The intelligent transport XTS in flow pack machines
Italy’s Cavanna Packaging Group - a leading specialist in the flow-pack segment for both food and non-food products - recently made the strategic decision to equip its flow-pack machines with the intelligent XTS transport system and EtherCAT communication technology from Beckhoff. Decisive advantages in terms of efficiency and flexibility, starting with the first application, for the cookie packaging segment.
Cavanna was founded in 1960 in Italy’s Piedmont region as one of the first makers of electro-mechanical flow-pack machines. Over time, the family-owned company focused on fully electronic machines and complete packaging lines:
primary flow-packs for individual products and product groups, secondary flow-packs or box packaging, and tertiary packaging in display cartons. Today, roughly 6,000 Cavanna machines are installed with more than 900 customers worldwide.
To meet optimally and in an innovative manner the demands of an ever-changing market, Cavanna looked for a globally active technology partner with the aim of improving the flexibility of its product changeover machines while reducing footprint, time and costs. XTS, the PC based intelligent transportation system from Beckhoff provided the ideal solution.
As its first XTS application, Cavanna developed a new packaging system that can package cookies (up to 4,200 units/h) after they have been compiled into so-called slugs. Once again, the high system flexibility was a huge benefit because the cookies can be in a round, rectangular or square shape. In addition, the machine can package the cookies in various flow-pack formats at speeds of up to 130 packages per minute with up to 32 cookies per package.
La prima applicazione XTS di Cavanna è un sistema di trasferimento a 90 gradi per il confezionamento dei cosiddetti slugs di biscotti. (Picture: © Cavanna)
Benefits of a flexible system
XTS functions as a feeder unit in this system. Two XTS movers receive the cookie slugs from a chain track after they have been rotated by 90 degrees. The movers then transport the slugs to the tubular bag for the final flow-pack packaging. According to Cavanna, the XTS system’s main advantage is that all the settings needed to switch to a new product format are stored in the control software and can be executed automatically. In this way, the XTS can adapt to the product “on the fly”, which is a vast improvement over conventional solutions based on servomotors that require extensive mechanical conversions.
Another example of the ways Cavanna uses the XTS is a system for transferring product stacks from one chain track to another with varying distances between the separators on each chain. Cavanna also uses the XTS as a distribution system to split an incoming product stream into two streams, at low cost and with exceptional flexibility.
Gli slugs vengono inclinati di 90 gradi prima di essere gestite dai traslocatori della XTS. (Picture: © Cavanna)
