces per minute from the bagging machine and the
added traceability and leafleting, and you get some idea of the challenge we faced.”
Cama’s solution was to deploy its in-house-developed robotic technology, which would pick up the stick pack and load them gently into the boxes using product counts defined by the box size and batch parameters, including the incorporation of packaging recipe flexibility, for possible future variations in products and box packaging dimensions. The pick-and-place operations for the products are complemented by robotic box forming
and closing procedures, too.
“Powder stick pack present a big challenge,” Melli says. “They are very small – only 80 mm long and 22 mm wide – and contain about five or six grams of powder. We had to take this into account when packaging them into arrays of between eight and fifty to a box.
In operation, the process bagging machine discharges 10 pieces per cycle and dispenses them in a line, onto a 600 mm wide FDA smart transport conveyor belt. The Cama machine then uses advanced vision systems to detect their individual
positions on the belt before guiding the robots to pick up and orientate them according to the packaging style requested.
“We have a lot of experience of this type of application,” Melli explains, “thanks to our widespread deployment in other markets, where our new-generation machine portfolio sets the standard for flexibility and efficiency. We had a number of models available upon which we could develop this new pharma technology, so the customer was spoilt for choice when it came the core operating principals. Thanks to our tightly integrated robotic technology and the advanced vision systems, not only did the customer get exactly what it wanted, but it also gained flexibility to adapt the machine to future demands in term of output and packaging formats.
“Side loading is potentially easier and faster for this type of application,” Melli says, “and is typically what other machines suppliers would have offered, even specifically pushing this technology due to their limited machine portfolios. But sideloading would not have addressed all the customer’s demands, especially for easy open and reclose boxes. Our top-loading solution, on the other hand, answers all the customer’s questions. Indeed, the customer opted to go for our solution opposed to what it already has in it’s workshop. The consensus was that sideloading
may be faster, but in this case, it was certainly not the optimum solution.”
“We worked very closely with this customer,” Melli concludes, “to develop an advanced solution that does 100% of what it needed. We always feel that it is important to be open minded with our customers (as many suppliers will only push the limited technology they have), whereas we are able to propose multiple solutions, all based on industry-proven concepts.”
Cama Group, since 1981, is an international leader in engineering and production of high-technology secondary packaging systems.
We offer completely integrated packaging lines, from primary packages up to final packaging, ready for palletizing, serving the Food (Bakery, Confectionery, Coffee, Ice Cream, Dairy, Ready Meals, Grocery), Non Food (Personal, Health & Home Care) and Pet Food industries.
