Non-Food

Here you will find a selection of special machines which SmartPac has developed and built for its clients of the food industry.

Fully automatic dosing, weighing and packaging system for hay

Bedding of hay, straw, bio hay, grass and similar grows more and more in popularity for small animal husbandry. Partially blossoms, fruits or mushrooms are added as well.

For packaging of hay and similar products in portion packs like 1 kg bundles, SmartPac provides both semi automatic and fully automatic systems.
First of all, loose hay is fed to the system and transported into a weighing chamber by conveyors and a motor-driven tine reel. Now the weighing to target weight takes place. If the weight is achieved, the further feeding stops automatically and the weighed hay reaches the pressing chamber. Dependent on the target format, the bundle of hay may be pressed in length and width as well as length, width and height. After that the pressed hay package is pushed out of the pressing chamber into a prepared pouch which is finally closed.

The semi automatic system uses pre-manufactured pouches which are manually placed at the discharge port. After filling, the pouch is closed manually, for instance by a sealing system activated by foot pedal.

In combination with a pouch packing machine, the whole unit becomes a fully automatic packaging system. Here the pouch packing machine takes over the preparation of the pouches. It forms the pouches out of flat film and firstly creates a film hose. Subsequently the hose is closed at the bottom and thus, a pouch is formed which is still open at its top. Now the hay bundle is pushed into the pouch and finally, the pouch is closed at its top where automatically the bottom closure of the next pouch is realized.

SmartPac hay packaging systems are developed for the use in rough environments and offer to our clients precise weighing technology, product gently pressing as well as high-quality pouch packaging.

By means of their modular design, our hay packaging systems may be easily equipped with additional components such as for instance bale-breakers, sieves, aspiration systems, marking systems and many more.

Your benefits

  • Precise and strong steel, stainless steel frames and aluminum profiles
  • Compact and modular design and structure – even special solutions for low ceiling height or fully electrical systems are realizable
  • Available as semi automatic and fully automatic system
  • Precise product dosing and weighing by means of motor-driven tine reel
  • Variability – modular design allows easy integration of additional units such as bale-breakers, sieves, aspiration systems and marking systems
  • Easy to service and maintain

Overview

type fully automatic packaging system for hay and similar products

semi automatic packaging system for hay and similar products

pouch format length 500mm up to
width 300mm up to
height 50mm up to
390mm
280mm
140mm
product hay and similar hay and similar
weight 0,5 kg, 1 kg, 2 kg, 3 kg 1 kg
performance 5 – 10 pouches/min* ≥ 5 pouches/min*

* adependent on filling quantity, product behaviour and machine configuration

Fully automatic system for manufacturing of children’s books with inner windows (flap-books)

Functional Decription

The described system has been developed and manufactured for a producer of polygraphic products. It is the world’s unique fully automatic system for manufacturing of so-called flap-books (books with varying inner windows, side registers and animations).

From input of the book design up to discharge of finished bound books the whole manufacturing takes place fully automatic.

The functions

  • Separation
  • Grooving
  • Folding
  • Applying glue
  • Collation
  • Aligning
  • Pressing

are completely automated.

A technical feature of the system, among other things, consists of managing system flexibility by reparameterisation of control data as well as adjustment of feeder stations to changed book formats, even with cut-outs, within only shortest time. Thereby the system is ideally suitable for automatic production of medium series (5.000 … 8.000 books), even of various formats.

Necessary remaining works for personnel are the feeding of the stack magazines at the feeder stations, supervision of the whole system as well as the collection of the finished books.

Cycle time amounts 0,8 seconds (one cycle = 1 book). This corresponds to approximately 4.500 books per hour.

Between 5 minutes and approximately 3 hours downtime for format changes apply, dependent on the format diversity and the cut-outs. With this system, a new level of production in combination with highest quality and product flexibility are achieved.

Customers of the technical solution

  • Companies of the polygraphic industry
  • Medium-sized printing companies

Technical Data

Formats:
  • Plane sheets 200 mm x 220 mm up to 530 mm x 560 mm
  • Folded sheets 100 mm x 220 mm up to 265 mm x 560 mm
Paper/ carton quality: 230 up to 500 g/m²; 0,35 up to 0,80 mm sheet thickness
Carton surface: printed one-side or both sides
Book scope: 6 pages / max. 23 mm block thickness
PLC: multiple axes controller system Elau PacDrive M (Schneider Systems)

Additional Equipment

  • Three-side-cutter
Feeding and packaging system for door handles and accessories

The following described system has been specially developed and manufactured for a producer of door and window handles.

It has been the task to fully automatic feed, convert and pack a set, consisting of door handle, rosette and mounting accessories, into film pouches.

The system consists of the following functional units:

  • Rosette reservoir
  • Rosette feeding and separation
  • Screw reservoir
  • Screw feeding and separation
  • Reservoir of plastic base plates (PBP-reservoir)
  • PBP feeding and separation
  • Junction and conversion unit
  • Leaflet applicator
  • Film packaging machine
  • Completeness control
  • Discharge unit
Filling and closing machine for chemical fluids

The here described system for filling and closing of PET bottles with chemical fluids has been developed and manufactured for a chemical company.

PET bottles can be filled and closed with foamy, chemical fluids up to density 1 by the SmartPac LAS 4 machine. In fully automatic mode, bottle heights between 100 and 180 mm may be handled. Other formats may be filled and closed manually.

The filling and closing system LAS 4 consists of the following system assemblies:

  • Feeding rotary plate
  • Bottle transportation
  • Liquid dosing system
  • Cap provision
  • Cap applicator
  • Cap screwer
  • Marking system
  • Discharge rotary plate
Fully automatic cleaning and drying system for canisters

Functional Description

This system has been developed and manufactured for a beverage manufacturer.

It has been designed in complete stainless steel execution and divided into 8 main functional groups.

  • Canister magazine with feeding unit
  • Transportation chain with collection formats
  • Interior pre-washing
  • Interior and exterior main washing
  • Interior and exterior rinse
  • Pre-drying
  • Canister discharge
  • Siemens PLC

Functions

The compact designed system operates fully automatic. The requested parameters of the following areas may be selected at the HMI.

  • Washing time 15 s up to 300 s
  • Rinse time 15 s up to 300 s
  • Pre-drying 15 s up to 300 s

Determination of the parameters is essentially dependent on the degree of contamination.

The canister magazine with feeding unit serves as supply buffer and transfers the canisters into the collection formats of the transportation chain. By the chain the canisters are transported and positioned at the specific processing stations. With the aid of suitable additives, dependent on the application with cold or warm water, the interior pre- and main washing as well as the interior rinse take place. The mechanical cleansing effect is achieved by retractable rotating special nozzles.

During transportation of the canisters from main washing over rinsing up to pre-drying, washing portals are passed through. Thereby the canisters are cleaned at their outsides. Hot air is applied during pre-drying and thus, the canister housing as well as remaining water are warmed. Hence subsequent drying is accelerated.

The use of final drying portals is optionally possible.

Head of the whole system is a Siemens PLC. All control and monitoring signals are processed here. By monitoring the complex process, a maximum of functional and technological safety are guaranteed.

System for grouping and film packing of candles

Functional Description

Particular product formats require a particular technical conception. For this application, with the FA S SmartPac provides a horizontal pouch packaging machine with a wide product- and package format range.

In combination with optimized product feeding and discharge systems the FA S is a powerful packaging system.

Specialties / benefits

  • Huge scope of application with regard to the products to be packed, the packaging materials to be used and the processible package executions
  • Excellent price-performance-ratio
  • Simple operation
  • Easy to service and maintain

Branches and application examples

  • Polygraphic industry catalogues, books, brochures
  • Technical goods with moisture and dust protection
  • Carton in film packaging
  • Textile, food and paper and stationary industries

Technical Data

packaging performance: ≤ 45/min
product dimensions: length: 100 mm … 600 mm
width: 80 mm … 300 mm
height: 10 mm … 120 mm
packaging material: PP/PE – sealable (also shrinkable), cellophane, coated papers, composites - sealable

Optional additional units

  • Customer-specific product feeding
  • Marking systems
  • Grouping units
  • Print mark control
  • Shrinking units
  • Bundle packaging units
Machine for manufacturing of school cones

Functional Description

The SmartPac school cone wrapping machine has been developed to manufacture three formats of school cones out of pre-cut carton blanks. It consists of the following assembly groups:

  • Magazine
  • Blank feeding
  • Wrapping unit
  • Glue-application
  • Cone discharge
  • Cone storage

By adjustment of the lateral guides or functional units the format is changed, whereas the wrapping cone is exchanged. By means of the blank feeding (vacuum lifting unit), the blanks are defined fed to the wrapping unit. A vacuum strip at the wrapping cone ensures active fixation of the blanks.

Now the wrapping cone rotates and thus, winds up the blank. Simultaneously a pressing bar rotates in opposite direction. After applying glue in longitudinal direction of the cone, the glue line is pressed by the pressing bar with another rotary motion. The school cone is now finished, discharged and lastly stored.

Application Possibilities

  • Sweets packaging
  • Catering (stackable beverage cups)
  • Foodstuff and luxury foods

Technical Data

performance: approx. 4 cycles/min
school cone dimensions: small cone stumpy shape: Ø 84,0 mm, 21° x 230 mm length
large cone stumpy shape: Ø 115,5 mm, 19° x 370 mm length
large cone lean shape: Ø 86,5 mm, 15° x 370 mm length
material: cardboard; printed carton; film carton, 250 g/m²; thickness 0,3 – 0,35 mm
glue: hot-glue
electrical connection: 3 x 400 V / 50 Hz / 4,8 kW
PLC: SIEMENS S7

Additional Equipment

  • Counting units
  • Magazine, respectively format storage
  • Hot-melt units
Automatic sheet feeder for carton blanks

Functional Description

The system described in the following has been developed and manufactured for a producer of puzzles.

Flat sheets are separated out of a blank magazine by means of the automatic sheet feeding machine BA 115. Furthermore the sheets are precisely fed to the following process. In order to ensure an exact positioning of the sheets, the stack is separated from top by vacuum suckers. In the following this separated sheet is transferred and aligned against three mechanical stops on a horizontal surface. Sensors monitor the exact positioning.

Fields of Application

Separation and Alignment of sheet blanks of

  • Carton
  • Plastic
  • Timber
  • Metal

Special Features

  • Sheet alignment in three coordinates à exact positioning
  • Monitoring of exact positioning by sensors
  • Circumferential stack lifting device
  • Preparation of following stack during operation à shortest downtime at stack finish

Technical Data

cycle time: 6 s
performance: 10 sheets/min
formats: Breite: 470 … 960 mm
Höhe: 320 … 600 mm
stack weight: 350 kg
shelf height: 670 mm
foot print: 2.000 mm x 2.000 mm
overall height: 300 mm
Dosing and packaging system for Catsan cat litter

Functional Description

This system has been designed, developed and manufactured specially for a producer of cat litter.

The particular challenges were to handle the pre-fabricated multiple-chamber film-pouch, to fill it with Catsan cat litter as well as forming the filled pouch to a compact sales packaging.

Following, fully automatic functional units form the system.

  • Double magazine for the pre-fabricated multiple-chamber film-pouches (alternation because of performance specifications)
  • Extraction and filing system for the film pouches
  • Unit for mechanical opening of the filling chambers (contained doubled)
  • Duplex filling and dosing unit
  • Folding device for pouch closure
  • Labeling unit
  • Forming and pressing system to ensure an elegant and compact sales bundle
  • Film packaging of 2 packages each with carry handle
Cutting and wrapping machine for HF cables

Functional Description

HF-cable, coming from a cable drum, is directed axially and tailored length-precisely into segments with a permissible deviation of 2 ‰ of the length to be processed.

To ensure the quality of the joints at the cable ends, high requirements are set with regard to evenness, the preservation of the electrical properties as well as total prevention of contamination of these surfaces.

The multiple-shift operated system consists of 6 main function modules.

  • Cable unwinding
    Support of the raw material
  • Straightening device
    Equalization of wrapping bending
  • Draw-off module with measuring unit
    Double measuring units for exact cutting to length of the cable
  • Cutting head
    Clean severing of the cable
  • Cable deposit respectively wrapping unit
    Reception of the finished goods
  • Process PLC
    complex control and monitoring system

Process Flow

Draw-off module with measuring unit and cutting head form the heart of the system.

The draw-off module feeds the straightened, defined cable length to the cutting head. Simultaneously a reference measuring system ensures the required deviation of 2 ‰ of the length to be processed.

A special cutting system has been developed for the cutting head which processes both cable ends to the required evenness. By specific execution of the cutting unit, contamination at the cutting surfaces is suppressed. Such contaminations are caused by use of very diverse materials such as protection, insulation and conducting layers.

After processing the tailored cables are dropped up to a defined length of 3.000 mm in elongated shape. Exceeding cable lengths are processed to bundles at a wrapping device.

Cutting and skinning machine for HF cables

Functional Description

The cable skinning machine H-ASA 3000 has been developed for automatic skinning the outer conductors at both sides of SCF-cables at a length range of 0,5 up to 3,0 meters.

Basis of station and cycle operation is a circumferential chain belt at which stretching tabs of the already cut cable segments are mounted at a distance of 10 “ (254 mm). The technological necessary and identical processing stations are placed in two consecutive areas mirrored to the direction of transport:

  • Deburring of the center conductor
  • Cutting into outer insulation and the dielectric up to the middle cable
  • Skinning of outer insulation
  • Cleaning of center conductor, the front of dielectric, outer conductor and outer insulation

Since all processing steps are performed simultaneously, a both-end-stripped cable leaves the system every machine cycle (approx. 15 s). The skinning machine is a highly productive machine of mature technology which may be used for various cable diameters and lengths.

Application examples

  • Producer of automation systems
  • Producer of telecommunications systems
  • Producer of energy systems

Technical Data

performance: approximately 2,000 cable / layer
processing cycle: 10 … 15 Sekunden
cable type: SCF-Cable (reference system)
cable length: 500 … 3.000 mm
weight: 4.500 kg
PLC: SIEMENS S7

Additional Modules

  • Cable straightening unit
  • Bundling and packaging module
  • Aspiration system