With quality baked in, local support adds the upper crust

Italian machine-build quality and domain expertise, coupled to highly localized installation and support have proven pivotal to the success of a new packaging solution at a leading South American baked goods company.

The new packaging solution for the customer’s Visconti brand deploys three of Cama Group’s popular FW748 wraparound case packers for packaging bagged sliced bread – in arrays of 8 or ten – into shelf-ready cases, all of which were installed and supported by local packaging machinery specialist Carlos A. Wanderley e Filhos.

Carlos A. Wanderley e Filhos is a specialist in the field of filling, packaging and process machines, representing important international manufacturers with extensive experience across a number of industrial segments. Serving the Brazilian market since 1968, the company has a main focus and responsibility as a representative to add value to its clients' business, seeking to build long-term partnerships while providing reliable, high-quality, high-performance equipment.

The packaging process

In operation, the bagged bread is fed into the secondary packaging area on one of the three in-feed conveyors. The products are phased and spaced using accelerating conveyors before being loaded, in pairs, into an intermittently moving vertical racetrack with an average speed of 135 products per minute. Once a pre-set count is reached, pushers transfer the grouped products into a pre-erected cases before the case flaps are folded and glued and the completed cases conveyed to the machine’s outfeed.

Machine design and technology play a pivotal role too. The FW Series is part of Cama’s Breakthrough Generation (BTG), which offers design and operational features that are setting the standard in secondary packaging. Their modular, scalable and hygienically designed frameworks house contemporary automation solutions – including advanced rotary and linear servo technology – which can be tightly coupled to in-house-developed robotics, to deliver the all-important flexibility and adaptability required by modern packaging operations. The machine range is also based on a digital platform that supports full Industry 4.0 capabilities, including AR, VR and virtual testing, training and operation.