Highly efficient packaging with a unique flow-wrapping machine from schubert

Cost-efficient, preconfigured lightline flow-wrapping machine
High performance on a short overall length thanks to T4 robots
High product quality thanks to 3D image recognition

Requirements

Flow-wrapping machine as an integrated solution for long-term business success

Flow-wrapping machine from schubert’s lightline machine series packs filled croissants and danish pastry:

In order to pack its sensitive bakery products into flowpacks, Canadian company La Petite Bretonne opted for a flow-wrapping machine from Schubert.

Canadian bakery La Petite Bretonne produces up to 1.2 million Micro Croissants® daily. This level of performance calls for a high degree of automation to ensure supply chain efficiency and production flexibility. To adapt its existing processes to increasing production volume, the family-run company from Quebec was looking for a compact solution that could pack the fragile, heat-sensitive baked goods into flowpacks very quickly, gently and cost-effectively. The manufacturer had been using several individual machines for its end-of-line automation at its two production sites, such as individual pick and place machines and flow-wrapping machines. However, the interfaces between the machines and the format changes for the different baked products made the process cumbersome and slow. It was for these very reasons that Managing Director Serge Bohec was interested in the Flowpacker – the integrated solution from Schubert, in which pick and place robots and a flow-wrapping machine are seamlessly connected within a single TLM line.

MORE ABOUT OUR FLOW-WRAPPING MACHINES

Solution

Pick and place robots combined with a flow-wrapping machine

To be able to pack products into flowpacks more efficiently, more gently and more space-savingly, Schubert developed a unique machine concept with its Flowpacker. The TLM system combines the previously separate packaging functions of pick and place and flow-wrapping in a compact overall system without interfaces. This flow-wrapping machine saves up to 70 per cent of floor space compared to conventional bagging machines and is ideal for high packaging output. La Petite Bretonne also uses the lightline Flowpacker variant from Schubert’s lightline machine series. The range consists of three preconfigured, compact and highly efficient packaging systems, which allow for quick planning and installation at attractive acquisition costs.

Gentle packaging of sensitive products

Among other products, the flow-wrapping machine packs filled Danish pastry (Danoise) and chocolate-filled croissants (Chocolatines) in different sizes on one line. Thanks to the T4 robots, which pick up each product individually, the system treats the fragile products extremely gently. Product abrasion and product breakage can therefore be avoided from the outset. Equipped with the patented heat-sealing technology – the flying cross-sealing unit in combination with ultrasonic longitudinal sealing – the flow-wrapping machine from Schubert is also capable of packaging heat-sensitive products into flowpacks. The system with the integrated flow-wrapping unit operates fully automatically and offers a high degree of flexibility – also for future products or other packaging formats. A very significant benefit of the integrated solution lies in its cost-effectiveness: La Petite Bretonne is able to increase output, efficiency and process quality, meet the shortage of skilled personnel while being ideally prepared to meet future requirements.

For a production line with high performance, this is the best flow-wrapping machine in the world. Thank you Schubert!

Serge Bohec

Managing Director La Petite Bretonne, September 2019

Technnical Details

Integrated flow-wrapping process with high flexibility

The new lightline Flowpacker at La Petite Bretonne combines the pick and place robots and a flow-wrapping machine in four machine frames into a single TLM system. The Flowmodul flow-wrapping unit is positioned in the line as a sub-machine and integrates the flow-wrapping process seamlessly into the overall system. A 3D scanner with image recognition checks each product for position, shape, volume, orientation and degree of browning, so that only perfect baked goods can be forwarded to the next packaging step. Damaged products are sorted out at the end of the machine. The baked goods to be packaged are carefully inserted into the Flowmodul’s feed chain by four T4 robots via pick and place. There, the unit finally packs them into flowpacks. The line is equipped with Schubert’s patented heat-sealing technology for heat-sensitive products. First the longitudinal seam of the flowpack is sealed by an ultrasonic sealing unit. This is then followed by Schubert’s patented heat-sealing technology with the flying cross-sealing unit. It automatically adapts to the speed of the upstream pick and place robots and therefore enables constant sealing times with outstanding sealing quality. Thanks to fully automatic format changeover, products or flow-wrapping can be changed in the shortest possible time. With the flow-wrapping machine from Schubert’s lightline series, La Petite Bretonne can now pack 183 Danoises, 220 filled croissants and up to 280 Mini Chocolatines per minute.