Before talking about the specific solutions on show at the trade fair, Marcel Kiessling, Managing Director of Gerhard Schubert GmbH, started with a brief overview of current business development and planned investments: "After six years, we are finally meeting again at Interpack. The break was long - but we made the most of it!" Although the past two years in particular have also been challenging for Schubert due to the worldwide supply bottlenecks, "the advantage of high in-house value creation became apparent here," comments Kissling.

The Americas market has grown strongly in recent years and now accounts for 19% of total sales, followed by Germany with 17%. The segment that grew the most was pet food. A direct consequence of the Corona pandemic, during which many households acquired a pet - and of course they have to be taken care of. The demand for automation solutions among pet food manufacturers was correspondingly high.

Packaging Perspectives - sustainable packaging from the start

"With Packaging Perspectives, we want to enable producers of food, beverages, cosmetics and other industries to gain new perspectives for more sustainable packaging," says Kiessling, describing one of the focal points shown at Interpack. "As part of our Mission Blue sustainability initiative, we are bundling all our activities around sustainable packaging in the programme."
In concrete terms, this means that the Schubert experts provide support in the selection of materials and the design of packaging for a packaging solution that is both machine-compatible and environmentally friendly. Elementary for sustainable value creation along the entire supply chain is also the holistic consulting of Schubert-Consulting, because a well thought-out production line simultaneously increases efficiency and reduces waste. The combination of know-how, highly developed packaging technology and the holistic consulting approach thus enables customers to have efficient, profitable and sustainable packaging processes.
However, the advantages of Packaging Perspectives are not limited to the machine processes, but extend far beyond: the use of volume- and material-optimised packaging saves resources and costs for manufacturers, strengthens recycling cycles, scores points with the end customer at the point of sale and in this way positions manufacturing companies for the future in the market.

Packaging requirements combined with machine runability

The background for Packaging Perspectives is the packaging machine manufacturer's decades of experience in erecting, filling and sealing flat carton blanks. With this knowledge, Schubert can already create the basis for a more sustainable solution during the development of a packaging. After all, optimised blanks can often significantly increase the efficiency and performance of a machine, making an investment in automation more profitable. To this end, Schubert Packaging Development designs customised trays, boxes, wrap-arounds and other recyclable cardboard packaging - either to improve existing cardboard solutions or as an alternative to plastic packaging such as trays and shrink films. Re-design and nesting, i.e. the space-saving arrangement of products in the packaging, also increases the opportunity for manufacturing companies to put more products on the pallet overall and thus reduce the number of transports.

Technology and know-how for tubular bag films

Packaging Perspectives also includes special customer services for recyclable monoplastic and paper-based form fill and seal films. In order to find the most sustainable solution for products with specific barrier and protection requirements, manufacturers can choose from a large pool of marketable materials with the so-called Comfort Package, which Schubert has extensively tested for their functionality. The material experts not only know the sealability and tear resistance of the films, but also their potential for smaller packaging sizes. Customers can test their desired combination of product and film directly in a flowpacker in the Schubert technical centre. The flexible, state-of-the-art sealing technology of the form fill and seal machine makes it possible to switch between different films. If required, the composition of a form-fill-seal film can also be analysed in the Schubert laboratory or new forming shoulders can be developed for efficient processing in the machine.

Flexible automation beyond the machine

Automation processes for the packaging of food, confectionery, cosmetics and similar products have so far mostly been limited to the packaging machine. Feeding, on the other hand, is often implemented manually, as this can rarely be solved economically by machine. With the Cobot Tog 519, Schubert has now not only automated pick-and-place tasks in the infeed, but also brought a whole new level of flexibility to the production and packaging process.
The integrated systems, from the robot arm to the control system and image processing to the cooling and protective cell, make the cobots completely self-sufficient and thus mobile. They can therefore be used to close automation gaps at various and ever different points in the production process. They can then either be free-standing, alternatively in a protective cell or combined to form an entire cobot line. They can be used in a variety of ways. For example, the cobot can load the feed chains of a form-fill-seal machine from a crate, pick up bottles for a filling machine from the conveyor and orient them correctly, pick up a wide variety of products from the clutter and fill them into boxes or even assemble mixed packs.
The cobots not only work with Schubert machines, but also with third-party systems and even robots from other manufacturers. The cobot is also interesting for integrators, because Schubert makes it possible to purchase the system components, such as the AI-supported image processing, individually.

AI-supported image processing for ease of use

The background to the great flexibility and ease of use of the cobots is an AI-supported image processing system developed by Schubert. This recognises both the products as they are picked up and the environment in which they are to be placed. The neural network of the cobots is so extensively trained that the robots can immediately process new products from the same product group. These are, for example, pouches (sachets, flowpacks, stand-up pouches, sealed-rim pouches, etc.) in different sizes or bottles in different shapes. The tolerance of the AI is designed to accept variable sizes, materials, surfaces or thicknesses within a product group. This means that practically no teach-in or start-up process is required - once commissioned, the Schubert cobots immediately get going at high performance: this is how they handle pick-and-place applications with various light products at up to 90 cycles per minute. Only the tool has to fit the product. For this purpose, Schubert provides its customers with a wide range of individually designed robot tools, some of which can also be manufactured by them using 3D printing.

Digitally everything under control

With its 4You services, Schubert not only covers the technical maintenance of machines, but also ensures its customers comprehensive services throughout the entire machine life cycle and along all processes. The packaging machine manufacturer has now integrated its digital 4You Services Care (Connection for Analytics, Reporting and Efficiency) for the analysis and targeted evaluation of machine data into a new customer portal, which will be presented for the first time at Interpack 2023.
The background to the system-open portal is a merger of several manufacturers to create a comprehensive digital industry platform for the food, luxury food and cosmetics industries. With the standardised solution, machine builders and product manufacturing companies can easily network with each other for preventive maintenance, monitoring and asset management and optimise their project management.

Information on facilities and projects

The clearly designed interface offers direct access to various areas, such as production with the machines and systems of the corresponding manufacturers, the purchase of parts and services, data on the company and the digital care services for the Schubert machines. In the menu navigation, particular emphasis was placed on a user-friendly and clear presentation. At the same time, extensive and detailed information can be stored in the portal, for example technical data sheets, operator manuals, notes on spare parts, orders, invoices and the like. To identify spare parts, the customer portal offers three different ways, from searching for part numbers to parts lists and 3D visualisations. The comprehensive information makes the new customer portal a very useful platform and first point of contact for many industry professionals, from purchasing to fault analysis to organising modifications. Thus, spare parts can be searched for and immediately ordered in the portal, technical specifications of machines can be queried, maintenance intervals can be planned or deliveries and invoices can be checked.

Integrated: The digital care services

Digital data is a crucial currency in the packaging process, which is why Schubert has integrated its digital care services into the customer portal. Uwe Galm, Director Customer Services at Schubert, explains: "Targeted data analyses help to avoid unplanned downtimes, reduce rejects and increase productivity. All in all, this means more efficiency, more sustainability and thus more competitiveness for our customers in the long run." Or as Kissling briefly summed it up during the press conference: "We get the maximum out of the machines."
In this portal area specifically for Schubert customers, detailed analyses of the production and machine data can therefore be called up, providing a precise overview of production output, performance, rejects, top ten faults and more. For example, production management, maintenance or purchasing can work optimally with the portal and quickly deal with typical everyday situations and challenges with the help of various functions of the customer portal. "In conclusion," says Uwe Galm, "the customer portal has the solution to various questions, from live production data to spare parts orders, and is thus a valuable support in everyday production."