Handling pasta packages with a vacuum gripper system

Precise and delicate handling of different formats and layers of pasta, increased production rhythms and a considerable reduction in costs: these are the advantages of integrating Piab’s Kenos® KVGL gripper on a cartoning plant realized by Selematic.

Producer of machines for the secondary packaging of pre-packed food products, with an important focus on the segment of pasta factories, Selematic was looking for a solution to be integrated on one of its case packer systems, able to perform in a versatile way the gripping and the positioning inside the cartonboxes of different types of packaging: double square bottom packages of short pasta, gusseted packages of nest pasta and pillow packages of long pasta, etc...

The choice fell on Piab’s Kenos® KVGL vacuum gripping system, driven by a Cartesian robot; once put into production, the solution, precise and flexible, made it possible to achieve the manufacturer’s objectives: increasing productivity by minimizing machine downtime for format changes and the rejection of packages accidentally damaged during gripping, with a significant reduction in costs. 

Project specifications  
The Selematic system fills the cartonbox from above by means of the progressive overlapping of several layers of pasta packs. Faced with the high number of formats and layers of the packages, the first need was, therefore, to reduce to a minimum the replacements of the gripping organs to manage the format changeover.

Engineer Alessandro Vitiello, Coordinator of Selematic Technical Engineering Services, responsible for the project, explains: «Before the collaboration with Piab, the pasta packages were picked up by means of a blower with a gripping plate designed and built internally.

When the size of the packages and/or the layering of the packages inside the cartons changed, the plate had to be replaced. This entailed costly machine downtime, significantly extending cycle times. Another problem was represented by the frequent breakages, which occurred mainly with paper packages and with certain types of pasta (for example pens). The Kenos® KVGL gripper solved both problems».

The Piab system allows to pick up with a single gripper system (with a length equal to the mouth of the pallet box) any pasta format, even of different sizes, without causing any damage to the packages. The Kenos® KVGL vacuum gripper has been equipped with Piab’s piGRIP® suction cups with BGI lips with a diameter of 34 mm.

Thanks to the solutions adopted, the maximum production capacity achieved by the case packing plant now ranges from 80 to 120 packs per minute, depending on the product.

Quality and service, the added values of collaboration
However, technological excellence is not the only characteristic that Selematic has appreciated in its partnership with Piab.
Before choosing the Kenos® KVGL system from Piab, we tested solutions from other suppliers that worked quite well, but were decidedly more expensive.
Piab convinced us also because of the advice provided during the project realization phase. The technicians of the Italian branch, in collaboration with the authorized distributor Tesfluid Srl, assisted us in choosing the right vacuum pump and in identifying the most suitable type of suction cups to be combined with the Kenos® KVGL system».