Wrap-Around Case Packing for Appetizer Cheese

Company

This application was developed for a French group operating in more than 30 countries. The group specialises in the production of industrial cheeses, including cooked, semi-cooked and pressed cheeses, many of them portioned. After several years of strong growth, the company wanted to improve and increase the performance of its production lines. It therefore contacted us for a project involving the case packing of trays of portioned cheeses.

The installation had to receive stacks of flat case blanks and products from the labeller outfeed. It also had to form the cases, pack the products, close the cases and discharge the full cases.

Special features:
The installation had to provide product storage in the event of a case-packing stoppage and return the stored products in FIFO order when production restarted.
The case packer had to check case fill and reject non-conforming cases.
The installation had to integrate an existing labeller and reject unit.

For this project, the company was looking for a reliable partner in terms of performance and deadlines, with proven expertise in designing end-of-line packaging systems.

Project & solution

To meet this requirement, JYGA recommended a wrap-around case packer for closed cases. The case packer includes a cardboard-blank magazine, a FIFO buffer, a product-loading module, and a module for discharging full and non-conforming cases.

Special features:
If the downstream case-packing section stops, products are stored for at least 3 minutes. In this situation, the trays are stopped by 5 retractable stops and picked by a two-axis manipulator fitted with vacuum cups. The manipulator loads the trays onto a pocket table. If storage exceeds a configurable period, the operator is notified.
When production restarts, the manipulator reintroduces the stored trays into the incoming flow. The recovery over-speed is then +10%.