SIG Combibloc: fully automatic sleeve magazine for high-speed filling machines

With the new Robotic Magazine (R-CAM) for high-speed filling machines, SIG Combibloc offers customers a crucial component on the road to greater automation. The fully automatic loading of carton sleeves is a real benefit in terms of the efficiency of work processes and the reduction of manual labour.

For beverage and food manufacturers using SIG Combibloc filling machines, the carton sleeves are delivered in outer cartons on pallets. Until now, the outer cartons have been removed from the pallet by an employee and loaded into the magazine of the filling machine. With six lanes and a filling speed of up to 24,000 packs per hour this ties up personnel.

Birgit Clever, Senior Product Manager Equipment at SIG Combibloc, explains: „The aim was to develop an automatic magazine for the high-speed filling machines, similar to the Combibloc Automatic Magazine (CAM) that already exists for other types of SIG Combibloc filling machines. With the Robotic Magazine, we have gone one step further and developed a fully automatic magazine. The outer cartons are removed from the pallet and opened, and the filling machine is loaded with carton sleeves. This is done fully automatically, with no manual intervention required on the part of the staff. The Robotic Magazine makes work processes more efficient, saving labour time and costs.“

Efficient and uncomplicated

The Robotic Magazine basically consists of two modules: the pallet magazine and the unpacking station. The pallet magazine has space for a Euro pallet, industrial pallet or Australian pallet. As soon as the pallet is in the magazine, a scanner detects the arrangement of the outer cartons on the pallet. The gripper arm transports the outer carton to the unpacking station. The Robotic Magazine has an internal buffer to ensure that production continues uninterrupted even when the pallet magazine is loaded with a new pallet. This buffer can hold up to 20 outer cartons with packaging sleeves. The magazine can run for up to 2.5 hours without having to be refilled with a new pallet.

In the unpacking station, the outer cartons are opened at the front and the coats are removed. The coats are automatically filled into the corresponding lane of the filling machine, the outer cartons are folded flat and collected in a container provided for this purpose for later disposal. As a system provider, SIG Combibloc supplies both the packaging material and the corresponding filling machines. In 2015, a fully automatic sleeve magazine was developed for additional high-speed filling machines.

Successful in practice

The first R-CAM 724 prototype is in operation at Arla Foods Germany's Pronsfeld site. „With the new Robotic Magazine and an optimised line configuration, in which the tray packer is positioned very close behind the filling machine, we are now able to operate the entire high-speed line very efficiently with just one machine operator,“ emphasises Peter Bratsch, responsible for the R-CAM prototype at Arla Foods.

Birgit Clever in a packaging journal interview

pj: Mrs Clever, what ultimately triggered this development? Why at this particular point in time?

Birgit CleverIt is important to us that we also have a high-speed filling machine for small formats, which fills up to 24,000 carton packs per hour. Automated handling in the magazine area. With this machine capacity, a fully automated magazine was our preferred solution from the outset in order to make our customers' work processes more efficient and ultimately achieve cost benefits. For other types of medium-format filling machines, we have already had automatic magazines in our portfolio for some time with the Combibloc Automatic Magazine (CAM). They have become well established worldwide.

pj: Who benefits from this solution?

Birgit CleverFor customers who have opted for our high-speed filling machines, the R-CAM is a real benefit in terms of workflow efficiency and the reduction of manual labour. The first R-CAM-724 prototype is in operation at Arla Foods Germany's Pronsfeld site. The customer's feedback has been consistently positive. Thanks to the R-CAM and an optimised system configuration, the customer can operate the entire high-speed line with just one machine operator.

pj: Which formats is the development tailored to?

Birgit Clever: The Robotic Magazine was for the high-speed filling systems from SIG Combibloc developed. The first step is the new Robotic Magazine for the CFA 724 high-speed filling machine for filling products in the combiblocSmall packaging format. In a next step, the fully automatic magazine will be available for the CFA 124 machine type for filling in combiblocMini.

pj: Can proven technology be equipped with the new Robotic Magazine? What effort does this entail?

Birgit CleverAlready installed machine types CFA 724 and CFA 124 can be retrofitted with the Robotic Magazine. Of course, the R-CAM can be connected to the ECS Line Monitoring System from SIG Combibloc.

pj: How will the development continue?

Birgit CleverFully automated R-CAM solutions are also planned for machines on which Medium pack sizes be bottled.