For a top confectionery brand we recently developed a new production line. Or more accurately: two of them. After all, if you want to shape, fold, fill and seal over 30 million octagonal boxes every year, you need some serious capacity. Project Manager Nick van de Ven tells us all about it.
“It involves one of our largest customers,” says Nick. “For years they’ve made the centerpiece (that’s the octagonal box) themselves, but now they’re focusing more on their core business. So they asked us to set up a new production line. At the Vetico Innovation Center, we love tackling those kinds of challenges. So much so that everything will be operational by mid-2025.”
Easy switching
We could have said: we already have a machine, so if we just copy that concept, we’ll be there. But things turned out differently. For example, the technology was more than twenty years old, and was therefore rather outdated. “We had ideas for equipping the machine better,” explains Nick. “Both in terms of design and functionality. So from now on, we can easily switch tooling parts, which is really useful during maintenance or malfunctions, for example. This means that while the technical department is investigating, production can continue as usual.”
Monitoring cameras
We have also equipped the new centerpiece line with monitoring cameras. Nick: “We use these to check the products. The machine is able to set rejected packages aside itself; an operator is no longer needed for that. Another advantage is that the new line carries out all the actions in quadruplicate. It sets up, fills and covers four boxes at a time. If anything goes wrong on one of the four lines, the operator immediately receives a notification through the software. They can then assess the situation and disable the line if necessary. In the meantime, the other three continue to operate.”
Innovative power
When seen from above, it’s clear that the production line as a whole consists of multiple machines. We built the first part – in which the products are counted – entirely in-house. “That was a great step,” says Nick. “It shows that we’re developing much more innovative power.”
innovations showing up in other machines in the future’’
Learning from each other
The second part of the line (the cartoning section, in which the centerpieces are folded, filled and sealed) comes from Schubert, our German partner. “This is a major machinery builder with a lot of technical knowledge,” Nick explains. “They designed and built the machine based on our preferences, including the innovations I just mentioned. They were a bit surprised at first. These Dutch people want what? But now that the machine is up and running, they can see the benefits. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we see our innovations showing up in other Schubert machines in the future. That’s what partnership is about, after all: being prepared to learn from one another.”
First run
In the meantime, the centerpiece production line has had its first run. At least, one of the two lines has. “The second, identical line is currently in the start-up phase,” says Nick. “It looks great, and it’s going to do a lot for our customer. Am I proud of the result? Absolutely, but I’m even prouder of my colleagues in our Innovation Center, and everyone who contributed to this success. This is definitely something we’ve all achieved together.”
