GEA launches software to streamline food packaging changeovers

GEA has introduced new software to provide standardized support for food packaging automation on SmartControl-based machines. 

The software, Changeover Assist, is initially available for GEA PowerPak thermoformers and the GEA MaxiFormer drum former, with a phased rollout to additional machines, including the GEA OptiSlicer. 

“With Changeover Assist, we make valuable machine and process knowledge available at all times, which helps our customers carry out changeovers safely and efficiently, regardless of individual experience levels,” says Michel Theiss, product manager for Digital Solutions at GEA. 

“The result is fewer operator errors, less material and food waste, faster onboarding of new employees, and greater overall production reliability.”

GEA says it also aims to “consolidate” the slicing and loading systems portfolio of its Food Solutions business unit in Biedenkopf-Wallau.

Streamlining changeovers

GEA explains that for food manufacturers and packaging operations, product and format changeovers are “among the most demanding steps in industrial production.” Factors like high employee turnover, seasonal labor, and growing product variety can increase manufacturing complexity. 

“Every deviation, such as using the wrong packaging materials or skipping individual changeover steps, can result in waste, rework, quality deviations, or production interruptions,” says the industrial food-processing technology company. 

Changeover Assist features recipe-based operator guidance on the SmartControl HMI, specific to product changeover and available in multiple languages. 

Additionally, each step of the automation process that uses the software is documented, which GEA explains increases transparency, traceability, and process reliability throughout the changeover.

Expanding digitalization 

Customers using the software are also able to centrally manage and update changeover instructions with the InsightPartner solution. 

Changeover Assist supports GEA’s digitalization strategy and aims to support the company’s goal of developing connected, user-friendly, and reliable solutions for food processing and packaging. 

In packaging software developments, Markem-Imaje, part of Dover Corporation, launched CoLOS Software Version 7, expanding its software suite with new features engineered for industrial organizations with multiple production facilities.

Meanwhile, in automation innovations, Bobst supplied Shanxi Ruixing Printing and Packaging, a Chinese company specializing in pharmaceutical packaging, with its SP 106 Evo ER die-cutter, while Lucid Imaging brought its OptiCheck Label inspection system to the US market with an installation at Imageworx in Levittown, Pennsylvania.