It is also expanding its technical team to cope with the increase in demand from customers with the hire of Alex Hofmann, sales manager for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and Andrea D`Amico, sales and marketing director.
Greater degree of flexibility
One of its latest developments is utilising 3D vision into its systems, to give customers more control of the products they are packing for better quality control of the overall process.
D`Amico told ConfectioneryNews at ISM & ProSweets 2016, in Cologne, Germany, this week, the firm uses 3D printing for manufacturing its grippers and end effectors for a greater degree of flexibility in its design process.
It also allows them to produce prototypes for testing things quicker and more efficiently.
“After the development of the individual automation concept, the customer-specific gripper system is produced using the latest 3D printing technology on the basis of CAD drawings,” he said.
“This allows for greater flexibility as the production time of the gripper is reduced immensely also enabling extended testing phases.
“In addition to this, we have developed PWR Pack’s pick & place, top loading and cutting systems focusing on more trends in the food industry such as distribution and packaging for smaller and mixed bundles in the snack and confectionery industries, and robotic applications that cater towards a growing market for packaged food.”
3D printing for grippers
According to D`Amico by utilising 3D printing for its grippers it can manufacture prototypes quicker and more complex designs can quickly be tested.
“This ensures our design and testing times are three times quicker than they previously were which results in faster reaction times for our customers,” he added.
“One of the challenges for our customers in the food manufacturing industry is the rising cost and availability of labour while price pressure on their products is still at a very high level.
“Smaller packs and single serve packaged food products as well as packaged food for consumption on the go is growing at a fast rate. This gives us more opportunities to develop high speed automated packaging technology that better fits our customers’ needs as these trends grow.”
PWR Pack develops tailor made machines for high speed packaging of confectionery, bakery and snack foods. It also specialises in end of line packaging for automatically loaded finished packs into shipping cartons or crates.
At ISM & ProSweets 2016 it is exhibiting pick and place systems which specialise in the distribution and packaging of delicate products with irregular contours, such as pastries or confectionery.
Highlights include pneumatic performance grippers for precise uptake, careful distribution and placing of the products, intelligent vision systems and 3D-vision software.