Schubert North America is set to introduce a new lightline Flowpacker at this year’s International Bakery Industry Exposition (IBIE) in Las Vegas, US, which will take place from 8 to 11 September.
Image: The lightline Flowpacker integrates Schubert’s 3D image recognition system to detect product position, orientation, height and quality. Photo: courtesy of Gerhard Schubert GmbH.
Part of Schubert’s lightline machine series, the new Flowpacker incorporates flow-wrapping into the packaging line by combining Flowmodul and Pickerline in one system.
The new machine comes with the firm’s patented sealing technology for packaging heat-sensitive products smoothly into flowpacks.
Schubert has designed the lightline Flowpacker for a Canadian family-run baked goods manufacturer to package freshly baked croissants and Danish pastries into flowpacks.
Schubert said that the exhibition machine will be installed at a North American baked goods manufacturer after the completion of an event.
Schubert’s modular, robot-based and top-loading packaging machines (TLM) are designed to help baked goods manufacturers to produce cost-effectively and efficiently.
The company’s flexible packaging machines can pack all products for baked goods manufacturers, including crackers, croissants, biscuits, cakes, muffins or donuts.
Schubert North America CEO Hartmut Siegel said: “We see the IBIE as an ideal platform to introduce Schubert’s latest automation solutions to small-sized bakeries as well as to large international producers of all types of baked goods.”
Schubert’s new machine can package two different formats — one chocolate biscuit into flowpacks and two chocolate biscuits into flowpacks. It has the capacity to package 240 flowpacks per minute.
Schubert’s integrated Flowmodul is installed with an ultrasonic sealing system, which closes the flowpack’s longitudinal seam with a patented heat-sealing technology called flying cross-sealing unit that adjusts to the variable speeds of the upstream robots.
The new solution is claimed to bring together high sealing quality with constant sealing times, as well as enables manufacturers to use either cold or heat-sealing films.
The new lightline Flowpacker also features the firm’s advanced pick and place robots for flexible and gentle product handling. The robots can be combined with other modules to incorporate various packaging processes into a single system.
Schubert’s 3D image recognition system was also integrated into the new machine for the detection of product position, orientation, height and quality, thereby helping robots to pick up only perfect products.
Schubert’s lightline machine series consists of three compact preconfigured packaging machines such as Cartonpacker for erecting, filling and closing cartons, Pickerline and Flowpacker for packaging products into flowpacks.