Some successful experiences born from the collaboration between companies operating in the same sector
In 2013, seven Italian leading companies in the processing and packaging sector decided to join forces and share their knowhow to optimise their business and increase their competitiveness in the global market. The project was born under the name “Processing & Packaging – The High-Tech Italian Way” and was renamed in 2019 as “PACKPACT – Your partner in Advanced
Processing & Packaging”.
Today PACKPACT is a network of national manufacturers able to offer customers complete, customized and advanced solutions, backed by the assurance of made-in-Italy technological
excellence.
Through the integration of each company’s specific skills, the network enables the creation of innovative systems that can perform multiple functions in a single unit.
Each company represents the excellence in its specific business, and it is the synergy created through the proactive collaboration among the companies the real added value.
Thanks to these collaborations, customers can interface with a unique partner and benefit from a one-stopshop.
Aiming to establish new collaborations with other Italian producers in the processing and packaging sectors, today the companies of the network are: Cama Group (secondary packaging), Clevertech (front & end of line systems), Ilpra (traysealing, thermoforming fill and seal machines), Makro Labelling (labelling), Ronchi Mario (filling&capping); Tosa Group (wrapping); Universal-Pack (stick pack & sachet fill and seal).
With a growing turnover year after year, in 2018 the companies belonging the Network recorded a total turnover of 300 million Euros, of which approximately 85% came from exports.
The Network employs over 1,050 people, with a 20% increase in employment in the last two years.
The positive trend can also be seen in the ongoing investments in R&D and in the marketing activities carried out in several markets to represent the Italian excellence of the production chain in the processing and packaging sectors around the world.
The markets where the network has had an active presence in the last two years are Iran, India, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Algeria, China, Australia and Thailand. The next important appointment is Interpack 2020, where companies will be represented individually, each one with its own stand according to its product category.
For more information on future fairs and on the companies belonging to the Network, please visit the website
CASE STUDIES
Some practical examples of the collaboration between the companies belonging to PACKPACT are the system created by Cama Group and Clevertech for the pet-food sector, a complete line made by Clevertech and Tosa Group for the dairy sector, and the solution developed by Cama and Universal Pack for the food sector.
The Cama-Clevertech line offers a complete end-of-line packaging solution for pet-food boxes with 4 outfeed lines and a robotic unloading and feeding system. The line receives the pouches in 4 flavors, which are then conveyed by a Clevertech depalletizer on 10 lanes to the Cama feeding conveyors. The pouches are scanned by cameras that send the relevant information to Delta robots for loading using a specific software. The input speed for each flavor is 135 cartons/min, for a total of 540 pouches/min for the entire line. The products are divided into groups of 8, 12 or 24 in interlaved configuration into boxes or in groups of 4 in flow-wrap trays. Once the boxes have been filled or the trays have been packaged in flow-wraps, everything is conveyed to the wrap-around system for packaging in the shipping crate. Finally, a palletizer carries out the final operations of loading and preparing the pallets.
This system fully meets the needs of the market with multi-flavor, high-speed lines and allows changing flavors with a 50% reduction in time compared to the competitors. The flexibility, multi-packing capability and the perfect integration of the two lines offer a 30% more compact footprint than ever before.
Another successful project is the milk sealing system designed by Clevertech and Tosa for Aurora Dairy, an organic milk producer in North America. From the spiral lifter to the pallet stacker, the end-of-line system minimizes the transfer cycle to the forklift and has been designed and assembled by Clevertech integrating the stretch film wrapping solution from Tosa Group.
The system consists of 2 palletizers that convey entire pallets to 2 stretch film wrappers.
Clevertech and Tosa’s perfect mechanical and electrical design ensures the same materials and components for both supplies, as well as the same documentation, the same interface and an identical software structure developed in accordance with PACKML guidelines.
The result of the collaboration between Cama and Universal-Pack was the development of two lines for a leading consumer goods company into its production facilities located in Egypt
and El Salvador. For the plant in San Salvador, Universal-Pack supplied the bagging machine for the primary packaging as well as the stacking, weighing and counting unit for the subsequent
transfer to the Cama Group cartoning machine. The entire process is based on a Smart Machinery approach that can be integrated into 4.0 environments for the collection and analysis of production data. The Cama machine, integrated in the Universal-Pack line, belongs to the company’s first project Break-Through Generation system. From the Universal-Pack line arrive groups of 60 or 36 sachets that the Cama Group machine encloses into 16 cases max of big dimensions. What’s unique about this line are the special and out-of-format dimensions of the package. The major benefits of this project are higher standards of hygiene, the “Easy Entry” safety, the energy-saving engineering and ergonomic solutions, fully integrated in a flexible and compact structure. In Egypt, on the other hand, Cama provided a double head moulding machine and a closing. Cama’s innovative solutions for the RRP (Retail-Ready Package) offer a wide range of successful packaging machines developed over the years. Universal-Pack provided 2 inserting lines under which Cama boxes were unloaded (line speed 42 boxes/min). The perfect integration coming from the two Universal-Pack lines on one track was based on the following features: brushless motorization and control of the whole line through a single HMI, micrometric dose accuracy, flexibility in counting, compact design, standard and ULTRACLEAN scalable hygienic levels, integration in 4.0 environments with real-time data collection and analysis to optimize production.
