Artisan-quality biscuits, packed with robotic efficiency

To package its fine baked goods into flowpacks, an Alsatian confectionery manufacturer opted for a compact robotic line from Schubert  with flexible format changeover and able to work with different types of film - plastic, paper-based, mono film or compostable - always with sustainability in the foreground..

A small baked goods manufacturer in Alsace with over 100 years of heritage needed a new system to package its confectionery products into flowpacks with plastic or paper-based film.

The solution would have to deliver flexibility, agility and ease in terms of format changeover, and a small footprint due to space constraints at the plant. Schubert met all these requirements, recommending an integrated, compact system comprising a destacker, pick & place robots and its Flowmodul flow-wrapping unit.

Packaging. The biscuits of various sizes come directly from the oven to the packaging line without a buffer, are picked up gently by three F4 robots, and placed into the trays or directly onto the flowpacker infeed belt. A fourth F4 robot is used variably. If packing into trays, it removes them from the magazine and places them into the tray for filling. For batches where the products are to be packed directly into flowpacks, it picks biscuits from the product belt and places them onto the flowpacker infeed belt. The last step, sealing, is carried out by means of an advanced technology developed by Schubert and guarantees high sealing quality with constant sealing times. The flowpack’s longitudinal seam is closed by means of ultrasonic sealing. Then a heat-sealing system with a flying cross-sealing unit is used. The flying sealing unit adjusts itself fully automatically to the speed of the upstream pick & place robots for each flowpack.

Flawless quality with Schubert’s image processing system. To entirely rule out defective or damaged goods, each product must also pass through an incident-light scanner. Schubert’s image processing system only passes on the data of qualitatively faultless products to the robot’s control system.
Defective goods are therefore not accepted.
Only the high-quality baked goods are then either packed directly into a flowpack or stacked into trays or cardboard U-boards, which are in turn packed into flowpacks.

Easy format changeover. Format changeovers are carried out in less than half an hour. The operator can easily perform the format changeover by themselves and do not have to rely on support from technicians. Whether forming shoulders, drivers, robot tools or tray magazines – all format parts are easy to exchange and immediately ready for use without requiring subsequent adjustment. The change of the flowpack film during operation is also supported by a corresponding automatic mechanism.

Ready for a sustainable future. In order to improve sustainability, the packaging machine and sealing unit supplied by Schubert can not only process the usual laminated films, but also the easily recyclable and increasingly popular mono films, paper-based packaging and compostable films.