Seamless Efficiency: Revolutionizing Production Processes
The need for future-ready production concepts is particularly pressing in an industry which is facing a generational change, with implications for recruitment and skills retention.
The next few years will see an accelerated shift from manual to managerial in the tissue eco system. An investment today needs to be fit for 20 years’ time, when processes are more likely to be managed from a control room than a factory floor. It needs to focus not on CAPEX, but OPEX. OPEX, long term, is far more significant for business success.
The concept of seamless efficiency is embodied in the first integrated line that manages the entire production process from the mother reel to the packaged and palletized product. This solution maximizes industrial efficiency by integrating various aspects of production into a cohesive system.
A touchless-oriented approach ensures total integration and automation, eliminating risks from handling errors and minimizing manual intervention. This not only optimizes labor, but also guarantees safety for operators by developing their roles and recognizing their talents in a gender-neutral environment. On the other hand, it is still a human-focused approach, but one which prioritizes the creation of a safer, more efficient, and rewarding role for operators.
It is the improvement in the work environment that is a significant advantage of this integrated system. By occupying less space and simplifying logistics, the system ensures greater control of dust and noise, reducing contamination and the load on the air system. This leads to a cleaner and more efficient workspace.
DIGITAL INTEGRATION AND PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE
Digital integration is a key component of seamless efficiency. With one system and one control panel, the process becomes more fluid and uninterrupted, leading to higher productive efficiency. Predictive maintenance shifts the approach from reactive to proactive by collecting and analysing data for better business decisions. Every machine is equipped with sensors that relay operational data in real-time to an integrated platform. Machine learning software uses this data to identify metrics that indicate potential issues, ensuring timely maintenance and reducing downtime.
The future landscape of industrial production is shaped by these advancements. The seamless integration of a touchless, but still human-reliant, environment, along with enhanced working conditions and digital integration, sets the stage for a more efficient and productive industrial era.
So how does this look in reality?
In FuturaLab in Lucca, Italy, it is possible to see a single production process in action, from the unwinding of the mother reel to secondary packaging and palletizing, both for bagged products and display-ready pallets (DRPs), i.e., palletized products ready for sale.
This complete line is operational from the mother reel to the packaged, wrapped, and palletized product—already tested, commissioned, and capable of running at 800 meters per minute. Each individual machine that makes up the line is new to the market in terms of technology, automation, and safety.
Total integration between converting and packaging has been our goal for some years, and we have been working on it since the acquisition of Plusline. We have carried out joint technological development to integrate converting and packaging with the ultimate goal of ensuring absolute optimization and simplification of the production process. Today, this integration can be said to be complete.
The concrete benefits for the customer are many: automation, process continuity, performance, product quality, safety, space optimization, to name just a few. All the technologies that create the line ensure greater speed and reduced machine downtime for a much more efficient process.
It’s about total automation. Futura has been working for years to create the intelligent, fully automated factory, where the process is a continuous flow, without interruptions, and with operator safety reaching the highest standards on the market. An operator on such a line will enjoy a safe and highly qualified supervision role, remotely.
THE TECHNOLOGIES BEHIND THE INTEGRATION
With Andromeda, in 2015, we launched the first automatic reel handling system on a converting line. Today, this system has been perfected, and in addition to optimizing reel management, it now also allows for the automatic replacement of embossing rollers and maintenance operations from the unwinder area to the rewinder.
The Andromeda system also includes the total automation of finished reel handling and core cleaning with the machine in operation.
Starting from the reels, it’s worth mentioning the new unwinders. Thanks to their vertical configuration, we can manage two reels with automatic splicing, without any manual intervention.
But there is also the optimization of the layout to take into account, with a 50 percent reduction in space occupied compared to a traditional system, and the ability to operate with three or four plies simultaneously in continuous mode.
Then there is Hybrid, the new embosser capable of performing any type of embossing, managing the change of all process rollers in a touchless manner, with automatic phasing in any configuration. Hybrid also allows for the change of the upper roller decoration without a paper break and with an innovative patented embossing control system.
Then follows the Sferica rewinder, which ensures a winding speed of 60 logs per minute, remote control of perforation without having to access the machine, but above all the management of perforation change, paper thread up, and restart in a fully automated procedure. Sferica also features the patented Easy Tail gluing system. Thanks to the direct application of a minimal amount of glue directly on the paper with extreme precision, Easy Tail allows for greater control in closing the last flap of the roll, resulting in easier opening without product waste and a perfect end-user experience.
TOUCHLESS CORE MANAGEMENT
With Camallo, we have made loading, unwinding, and exchanging reels-cores simpler by eliminating human intervention, creating a totally touchless, faster, and safer process: Camallo can handle up to 16 reels and is adaptable to any core maker.
The Together concept has already been widely discussed. Together collects the log from the rewinder and delivers a finished package. It is a system which includes log trimming, log cutting, accumulator and integrated packaging all in one line, guaranteeing a continuous flow of product from converting to packaging.
To focus on a specific detail, it is worth highlighting the new automatic blade change and sharpening system for the cutter, with realtime bevel reading, which guarantees, first and foremost, total safety, but also production optimization by eliminating manual operations and absolute process efficiency, as well as greater blade longevity.
So that takes us as far as primary packaging, but it doesn’t end there. Until recently we could offer the market the total integration between converting and primary packaging. Today, we have completed the process by also integrating secondary packaging and palletizing into a highly efficient and unique system: the Overlayer and Tower+ system. Overlayer and Tower+ combine bagging, layer preparation, and palletizing in a super-compact layout (only 15 meters compared to the traditional 40) delivering a high-speed and fully automated solution.
The entire production process is now unique, continuous, simplified, and automated. The philosophy of Futura and Plusline is embodied in this compact, fully integrated, safe, and automated line, managed from a single supervision and control station by only two operators, one for converting and one for packaging. It provides all the innovation needed to simplify the user experience, reduce machine downtime, gain efficiency, and improve the quality of the finished product.
Our philosophy of total integration is realized in the configuration on show at FuturaLAB, but also through other configurations, born from the synergy between our Futura/Plusline vision and the specific needs of our customers.
