La Normandise - sorting out cat food
Following a rigorous selection process, the La Normandise Company, in Vire (Normandy, France), commissioned Demaurex SA to design and build a fully automated packaging line for cat food. The main factors taken into account were the high rate of production, flexibility in transferring from one type of production to another and the price/performance ratio of the system.
The objective was to load either a flow wrap machine, to produce a 100 g Doypack stand-up pouch, or a TWIN PALOMA feed placer for the filling of top-load cartons in various sizes. The whole production line, which includes a flow wrap machine, carton erecting machine and carton sealing machine, is new and fulfils the requirements of the growing demand for these products.
Product combinations
The pouches are loaded onto the lug chain in such a way that assortments of two to four different flavours can be packed. The production rate is 440 products per minute (ppm) for both versions. For this application, two pack placer cells of the ASTOR type were set up, each with two Delta robots, ogether with a PALOMA Special top-load cell which also has two Delta robots. The ASTOR, which is the first part of the production line, loads up either he lug chain for the flow wrap machine or the lug belt for the PALOMA, which is the second part of the system and which then fills the cartons.
On four infeeds, the products are laid onto the belts in such a way that they do not touch each other. If assortments are being packed, each infeed belt is oaded with a product of a different flavour. Before entering the robots’ work area, the pouches are registered, on the fly, using an image recognition ystem, so that they can be correctly oriented when they are dropped onto the lug chain.
The system at a glance
Performance: The production rate is around 440 ppm in monoproduction and around 330 ppm when only three flavours are used – in which case only three robots are in operation on the ASTOR cell.
Demaurex SA has designed and built two ASTOR assortment placer cells for the packaging of cat food selections.
Products to be processed (mm/gram):
Four different pouches may be handled at the same time and packed as assortments.
Product infeed:
The pouches are laid either manually or automatically in approximately the correct position on the infeed belts.
Product output:
The products are laid onto either the lug chain of the horizontal flow wrap machine or the lug belt leading into the PALOMA cell for the boxes to be filled.
Types of packaging:
Boxes of different heights, according to the number of layers, and with the lid on the long side are used for filling.
The packaging line was delivered at the end of December 2004. The whole production line is to be handed over to the company by the end of March 2005. This is already the second system of its type. The first was supplied in the autumn of 2003 to another cat food manu-facturer in France. It should also be noted that the line is designed in such a way that any product (juice, cream, soup, etc.) can be processed in a similar packaging operation without any further additions or complications.
To date, Demaurex SA has more than30 lines in operation in France, with a total of more than 100 Demaurex Delta robots, currently the fastest in the world!
For further Information please contact:
Marc-Olivier Demaurex
Téléphone: +41 21 644 25 00
marc-olivier.demaurex@demaurex.com |
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