German company Wala Heilmittel has installed a completely new filling and packaging system from four manufacturers.
The entire system had to fit into a relatively tight space and cover a total of 21 different formats for glass and plastic bottles with contents of between 10ml and 500ml.
Flexible labelling
The Herma 040M HC is compact with a modular design that makes it easy for the user to respond quickly and flexibly to changing formats. This reduces the set-up times.
"This is essential, because our batches are sometimes quite small with around 1,000 to 6,000 units," explains Bernd Wendling, Team Leader in the Wala factory.
The Herma labelling machine essentially has two different responsibilities: it attaches front and rear labels to glass bottles and it also serves as a transit station for pre-printed plastic bottles.
Gentle handling
Wala places great value on its glass and plastic bottles being labelled and packed with a high-quality appearance throughout the entire production process.
"The packing material and therefore also the labels are a challenge. Errors like small scratches are not accepted,” explains Bernd Wendling.
The labelled bottles are transported gently; all format parts of the Herma labelling system are designed so that there is no contact with the already labelled part of the products.
Quality checking
Control stations that check for the presence of printing and codes check that the labels are correct. Faulty labels are removed via a label ejector station. Incorrectly printed bottles and those with a missing label, checked by three Laetus cameras, are also discarded automatically.
The Herma system carefully pushes the sensitive glass bottles via a deflector onto an isolated but clearly visible "side track". The operators can simple remove these products or feed them back into the process if necessary.
"This application is an example of how it is possible to solve a complex requirement with a modular labelling system," said Martin Kühl, Head of the Herma Labelling Machines Division.