HOLOPACK
Efficient filling technologies play a significant role in modern production - especially when it comes to food or pharmaceutical products. HOLOPACK® has specialised in pioneering contract filling in these areas and is certified to DIN EN ISO 9001 :2008 and DIN EN ISO 13485:2012 and relies on b+b Automations- und Steuerungstechnik GmbH for printing and control.
For HOLOPACK, product and packaging labelling according to customer requirements and in compliance with legal regulations is a current and important topic. For example, data matrix coding for the French pharmaceutical market has been carried out according to GS1 standards for some time. In addition, all existing systems are already prepared for the future EU standards and other labelling regulations that differ worldwide. Label dispensers with integrated thermal printers are predominantly used for direct product labelling, and inkjet systems with water- and alcohol-based inks are used for folding box coding.
A CASE STUDY
Bellows bottles are labelled from below with the Rapid SM 120 label dispenser. Before application, the labels pass through DOMINO's integrated V320i thermal transfer printer. There, the variable, batch-constant data is marked. After the dispensing process, each label is automatically checked for position, correctness and completeness by OCR camera reading. All data from the labeller, the printer and the camera are displayed and evaluated on a separate IPC TouchPanel using the FIAVis software. If errors are detected, the product can be ejected or a machine stop triggered. The company became aware of b+b trace, the supplier of the system, during a visit to the FachPack trade fair and through a recommendation from DOMINO. The packaging team around Mr. Weidner, Mr. Toth and Mr. Fräder at HOLOPACK assessed the experiences made with b+b trace as follows after completion of the project:
The cooperation with b+b trace has led us clearly beyond the expected goal. In addition to the constant communication during the project phase up to the SAT, the qualification up to the system release was also very well supported. We rate the ease of use and comfortable control of the delivered system via an integrated HMI with effective software very positively. The system appears tidy and there are no unnecessary buttons that overwhelm the operator. Nevertheless, several training sessions were necessary in the initial phase to expand our operators' mechanically oriented knowledge to deal with modern systems and state-of-the-art software. After a short training period, however, the initial effort quickly turned into routine, so that today we have a trouble-free operation and, above all, can deliver a constant product quality. Maintenance and servicing are also unproblematic due to the system design proposed by b+b. If the need arises, we will therefore be happy to work with b+b trace again."
The results can be summarised as follows:
The production speed on the line could be increased from 20 cycles per minute to 60 cycles per minute. In the next step, a further increase to 120 cycles per minute is planned. The production costs on the line could thus be reduced to a quarter. Deviations due to printing errors or increased waste have been significantly reduced. Overall, there has been an increase in line efficiency and a reduction in downtime costs.