At the Sibeg factory, the official Coca-Cola bottler for the region of Sicily, ACMI dealt with the design, installation and commissioning of a bottling line with high flexibility which reaches a rated filling speed of 60,000 cans per hour. The term “flexibility” refers to the ability of the system to adapt to a variety of formats, including the possibility of inserting future formats without the need to make any mechanical changes.

At present, there are four types of cans handled on the line: 330 ml, 500 ml, 330 ml “sleek” and the small 150 ml “slim”. The types of packaging of the four cans are manifold and there are a total of nine formats, but the line is already suitable for accommodating an entire series of future formats that will bring the number of products handled to 35.

FENIX SHRINK WRAPPER

To explain the supply in more detail, the line is equipped with two Fenix shrink wrappers that are able to make 3x2, 4x3, 4x2 and 6x4 packs. Thanks to a special system of conveyors, the cans coming from the filler can be laned towards a single shrink wrapper or first on one and then on the other so as to make all the desired formats: packs of cans only, cans on trays, grouping of several packs (double packaging).

The two shrink wrappers are equipped with an automatic film changeover system that does not require any operator intervention. In approximately ten seconds, the machine switches from the film of the finished reel to that of the new reel fully automatically. This allows great operating autonomy since the operator has plenty of time to replace the finished reel with a new reel without interfering with the productivity of the machine.

PALLETISER

The palletisation phase is guaranteed by the Twisterbox layer formation system and the Faster high level infeed palletiser that is able to reach a speed of 13,000 packs per hour in the 330 ml “sleek” 3x2 configuration. The palletisation unit is combined with a Faster D200 depalletiser creating, in fact, a very compact system with streamlined spaces.

The Twisterbox system installed at Sibeg consists of two gripping modules equipped with the new concentric closing carbon grippers that ensure a greater running speed, greater agility in the movements performed in the flow of packs and better flexibility during the gripping phase, all ensuring the utmost care in the handling of the product. All the format changeover operations are managed exclusively through the touch screen operator panel and do not require any mechanical intervention on the machine.

VORTEX STRETCH WRAPPER

Another novelty introduced on the Sibeg line is the Vortex rotating ring stretch wrapper equipped with an innovative electronic pre-stretching system that is able to pre-stretch the film up to a value of 400%. Thanks to the electronic management of all the parameters, this pre-stretching system can be programmed to adapt the degree of pre-stretching of the film to each wrapping phase thus optimizing the use of raw material with considerable economic saving.

The specific design makes it possible to reach extremely high wrapping speeds and currently unmatched levels of productivity. If to this is added the automatic pre-stretching unit changeover system, as in the case of the Sibeg line, the result obtained is extraordinary. The stretch wrapper can be equipped with the top cover dispenser or the hermetic cycle and can mount reels with a height of 500, 750 and 1000 mm.