Hot melt applicators Green at heart

Spotlight on the gluing systems market, on the solutions
capable of enhancing the production efficiency, safety and sustainability of processes (naturally with an orientation toward industry 4.0). Having run Robatech Italia for many years, with conviction and determination, Davide Morten shared his perspective at Ipack-Ima. S.L.

Firmly grounded in the principles of innovation and environmental awareness, Robatech continues to work to ensure that its solutions translate into increasing real advantages for users. This is a precise target, and we can say a bull’s eye, given the concern’s excellent performance in recent years, not to mention equally positive expectations for the future.
«We are focused on guaranteeing reduced energy consumption, maximum reliability and a long life cycle, in order to ensure easy integration with existing installations and the utmost operator safety. The examples of this - explains Morten - are wide-ranging: the Longlife series SX heads, which carry a warranty of 200 million cycles; the wide range of Stream melt-on-demand tankless melters, integrated with new automatic filling systems, which further simplify gluing operations and eliminate the risks associated with manual filling; and the new Glue-Fill container, equipped with a brand new vibration system that enables obtaining granulated adhesive that is never clumped and always ready to use, making it a useful solution for users that do not require automatic loading due to relatively low consumption. This is why we have developed a small loading system, the Glue-Fill S, which can be installed right next to the glue tank, with the advantage of topping up cold glue in a cold environment, away from the melted adhesive».  

More glue... more saving
Ipack-Ima also provided an excellent occasion for presenting the specifics of the pallet stabilization system developed by Robatech in order to simplify and economize palletization. «This is an advanced solution that enables producers of mineral water, for example, or any product packaged in crates, to achieve a high level of stability in the glues stacked on the pallet, reducing the amount of film required for wrapping and, in the case of mineral waters, completely eliminating interlayers from the palletized load. In practice - Morten continues - on the bundle of water bottles the glue is applied in direct correspondence to the bottles’ caps. A special adhesive distributed in small spirals guarantees good horizontal adhesion and leaves open the possibility of separating bundles without damaging the image of the packaging. Generally speaking, these applicators are installed on the conveyor belt, and the technology can be supplied to end users for integration with existing lines or to those building palletization systems from the ground up to offer as an option to their customers».

Information in real time
Robatech’s orientation toward innovation has also proven advantageous in relation to the process of digitizing its production. «In general terms, as part suppliers, we have certainly benefited from the investment incentives laid out by the Calenda plan, and this is partly because our Robavis technology, which makes it possible to visually display plant functionality parameters and provide predictive maintenance recommendations, was presented well before the packaging market oriented itself toward Industry 4.0».
That proved a shrewd decision, bearing the marks of a “Made in Switzerland” European business, as Morten stressed: «We developed this technology simply because it was right and advantageous to better manage all the information that single machines can supply in a given production operation».
In fact, Robatech is one of just a few OEMs to propose solutions capable of supplying and archiving all data on efficiency, energy consumption, production, and glue consumed per unit, not to mention status reports on the gluing system, with remote control, in real time, using any web browser.

That’s all clear, but what predictive maintenance means for a glue applicator is still not entirely obvious.
Morten explains: «In our case, with the machines, this is a complicated issue, but at the same time one of limited scope. We don’t have a way of knowing the production output, since the user of our systems can change format or machine parameters without informing us. What we can do is provide timely notifications on necessary maintenance, calculated on the basis of work time, the number of cycles performed by the dispenser heads or by the programmers installed on the machine».