ILPRA leads smart packaging lines at Anuga Food Tec

Anuga Food Tec represents one of the most ambitious stages in the food industry. For this reason, ILPRA has decided to lead the SMART PACK & INSPECTION LINES project. Every day, at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., two fully automatic packaging lines will be presented in Hall 8.1 Stand D80-E99, and they will simulate the actual process inside a food plant.

The first line consists of RS918, a Risco model for the industrial production of minced meat. The system, consisting of a portioner combined with a Risco continuous vacuum filler, will extrude a tile of minced meat (simulated through a synthetic product) on a thin sheet of waxed paper. The product is then taken by ILPRA, which, by means of a high-speed denester and a joint system of belts, synchronizes the advancement of the product and the package, guaranteeing a perfect positioning.

Once the tile is placed in the tray, it will be rotated by 90° and moved into the Foodpack 1465, ILPRA’s automated in-line tray sealer. An Eidos marking system will be installed on the servo-driven unwinder of the film. This system is able to read and precisely scan the area on which important information will be printed in order to make the product more informative.

Once the tile will be thermo-sealed in modified atmosphere, to extend meat shelf life, the package will be inspected by a Leak Detection system designed by FT System, to verify that there are no micro-leaks of preservative gas. Afterward, a combined X-ray – weight control system, also made by FT System, will determine the presence of foreign bodies at different densities and will evaluate the appropriate weight of each moving package.

At this point, our product has been portioned, thermo-sealed, printed and inspected, and is ready to be boxed and palletized thanks to an end-of-line system developed by ILPRA. These final operations will allow the packages to be placed in preformed boxes, which in turn will be sealed by an automatic taping machine and then placed by the palletizer in two bays, ready to be transported to the customer. In this way, the customer has access to a fully automatic packaging line, with high safety standards and minimal production downtime.

For the second line, MACS will introduce 2K20 DOY|FILL, a synthesis of advanced technologies, based on a smart modularity and offering unprecedented levels of flexibility in the domain of pre-made pouch filling.

2K20 is a compact and stiff intermittent filler, totally servo-driven thanks to the spread application of the latest motion technologies, implemented on an easy-to-use machinery that merges high performances with friendly operation.

2K20 combines an easy – quick production changeover, thanks to a minimized use of tools and format components, with a friendly tuning and with an easy to clean lay-out. 2K20 ensures excellent economical performances either in the small lots production, characterized by frequent changeover, and in massive productions, where high dependability is a requisite.

Thanks to the pouch magazine clever concept, a wide range of sizes and shapes of pouch can be handled on the same 2K20, with the possibility to pass through different job multiplicity basing on the dimension of the pouch itself.

This second line is specifically dedicated to high viscous food pastes products of the dairy field (cheese, sauces, feta, and so on) born thanks to the partnership with FT System in the downstream check weighing systems, DELFIN in the pasty products filling technology and powered by Rockwell as electrical and software architecture.

This line is also a small example of the integration and cooperation among companies that MACS currently coordinates when turn-key projects are involved.