BRACCA: 44,000 BPH AT THE 100-YEAR-OLD WATER PLANT THE GROWTH OF SMIGROUP S SUPER WORKSHOP

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1 Pag. 14/15 Pag. 13 Pag. 10/12 Pag. 8/9 Pag. 6/7 Pag. 2/5 SMI Group Magazine 2/2005 ENGLISH BRACCA: 44,000 BPH AT THE 100-YEAR-OLD WATER PLANT THE GROWTH OF SMIGROUP S SUPER WORKSHOP HUMAN RESOURCES AND SALES VOLUME: AMONG THE FIRST IN EUROPE FOR GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT MORE THAN 100 TONS/HOUR OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES THE FIRST COMPLETE LINE FOR THE BOTTLING AND PACKAGING OF EDIBLE OIL SIX COMPLETE LINES FOR CEVITAL

2 2 BRACCA: 44,000 BPH AT THE 100-YEAR-OLD WATER PLANT The Zogno (Bergamo)-based FONTE BRACCA Company, one of Northern Italy s most renowned mineral water and carbonated soft drinks bottlers, last June inaugurated a new 25,600 bph PET line for still and carbonated water, which, when added to the existing PET line, allowed the spring to raise its volumes to more than 44,000 bph (equal to 75 million PET bottles of mineral water delivered every year). The design, the manufacture and installation of the new BRACCA plant was assigned to SMI, that has been supplying FONTE BRACCA (bottling water since 1907), with technically advanced machinery and systems for almost 15 years. The countless enlargements and modernisation of the spring s bottling plant, required because of an ever-growing production demand, have been realised thanks to customised solutions based on an in-depth analysis of the customer s requirements. In the year 2000 SMI supplied a 10,000 bph complete line including stretchblow moulding, bottle filling and packaging of still water PET bottles in 1.5 and 2-litre formats. The FONTE BRACCA Company, three years later, entrusted SMI designers with the task to study and implement a substantial increase of the production capacity of this line. Through the installation of a faster stretch-blow moulder and the upgrade of the conveyor system, the plant output (with a 90% yield) was almost doubled, taking it to 18,000 bph for 1.5 litres and to 14,500 bph for 2 litres. In 2004 the customer availed itself again of SMI skill and expertise for the expansion of its subsidiary company FONTI PINETA s bottling plant, located in Clusone (Bergamo). For FONTI PINETA a brand new 21,000 bph PET line was designed and installed; it bottles mineral water (with a storage yield of 18,000 bph) in 0.5 and 1.5-litre formats. Thanks to the satisfactory performance of

3 3 the SMI installations, the FONTE BRACCA Company decided to test once more the planning ability and the technical competence of this concern, by giving SMI an extremely tough job: within a very limited area, you have to replace an old production plant with a new turnkey line for PET, situated on two floors, running at 25,600 bph. Despite it being immediately clear that the job wouldn t be an easy one, SMI engineers took up the challenge and, in close co-operation with the spring s management and technical staff, set to work to find an optimum solution. The outcome is a spectacular example of creative innovation combined with efficiency, functionality and reliability. The plant s main distinctiveness is represented by the conveyor system, which, instead of resting on the floor, is suspended thanks to special supports fixed to the ceiling. This solution allows accessibility to all the machines and facilitates maintenance operations and aids line cleaning. The new bottling line, on the 1st floor of the Zognobased factory, produces, fills and packs in film only PET bottles of 0.5 litres in 3x2, 4x3 and 6x4 formats and PET bottles of 1.5 litres in the traditional 3x2 film only format. The PET containers are manufactured by one of the latest generation of SMI rotary stretch-blow moulding machines, model SR 16, equipped with 16 moulds, each running at an output of 1,600 bph. The stretch-blow moulder is fed by an innovative system to transport the preforms vertically; they are picked from the hopper situated on the ground floor and taken to the upper level. Once blown, the 0.5 and 1.5- litre bottles are fed to the filler by a 111metre long air conveyor system, standing at a height of 2.7 metres from the floor. After filling, capping and labelling, 55 metres of loose bottle conveyors transport the containers to the dual lane SK 602 F shrinkwrapper; this machine receives the bottles in eight lanes through a 90 ingress and packs them at a speed of 86 ppm in the 3x2 format, 44 ppm in the 4x3 format and 22 ppm in the 6x4 format. In order to get to the two HA 70 handle applicators, the packs coming out of the shrinkwrapper travel by a spectacular 77meter long route. They first run upon conveyor belts which, because of the limited space available, are positioned beneath the loose product conveyor belts. Afterwards, a spiral conveyor takes the pack to a height of 3 metres (to be able to pass over the shrinkwrapper and the air conveyors) and a second spiral conveyor transports them down again directly before the ingress into the two side by side HA 70 handle applicators. The palletisation area builds the pallets and stretch wraps them for the next conveyance, by means of an elevator, down to the storage warehouse located on the ground floor. Both for FONTI PINETA and for FONTE BRACCA, SMI has installed a highly automated and advanced system of control for the conveyor belts: the VLS (VaryLine System), based on the PROFIBUS fieldbus. Furthermore, the supervision tasks of all the lines are carried out by the MES-PRO, whose chief function is to optimise the production process by acting as a two-way interface between the plants and the business strategic management; this systems in fact allows, via Ethernet, to collect data in real time, trace the production, control the quality, plan the maintenance, schedule and measure performance.

4 4 THE CUSTOMER S POINT OF VIEW Interview with Mr. Ernesto Bordogna, Chairman of the FONTE BRACCA Company 1. What are, in your opinion, the main points of strength of the new PET line? The first point of strength is certainly the location of the line on two floors, since the space available was really limited. Notwithstanding it, SMI designers have exploited in the best way this little plot of land, by thinking up an unrivalled solution: all the conveyor belts, in fact, are hung from the ceiling, so that all what moves doesn t touch ground. Our plant is one of the few in Europe to have a product handling system of this kind. The second one is represented by the high level of automation and control of the whole line, which can be run by two operators only. Another point of strength is the SR 16 stretch-blow moulding machine of the latest generation, capable of producing 1,600 bph/mould. 2. What convinced you to trust once more SMI and select it for so complex a project? In the first place, the plant installed in FONTI PINETA s factory has fully met our expectations and has further strengthened a relationship of mutual esteem and confidence started almost 15 years ago. In the second place, we have particularly appreciated the customeroriented approach used by SMI which makes this company different from its competition: in fact, for a mid-sized concern like ours, it is very important to be able to rely on a partner who speaks the same language as we do and to feel you are actually taking part in a project, both in the planning stage and in the making and the starting up of the plant. Moreover, it is fundamental that the supplier doesn t try to impose its solutions rather than proposing

5 5 them, forcing the customer to make a delicate decision without understanding in depth whether or not what he is purchasing is exactly what he needs. In the third place, SMI has always respected the installation and start up schedule of our orders, showing a remarkable reliability and skill. 3. The new line has involved, from your side, hefty investments. What ensures you the optimized exploitation of the plant s potentiality? The supervision system implemented by SMI, which allows running the whole line at the highest degree of efficiency thanks to a perfect synchronization of all the machines, a continuous electronic watch of the production process and an immediate and automatic adjustment of possible anomalies. 4. Following the strengthening and the enlargement of your bottling lines, are you planning to launch any new product? Yes, we are. The FONTE BRACCA Company recently decided to put onto the market a brand new single-serve 0.25-litre bottle of mineral water, which will be soon blown, bottled and packed on the new PET line in the 6x4 film only format. The 0.25-litre container has been introduced to meet the growing demand for this kind of product, as a consequence of the recent law which makes it mandatory to use sealed bottles when a mono-dose of mineral water is sold to the public.

6 6 THE GROWTH OF SMIGROUP S SUPER WORKSHOP The enormity and high-tech content of the machine tool fleet are two features which impress anyone visiting SMIMEC, the super workshop of the SMI Group specialised in the machining of moulds as well as the group s mechanical components. A few months ago SMIMEC completed an expansion of the Forerunner 700 plant, which is currently made up of 12 CNC machining centres connected in a FMS line. The specialty of this plant - explains Vito Giovanni Nava, Managing Director of the SMI Group is the possibility to run 24/7, and the present shift pattern means at times it is unmanned. This allows a substantial reduction in the production costs. In more depth, the Forerunner 700 plant is employed to manufacture both moulds for rotary stretch-blow moulding machines and mechanical components from aluminium, steel, iron and cast iron. The installation is equipped with linear motors featuring a traverse speed of 80 metres/minute, while the mandrels of the 12 CNC machining centres can achieve a speed of 30,000rpm, to ensure an excellent finish of the machined parts. The storage area is composed of 150 working pallets, with six fixed posts for

7 7 loading the components to be processed and unloading the ones already processed. During the unmanned working shifts, a motorised system made up of two shuttles takes the pallets of raw parts and positions them into the CNC machining centres; inside these centres, the raw parts are machined and the pallets with the finished parts are automatically carried back to the warehouse area. To accommodate the machining of many different mechanical components there are 1928 tools available, which are stored in dedicated racks; a shuttle called Super tools automatically transports these tools to any of the 12 CNC machining centres, wherever they are required. In addition, the plant is equipped with a supervision system organising the work program to maximise the plants potential and optimising the machining process, guaranteeing the manufacture of parts within prefixed time frames. SMIMEC produces moulds destined for both SMI stretch-blow moulders and other branded stretch-blow moulders that are present in the marketplace; recently, for instance, 5-gallon moulds were manufactured for a renowned Spanish company.

8 8 HUMAN RESOURCES AND SALES VOLUME: AMONG THE FIRST IN EUROPE FOR GROWTH AND development The SMI Group has always distinguished itself for the special attention it has paid to its own human resources, the true propellant force of the company s amazing growth both in turnover and size since its foundation in The involvement of the workforce in the company s strategic decisions, enabling Group to make continuous progress, has generated a highly motivated environment focused on achievement and overcoming goals set. This has also allowed the expansion of the production facilities and the technical, sales and administration departments, both in Italy and abroad, reaching by the end of 2004 a workforce of 570 people. The size and professional growth of the SMI Group hasn t gone unnoticed to European institutions observing those entrepreneurial realities which are heavily oriented in technological innovation and constant creation of new jobs. One of the most authoritative associations engaged in the study and Turnover EURO

9 In EUROPE S 2004 final results the SMI Group attained 178th place analysis of these trends is EUROPE S 500, also known as Europe s Entrepreneurs for Growth ; each year this association s experts analyze thousands of mid-sized companies within Europe and award prizes to the top 500 which, in the previous four years, have succeeded in increasing their sales volume and their staff by at least 15% annually. This initiative is backed by high profile companies and institutions such as Microsoft, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, The Boston Consulting Group, and 3i. The outcome of the research and analysis of EUROPE S 500 are then published by the prestigious magazine BusinessWeek, to give a wide and distinguished readers circle news regarding the most dynamic enterprises, which have been able to develop and progress in particularly tough and competitive market conditions. In EUROPE S 2004 final results the SMI Group attained 178th place, thanks to an outstanding growth in volume and employees which from the year 2000 to 2003 exceeded a 16% annually and created 185 new jobs; SMI also achieved the best performance in its sector at domestic level. In the course of 2004 the human resources have been raised further from 513 to 570 units, thanks to the acquisition and restructuring of a well-known paper factory operating now under the name of SMIWRAP. The Group s sales volume registered an increase even greater than the growth in staff: in 2004 it achieved sales of 84 million Euros, almost double the results of 2000 and 7 times higher than Employees

10 10 MORE THAN 100 TONS/HOUR OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES The cooperative group CONSERVE ITALIA, a leading European company processing tomatoes, fruit and vegetables, is the star of the Italian agro-industrial sector. The group holds manufacturing and commercial facilities both in Italy and abroad and generated a combined turnover of approximately 900 million Euros in In Pomposa di Codigoro (Ferrara), Conserve Italia recently commissioned a brand new factory equipped with all-italian technology, for the processing, primary and secondary packaging and storage of fruit and vegetable-based products, such as tomato sauces, fruit juices, food conserves, etc. On the one hand over the last few years the Emilian group has invested a lot in its own brands (Derby, Yoga, Valfrutta, Cirio and De Rica, to name a few); on the other hand it has increased the production share destined for the large-scale retail trade. The new plant in Pomposa has in fact been designed to answer effectively the widest range of marketing and sale exigences: products are customised during the labelling phase and then packed to the end user s requirements. For the brand new industrial complex in Pomposa, SMI S.p.A. has supplied a super plant made up of 290 metres of conveyors and 7 secondary packaging lines, each

11 11 processing between 6,000 and 36,000 cans per hour. The installation packs the canned and labelled products (steel cans from 225 grams to 4.25 kg) in many different packaging formats. The seven technically advanced lines provided to Conserve Italia according to Paolo Nava, SMI Sales Director are the result of the extensive expertise acquired by SMI in more than 15 years in the field of secondary packaging. The plant allows, in fact, to pack tons of fruit and vegetables in an efficient and completely automatic manner, consistently monitoring the line s operational data (production, quality, maintenance operation, etc.) and highlighting any possible margin of improvement. The layout and the engineering of the lines have been carefully studied to allow not only an easy access to all the machines, but also the control of multiple machines using a single operator. In addition, tailored solutions have been studied, such as the can sweep which, at the labeller discharge, sweeps the steel cans onto the conveyor belts, preventing labels from being touched and damaged. I do think the confidence Conserve Italia gave us has been paid back in full, since the client expressed his complete satisfaction for the plant s performance. In more depth, the seven packaging lines installed in the Pomposa factory are divided >>> Conserve Italia

12 Conserve Italia 12 as follows: lines 1, 2, 6 and 7 include an LSK or SK series shrinkwrapper and each packs steel cans from 225 grams to 4.25 kg in pad plus film, tray plus film and tray only formats. The production capacity ranges from 6,000 to 36,000 cans per hour, according to the line, the product size, the pack configuration and the type of package. Lines 1, 2 and 6 also produce a special pack, composed of two trays stacked and wrapped with shrink film. This maxi-pack contains a higher number of cans: 24 (4x3 on two layers) produced by lines 1 and 2; 12 (3x2 on two layers) produced by line 6. Line 7 is dedicated to packing bigger cans (from 2.65 to 4.25 kg) in 3x1 pad plus film collations. Line 5 is composed of a TF 450 trayformer; this model collates 400 and 800 gram cans in 4x3 formats and packs them in cardboard trays without film, achieving a maximum speed of 25,000 cans per hour. The remaining lines 3 and 4 are very similar one another both in their layout and in the type of packaging machines and maximum outputs (30,000 cans per hour). Both lines are equipped with an MP 200 multipacker and an LSK or SK series shrinkwrapper. The 225 and 400gram cans are first grouped in the collation required and then packed in cardboard sleeve multipacks; at the outlet of the MP 200 an automatic device turns the packs and, if required, positions them into multiple lanes, which are then fed to the shrinkwrapper. Both the shrinkwrappers of lines 3 and 4 have a twin infeed system: through the inline route they receive the multipacks that have already been oriented, and through the other route the machines receive loose cans directly from the labeller. The multipacks are then clustered and packed in film-only bundles, while the loose cans are packed in multiple formats of pad plus film or tray plus film. In addition to the loose can conveyors from the labellers to the packaging machines, SMI has also supplied Conserve Italia with all of the pack conveyors to the palletisation and storage area. The whole installation is complemented with a high-tech system, designated VLS (VaryLine System), for the automation and control of the conveyor belts through PROFIBUS fieldbus. Also, the supervision tasks are carried out by the MES-PRO system, which via Ethernet provides a comprehensive and real time check of the production, the efficiency and the reliability of all of the packaging lines.

13 THE FIRST COMPLETE LINE FOR THE BOTTLING AND PACKAGING OF EDIBLE OIL 13 Established in 1916 in the Rostov area, the JSC RABOCHY has played a major role in the history of the Russian economy, becoming one of the main and oldest protagonists; indeed, at present, this dynamic company is on par with the largest European producers of edible oil. To implement the expansion plan of its industrial complex in Rostov-on-Don, RABOCHY chose SMI, committing it to the design and engineering of a new bottling and packaging line for edible oil. It has been a very interesting project stresses Paolo Nava, SMI Sales Director as this is the first complete line we have supplied for the bottling of oil in PET containers and the concomitant packaging in cardboard boxes. On the other hand, it must be taken into consideration that the use of PET for products such as oil and beer is continuously growing, letting us predict a consistent increase of the market demand in this segment. The installation provided by SMI manufactures and packs round and square PET 0.33, 0.5 and 1 litre containers; it has a production capacity of 12,000 containers/hour and is composed of a SR 8 rotary stretch-blow moulding machine, 33 linear metres of air conveyors, a DV 200 multilane divider, a WP 300 wrap-around casepacker and 66 linear metres of conveyors for loose or packed product. The PET containers produced by the stretchblow moulder are carried to the filler by SMI air conveyors, then taken, by means of SMI loose product conveyor system, to the labeller and directly after to the DV 200 multilane divider, which puts them on 3 lanes and feeds them to the WP 300 wrap-around casepacker. The dividing/laning system is of paramount importance, since it facilitates the movement of the square containers which, unlike the round ones, tend to get stuck blocking the product flow. The WP 300 wrap-around casepacker collates the products in 3x5 formats and packs them into cardboard boxes, at a rate of approximately 20 packs/minute. The 3x5 format is employed both for the 0.33-litre containers and the 0.5 and 1-litre containers. From the WP 300 the cardboard boxes are transported to the palletisation area, through an SMI pack conveyor system. The enhanced automation of the conveyor belts is managed by the high-tech VLS (VaryLine System), based on the PROFIBUS fieldbus. The supervision of the entire line is run by the MES-PRO hw/sw system: this latter allows, via Ethernet, to collect data in real time, trace the production, control the quality, carry out the maintenance, plan and measure the line performance.

14 14 SIX COMPLETE LINES for CEVITAL Faithful to its own strategy of continuous innovation, SMI S.p.A. recently developed a new divider/compensator, called the GDV 500, to place in multiple rows both containers and packs, and laning them to packaging machines. The GDV 500 can have up to 4 infeed rows; however, the term compensator indicates that this smart divider is capable of reallocating the products at the outlet in the required number of rows (6 rows maximum), even if the product flow at the infeed is continuously changing. This allows the GDV 500 to keep on running correctly in the event of a reduced or partial functioning of the processing and primary packaging plants. The GDV 500 can attain a top speed of 500 products/minute, according to the shape and size of the container. It is suitable for dividing both loose products and bundles, multipacks and cardboard boxes; however, in general, the employment of dividers/compensators is particularly useful to lane products or packs whose shapes could be difficult to handle (for example: rectangular). For the Algerian giant CEVITAL Spa, SMI has installed 6 packaging lines, each composed of a GDV 500, an LSK 45 F shrinkwrapper and 87 linear metres of conveyor belts carrying both loose and packed product. CEVITAL, a young company belonging to a large industrial group, manufactures and exports sugar, oil and margarine all over the world. The CEVITAL industrial complex, founded in 1998, is located next to the Bejaia seaport, in a highly strategic location for both land and sea transport, and covers a 75,000-square metre area. In short, it is a 3 story building used as follows: the ground floor houses the palletisers, the first floor the packing lines and the second floor the storage silos.

15 15 The super plant situated on the first floor packs roughly 130,000 cans per hour and has been supplied completely by SMI: six complete lines for packaging 1 kg bags of sugar in shrink film. The production process, which is identical for each line, takes place as follows: upstream there are four fillers, packing the sugar into thermo-sealed plastic bags. By means of the SMI loose product conveyor belts, the bags are carried to the GDV 500, which positions them on 5 rows and guides them to the LSK 45 F shrinkwrapper. Should one, or more than one filler, breakdown, the GDV 500 divider/compensator separates the production from the operative fillers into the 5 rows the shrinkwrapper infeed requires, thus avoiding any interruption in production. Afterwards, the LSK 45 F shrinkwrapper packs the sugar bags in 5x2 bundles, at a speed of 36 packs/minute. The bundles are then conveyed by SMI conveyor belts to a special area, where they are sent down to the ground floor for the palletisation phase. CEVITAL concludes Paolo Nava, SMI Sales Director is the most evident proof of the wide flexibility of our packaging machines, which can easily be fitted to the many various production requirements of customers and to many different types of products and commodity sectors. SMI has in fact demonstrated remarkable skill and expertise in developing personalised plants that can pack in an efficient, fast and fully automatic manner a highly unstable and flimsy product like sugar bags.

16 DP Over 3000 packaging machines and 150 blow moulding machines delivered Over 18 years experience in packaging for food and beverages industry Over 400 machines a year installed that s worldwide language of competitive quality Italian Leading Manufacturer of World Class Packaging Machines SMI S.p.A.: Via Piazzalunga, San Giovanni Bianco (BG) ITALY Phone: Fax: