At interpack, Syntegon showcases its system competence for the confectionery and nutraceutical industry – from kitchen, depositing, and finishing technologies to packaging solutions. For the first time, visitors to the booth will be able to experience key elements of the new turnkey line NutraFlash from the Syntegon subsidiary Makat Candy Technology, including their new BLK Rapidsolver Solids+ for slurry dissolving and vacuuming, the BLS dissolving unit for supplement preparation, the BMV volumetric dosing and mixing unit for adding color, flavor, acid and supplements, and the CMP line for depositing, cooling and demolding.
Moreover, Syntegon presents a high-speed packaging line with a new vertical packaging innovation SVX Duplex. At its world premiere, the solution will be combined with a Syntegon RPP robotic pick-and-place platform for product handling and a Kliklok ACE carton former. In a live demo at the booth, the line will package jellies into 360 pillow bags and into 21 shelf-ready carton trays per minute.
Turnkey solution for starchless production
Nutraceuticals contain valuable ingredients such as vitamins or minerals that require careful handling along the entire production process. Starchless production plays an increasingly important role in this context, and Syntegon combines decades of expertise in its latest generation of starchless lines.
“In starchless production, jelly masses must achieve a high dry substance content to eliminate the need for moisture removal via starch after depositing. Nutraceutical production also calls for high dosing and depositing accuracy to ensure the right supplement content in the gummies – throughout the entire production process. Our new turnkey line NutraFlash meets these requirements,” explains Dr. Sandra Link, product manager at Makat Candy Technology. “Whether during dissolving, depositing, cooling, or demolding, the solution’s holistic turnkey approach ensures a highly reliable, closed production for consistent product quality. This reliability is key during nutraceutical production.”
At the core of Makat’s starchless kitchen is the BLK Rapidsolver Solids+: as a special execution of the proven energy-efficient dissolving and vacuuming unit, the system exhibited at the booth achieves a dry substance content of up to 86 percent. It dissolves the slurry ensuring a first-in-first-out principle that protects the product and keeps its dwell times short. For the same reason, sensitive supplements are added at the latest stage to the jelly mass; this reduces thermal stress and degratation of supplements.
Equipped with high-precision flowmeters, Makat’s BMV volumetric dosing and mixing unit continuously adds defined amounts of color, flavor, acid, and supplements to get a homogenous, bubble-free jelly mass with high recipe accuracy. Thanks to integrated process monitoring, the BMV detects fluctuating supplement levels to ensure that the added supplement amount is kept in the defined range and deviations will be discharged. In addition, the BMV’s new ergonomic design ensures optimal accessibility to containers and pumps for ergonomic operation and easy maintenance.
After dosing and mixing, the Makat CMP line takes front and center. The solution ensures high-quality depositing, even of highly viscous jelly masses. A servo-driven transport system ensures precise mold positioning, thus contributing to high product quality and a reliable process. Following product depositing into reusable polycarbonate molds, the latter are placed in a closed-loop integrated cooling unit to cool down. This spares manufacturers additional manual handling processes, such as removing the molds and cooling the products in external cooling chambers.
The subsequent contactless demolding unit ensures a hygienic and gentle demolding of the gummies. Integrated sensors facilitate preventive error detection to minimize downtimes and produce repeatable results. “When all these units come together in the NutraFlash, manufacturers benefit from a high degree of automation. Combined with digital condition monitoring, they achieve efficient, reliable and time-saving processes with low reject rates,” says Sandra Link.
High-speed line for shelf-ready jelly packaging
Efficiency is also one of the key features of the packaging line for confectionery products showcased at the booth. Visitors can experience the premiere of Syntegon’s new high-speed vertical packaging innovation live. They can watch jellies being packaged into 75-millimeter-wide pillow bags with an output rate of 360 bags per minute on the SVX Duplex vertical form fill and seal machine. The machine transports them on two lanes to the Syntegon RPP, which takes care of fast and reliable robotic product handling at a speed of up to 140 picks per delta robot per minute.
The RPP’s vision-guided delta robots are equipped with 4-axis-kinematic arms that allow them to orientate products correctly. At the booth, the RPP places 18 bags each into shelf-ready carton trays formed by the Kliklok ACE. The ACE covers glue closures and glueless lock-style closures providing sustainable options for different carton styles.
“Whether it is processing or packaging equipment manufacturers are looking for, at Syntegon we can provide them with solutions from a single source. From kitchen and depositing to primary and secondary packing, we support our customers in the confectionery industry with state-of-the-art solutions that help them keep their competitive edge in challenging market environments,” says Martin Boutkan, product manager at Syntegon.
Service agreements: support at fixed costs
When it comes to ensuring machine longevity, regular maintenance and service is a key lever. This is why Syntegon offers Service Agreements for all machines of the confectionery processing and packaging lines. They provide the foundation for effective equipment and maintenance management at fixed prices.
Seven dedicated levels help customers from the pharmaceutical and food industries reduce production risks, gain predictability on service costs and simplify complex processes – enabling them to focus on their core business. With each level, the scope of services covered increases – from basic service, including inspection and remote service, to guaranteed production performance of the machines. From Level 4, customers can enjoy peace of mind about the total cost of ownership for the lifetime of their equipment. Besides preventive maintenance and operator training, services at this level include all spare parts at a fixed cost.
Synexio is also part of the service agreements. The solution contributes to optimal monitoring of the equipment: The new cloud-based software solution collects, evaluates and visualizes machine and production data. Syntegon will offer Synexio in three consecutive packages. The basic package ‘Monitor’ visualizes various KPIs and thereby improves production transparency.
“Now that our customers are successfully implementing the basic package, we are ready to upgrade to the next level,” says Elisa Hein, product manager expert services at Syntegon. At interpack, Syntegon will present the second Synexio package ‘Uptime’. “With this, we are delving deeper into the details: Besides machine availability, we can now also identify specific potential for improvement, for example by visualizing the most frequent reasons for stops,” explains Hein.
