An automated and flexible end of line

Robopac manufactures a packaging island for Conserve Italia, which looks to the global market with the reliability of a personalized and cutting edge “made in Italy”.

Conserve Italia is an Italian cooperative consortium based in San Lazzaro di Savena (BO) dedicated to the conservation and trade of fruit and vegetables. It is one of the largest canning groups in Europe with 8 plants in Italy, 3 in France and 1 in Spain. Overall, around 600 thousand tons of raw materials are processed in the group’s plants each year, for a turnover of around 900 million euros.

The collaboration between Robopac and Conserve Italia is historical, with actions mainly targeted at the French plants and Pomposa plant - one of the largest food factories in Italy - and aimed at the replacement of individual machines.

In 2017 Robopac carried out a more complex project, which was the integration of a wrap-around case packer TC500 CW for glass bottles containing tomato puree to the already existing line.

The efficiency of the system and the service have strengthened the climate of mutual esteem and trust, that led to the completion of the line with palletizer and wrapping island in 2019.

This line consists specifically of ARES 2ML palletizer and a wrapping island composed of two Helix 3 for whole pallet and for half pallet.

When technology means flexibility

Thanks to this project, Conserve Italia can proudly boast one of the most technologically developed plants, completely personalized and with great flexibility, features that allows the company to face the most demanding challenges of the current global market.

First of all, the TC500 CW machine allows secondary packaging of various types: in tray and film, in high tray without film, layer and film and only film: this feature is very important also in terms of eco-sustainability, since the high tray packaging allows you to completely eliminate the use of plastic, a plus that cannot be applied to all the machines of this category.

In second place, with this system it is also possible to pack loose or multipack bottles of various sizes thanks to a particular feeding method designed to be suitable for both configurations.

Palletizing has also been customized to be suitable for both half pallets and whole pallets, likewise the deposit can be interleaved between the layers or slip sheets on the pallet. Lastly, the customization of processing on whole pallets or single half pallets also concerns the wrapping operation which provides the possibility of re-coupling with or without overlapping on the main pallet, both with standard film and with macro-perforated film (used to avoid condensation due to the product coming out hot from pasteurization).

The wrapping island also meets the environmental protection standards: thanks to the tests carried out at Robopac’s TechLab, it was possible to study and apply the best wrapping solution to ensure greater stability and safety with the least use of films, with consequent savings on costs and on consumption of raw materials.