With the new EU packaging regulation PPWR and the increasing market-wide climate protection requirements across the market, the packaging industry has more than enough to discuss at this year's Fachpack. "Transition in Packaging" is the logical title of the main theme in Nuremberg. Interested parties can find out what sustainable, economical solutions the packaging machine manufacturer Schubert has for consumer goods manufacturers.
The international sustainability megatrend is certainly nothing new for Schubert: With its Mission Blue Sustainability Initiative, the machine manufacturer has set itself ambitious goals that have already resulted in a multitude of specific measures. These are also detailed in the Schubert ANNUAL 2023 – the combined annual and sustainability report for the year 2023 – published for the first time earlier this year.
One of the company’s key objectives is to support consumer goods manufacturers on their journey towards a sustainable future. This is why Schubert is constantly developing its modular machine technology. On the one hand, to improve energy efficiency in machine operation, and on the other hand, to maximise the efficient use of all technical components in line design and achieve optimum performance from the leanest possible solution.
This can be experienced live on the "Power Compact" line showcased at the Schubert stand. The bar packer with a single-lane erector and blank infeed directly from the pallet via a Comfort Feeder offers manufacturers an exceptionally advantageous, lean machine concept: a very compact and space-saving line, erecting, filling and closing at 60 cycles per minute, few system components whose performance can be fully exploited thanks to single-lane carton processing, lightweight 3D-printed robot tools and a blank infeed that enables continuous operation for up to five hours without refilling. Moreover, the efficient erecting process can be flexibly integrated into other Schubert lines. This concept not only saves material and resources, it also enables customers to achieve high packaging output with high-quality technology and surprisingly cost-effective operation.
While these initiatives already go a long way towards sustainability, Schubert customers can improve their ecological footprint even further with this type of machine solution: In many cases, packaging in fully recyclable cardboard boxes can replace conventional variants with plastic film or plastic labels. The blanks fed in via the Comfort Feeder can be optimised in advance to ensure the greatest possible recycling of the packaging material. The precise, robot-assisted filling in the top-loading process is especially well suited for placing products precisely into narrow cartons and saving packaging volume – one of the new PPWR’s specific requirements.
