Manufacturers’ search for a supplier of machinery can be challenging – especially for startups, which often grow rapidly and therefore cannot predict how production will develop. Riverside Natural Foods Ltd was looking for a long-term partner who could not only deliver reliable and flexible equipment, but could also provide expert advice on how best to meet complex market demands.

“The demand for great tasting snack bars that are completely allergen-free is constantly growing, which is why we have continued to expand our workforce and capacity”, Nima Fotovat, President of Riverside, explains. “For our MadeGood® granola bars, we wanted to find a best-in-class solution from mix to pallet and Bosch offered leading technology for every part of the process”, Fotovat continues. “At PACK EXPO Las Vegas we will be able to take a first look at parts of our new line, which is very exciting for us”, Justin Fluit, Vice President of Operations at Riverside, adds.

The right technology for premium products

Once the granola bar ingredients are mixed, the WRF 600 Flex roller former and new WRW 600 Flex compression roller shape and compress a precisely measured slab. Combined, the WRF and WRW operate with full flexibility in terms of width, weight and height. They are designed to prevent cutting off or ‘trimming’ edges and thus minimize product waste.

The granola bars then enter the Sigpack DGDE, a new distribution station that gently places the products in line. The intelligent Sigpack FIT product infeed with linear motor technology facilitates push-button format changes, as well as fast, non-contact and gentle product feeding. Next, the products are transported to the Sigpack HRM flow wrapper, which wraps 600 MadeGood® granola bars per minute. The application of Bosch’s patented, fully automated high performance splicing (HPS) unit to the flow wrapper enables seamless splicing, improves line efficiency by minimizing downtime and reduces product waste.

The wrapped bars continue on to the Sigpack TTM1 topload cartoner, which forms, loads and closes up to 100 cartons per minute. The patented change-over concept allows for maximum pack style flexibility. The cartons are then processed by the Elematic 1001 sideload case packer, which packs them into Regular Slotted Cases (RSC), also known as American cases. In the last step, a so-called Cobot – collaborative robot – handles palletizing.

Riverside uses the Bosch HMI 4.0 (Human Machine Interface) as a central element of operators’ day-to-day tasks, taking quality, productivity and efficiency in production to the next level while ensuring and improving the sustainability of these processes.