The success story of how the Cama Group and B&R overcame the challenges to co-create a solution combining machinery, technology and augmented reality. Kennedy’s Confection reports.
Operating in a high-tech niche market means overcoming the most difficult and demanding challenges. It means recognising our own value and identifying the positive scenarios which can drive business forward. The “co-creation” between Cama and B&R arose in this context. Founded in 1981, Cama has since become a leader in its field. Specialising in producing and engineering secondary packaging machinery with integrated robotics for the Food and Non-Food sectors, the Cama Group currently has six subsidiaries worldwide and invests 5% of its annual turnover in technology; B&R has been producing technologies and solutions for machine and factory automation since 1979, and is responsible for machine automation within the Robotics & Discrete Automation Business Area at ABB, offering a full portfolio of robotics, automation and software.
In merging these trajectories and specialisms, a reciprocal partnership formed between these two companies, enabling both to profit from their combined expertise in machines, processes and products, to create highly innovative solutions.
“Finding the right partners is no mean feat,” explains Cama CEO Daniele Bellante, “because you need to share the same values and objectives. Sustainability is our watchword at Cama. Not so much in terms of environmental sustainability, as we don’t produce any polluting emissions and we’re not energy-intensive, but rather sustainability in terms of durability. We offer added value by perpetuating shared values over time, and this requires a strong focus on people. At Cama we produce machines, but we also produce people: investing in our personnel to sustain the company over time. This is the only way to consolidate market leadership. It is people who make the difference, and all partnerships are established with people.”
A Cama representative elaborated on this focus, telling Kennedy’s Confection: “In Cama there is a strong focus on environmental sustainability, employee well-being and corporate social responsibility in the community. Time and energy dedicated to young people, schools, industrial associations and our prerogative of investing in open days, training, and information for the community and our youth, to make them aware of the opportunities that this rich industrial territory can offer. A concept of corporate governance that means applying values and attitudes related to what can be an ethical code or an organizational model based on some pillars we consider fundamental. Last but not least the gender equality certification that we are about to obtain.”
With B&R, we seem to have found a winning solution: an ergonomic, flexible and modular machine designed to integrate the MTL Monoblock Top Loading system; this latest-generation equipment features a transparent guard for maximum visibility and optimal hygiene. Intuitiveness is a key design pillar: this is fundamental because the product’s target markets have diverse skills and, potentially, a high staff turnover.
“This is a very interesting and complex solution,” explains Cama Sales Group Director, Alessandro Rocca. “It also makes use of augmented reality to access maintenance, changeover and spare parts, which can be ordered directly via a tablet, also enabling predictive maintenance. As a result, this solution requires less human intervention, thereby reducing the potential for human error. Remarkably, this solution also saves time, cutting the changeover time from 30 to 12 minutes! Our technologies offer real added value and our approach is holistic and customer-focused. This means that we pay great attention to our customers’ needs.”
A Cama representative provided more details on augmented reality integration: “Augmented reality is one of the digital technologies Cama proposes in order to enhance real-time communication between humans and machines and to maximize efficiency of all the operations performed during machine downtime. More specifically, it brings advantages to all the people working on the machine: through the virtual reality tool, training sessions can be carried out also before receiving the machine in the plant and when it is running. Furthermore, it represents a safe environment to familiarize with all the machine procedures. Line supervisors get an additional tool to check real-time performances and to review aggregate information about the machine, resulting in a better understanding of the whole machine behaviour. Also, the OEM sales technicians can take advantage of the augmented reality tools by showing customers a digital twin of the machine, 100% similar to what the machine will be in reality. The physical integration of augmented reality into machines is seamless: AR tool requires only to install on the machine a plate with a sort of QR code, that allows to enter an app where all the information is gathered and to retrieve data exactly in correspondence to relevant mechanical equipment. The content can be accessed by using any mobile device.”
And B&R’s offering truly helps us deliver a customer-focused solution, successfully overcoming certain challenges posed by the MTL Monoblock Top Loading system, namely to create a monoblock which can serve three or more upstream feeds for similar products with different synchronisations and to manage buffers automatically thanks to B&R’s ACOPOStrak magnetic track system. The result is increased productivity with a reduced footprint. The solution allows to decouple the process stations, optimizing the flow of products and cycle times; processing times were also optimized and the control panel was simplified, making commissioning and maintenance quicker and easier.
Wlady Martino, B&R Global Industry Manager, Packaging explains the issue: “The challenge was the high throughput and the distance that the products have to travel – up to 14 metres. In this sense, speed and dynamics become really important. We proposed ACOPOStrak in this case for a number of reasons: it is an extremely high-performance magnetic shuttle solution: each shuttle can reach a speed of 4 m/s and an acceleration of 50 m/s². The system is modular which encourages machine scalability; it also has a clean design enabling easy maintenance with tool-free shuttle removal. To achieve the customer’s objectives, we used simulation, native to the B&R programming system, to optimise the layout, the number of shuttles and the work cycle. At this stage, the customer can make any changes even before the hardware is available. So, we have what we call a “co-creation” process. Impressively, the simulation delivers a result that matches the real behaviour on the final hardware. The co-creation process is made possible by combining a variety of skills and that is why, in the end, it really is the people who make the difference.”
Annalisa Bellante, Vice President of Cama confirms this: “We have always tried to stay one step ahead, with a large R&D team of young people. We have a holistic view of work, which enables us to be innovative in terms of our products, with a focus on the environment (we engineer increasingly sustainable packaging) and welfare policies. We form relationships with our suppliers based on ethics and we care about corporate social responsibility, investing in society, seeing a return in the local area. Corporate governance involves taking global action and keeping a local focus, with an emphasis on gender equality. This is our way of working and it provides the framework against which we choose our partners.”
This market award-winning solution will be exhibited by our customer Edgewell at the upcoming packaging trade show, PACK EXPO, in Chicago: Cama and B&R have combined their expertise in R&D to produce an impressive co-creation that tells a holistic success story.
Editorial contact:
Editor: Kiran Grewal kgrewal@kennedys.co.uk
