A Passion for Fresh Vegetables 

Crailsheim, Germany. In the vegetable section of the supermarket, salad looks crisp and fresh, but by the time you get it home, it’s already got a few limp leaves. Natural products are simply very sensitive. How can vegetables be processed into attractive goods for the supermarket on an industrial scale? As Bonduelle sees it, packaging is an important part of the answer. Since yet another area is to be automated at the Rosporden, France location, what’s required here is a line that handles products as delicately and flexibly as human employees (who previously performed this job), despite a high capacity. The solution was provided by Gerhard Schubert Verpackungsmaschinen of Crailsheim, Germany. 

The well-established international family-owned Bonduelle company takes packaging so seriously that it is established as part of the company philosophy. They see it as a necessity for differentiating themselves through quality products in a mass market with great price pressure. In the words of the well-known French slogan, “Quand c’est bon, c’est Bonduelle” (If it tastes good, it’s Bonduelle).

Since the 1990s, ready-to-serve salads have been part of the company’s product assortment. For the French market, they are packaged at the Rosporden facility. Plastic bowls holding 200 g and 600 g are used for  individual consumers, and 1 kg and 1.5 kg for restaurants, catering companies etc. 

As a response to the increasing demand and to improve the cost structure, the company started a project in 2006 to automate the processes subsequent to filling. The task: Cups sealed with a plastic film are to be taken from the filling line and to be provided with a re-sealable lid. The cups then have to be packed into carton trays. 

Compact line integrates two different tasks 

Both processes must be integrated into a single line. The required capacity is 80 bowls per minute for filling the 200 g and 600 g cups and 50 bowls per minute when filling for large scale consumers. The results must be flawless, as subsequent checking of discharged cartons is not possible. 

The project team of Gerhard Schubert Verpackungsmaschinen solved this problem beginning with the acceptance of the order in November 2006 and ending with the commissioning of the line in April 2007. At first glance, you can see that the solution consists of five two-axis TLM-F2 robots integrated into three machine frames with an overall length of 6.5 m. What doesn’t become apparent until operation of the packaging machine starts is the artful way in which the VMS control makes difficult tasks easy. 

The cups are taken from an infeed conveyor and fed to a TLM grouping chain. Depending on the program, the transport units create patterns of four or six cups. The first TLM-F2 robot unit takes the products from the grouping chain and places them in two rows on one of the two grouping tables. The carriers, like the tools of the robot, are product-specific and are changed depending on the size of the plastic bowls. 

Obstacle-free product flow 

The product retainer of the grouping table fixes the cups so that the robot can pick up and precisely place the plastic lids that were removed from a magazine by a presentation unit. The cups are closed one by one in this way. On the way to the loading station of the carton tray, a roller securely presses on the lid.

with the next machine step is the secondary packaging. A TLM-F2 robot takes a flat blank provided by a magazine, glues the carton, erects the blank using a folding station and places it on a TLM vacuum conveyor. 

Two cartons at a time  are transported to the loading station. The cups are then placed into the carton in multiple layers. The loading robot also handles the folding and closing of the stacking flaps. 

Easy accessibility of the line becomes a noticeable benefit when different sizes need to be changed. This is based on the concept of TLM technology, i.e. reducing mechanics and relocating functions to the machine control. Since electronics are found at the head of the line, a very clear structure results. 

Bonduelle was so satisfied with the result that, upon commissioning of the described TLM packaging machine described here, a second was ordered (and recently commissioned). The passion of the Bonduelle company, as they will tell you, is vegetables, and they’re in  best hands with packaging machines of Schubert.