Intermittent Wrap Around

Challenge

The MARS Petcare factory in Brisbane Queensland produces the market leading Trill Nutrivit and Vitablend brands of birdseed. They approached our technical sales team in 2019 looking for a wrap around case packing system which could operate at speed to keep up with production demand.   

Besides speed, another challenge here was that birdseed can be tricky for a precision machine to deal with as the product’s bulk density versus weight can vary significantly depending on the formulation and dryness.  

Solution 

In March 2020 we installed a continuous in-feed system with a stop-start cartoning module to allow the flexibility the customer needed to keep the machine running at up to 100 cartons per minute.  

We used a star-wheel collation and a two-axis hawk robot. The machine has four size change positions and has flap detection incorporated and so can reject any incorrectly formed cases.  

We installed this just before the COVID pandemic hit and we included a remote camera system. This allows us to remotely log-in and view exactly what’s happening with the product in-feed and to offer the customer support directly via the HMI (Human Machine Interface) system. We course correct any issues before they can become a problem and this machine has been running perfectly since installation. Very wisely, the MARS management penned a service and support contract with us delivering peace of mind for maximum productivity and ROI. At RML we want to avoid production downtime just as much as our customers do!