Schubert Lightline series lights up FachPack 2018 with compact automated efficiency

26 Sep 2018 --- Gerhard Schubert’s new Lightline series consisting of The CartonPacker, The Flowpacker and The Pickerline has attracted much attention at the ongoing FachPack 2018 show in Nuremberg. The preconfigured machine range boasts compact design, targeting customers looking for improved efficiency in automated food and beverage package processing involving reduced formats and packaging variants. PackagingInsights speaks with Marcel Kiessling, Managing Director Sales and Service for Schubert, on the show floor.

“Schubert is well known for solving complex packaging tasks with machines and lines – which may be up to 50 meters long – and building a modular design compact out of eight standard modules. All our machines are known to be very flexible in terms of adding new formats and scalability or adding new frames for higher outputs. So, flexibility is where our machines excel,” he says.

“However, if a customer has quite a simple packaging task, for example putting products into a box and closing the box, we couldn’t really offer something suitable to packaging tasks like that. That is why we decided to come up with preconfigured machines, so we reduced the degree of flexibility to some extent, but for a simple packaging task it is not necessary to have the full flexibility of a Schubert line.”

“All three machines are more standardized and preconfigured – you can configure them with the push of a button. If you tell us how many products need to be packed, we can configure it automatically. The machines can be built faster and we pass on this reduced cost to our customers. These machines can be delivered within two or three months, they are compact, save space and are affordable. We have prices starting at $390,000 (US$459,000),” he adds.

In addition, to rapid set-ups and commissioning, the new machines also boast energy saving credentials.

“Due to the more compact design and use of our components, the energy consumption is lower than a long line by nature,” Kiessling continues. “It's important that those machines are still built out of the Schubert shoebox and fulfill the same quality standards as the other Schubert lines.”

As with other Schubert machines, the new series can be integrated with the GRIPS.world digital platform. GRIPS is a customer service digital system which allows Schubert and its customers to monitor machine performance, addressing issues in advance thereby preventing processing delays.

“It's not big data, its relevant data or smart data – and this gives our customers and us valuable information in terms of performance and preventative service,” Kiessling explains to PackagingInsights. “We believe in digitization and our vision is not to have any long-term downtime. The precondition to achieve this is to gather all relevant information from our machines in collaboration with a specialist IT security company.”

The Lightline series is already available on the global market. The machines have experienced worldwide sales, including in the US. An initial customer is Niederegger Lübeck, a marzipan processor.

Watch the interview with Marcel Kiessling here.

By Joshua Poole, with additional reporting from Laxmi Haigh