FDBusiness.com

Following a global launch at Interpack 2017, Gebo Cermex has announced that its CareSelect^™ bottle infeed system has won the ‘Modular Machines’ category of the ‘Best Future Machine Award’ sponsored by Rockwell Automation. CareSelect^™ is a patented universal and modular shaped-bottle infeed and collating system for robotic or traditional case packers, powered by Rockwell Automation’s iTRAK^® technology.

Commenting on winning the category, one of five in the Best Future Machine Award’s scheme, Marc Aury, President & Managing Director of Gebo Cermex, said: “We are naturally delighted to receive this global recognition by a jury comprising some of the world’s leading brands. This demonstrates we are rightfully placing our emphasis where it matters most: to bring Smart Factories to life, to create a world of greater choice and unique consumer experience driven by packaging mass customization and product diversity.”

CareSelect^™ is capable of achieving speeds of up to 400 products per minute depending on package size, shape and weight, easily surpassing traditional ‘endless screw’ collation systems in terms of bottle integrity and protection. The system delivers shaped bottles to the packing machine with precision and care in the correct orientation and pitch, turning each bottle 90°. Even unstable shaped products are smoothly and individually handled via independent movers. To eliminate contact between products, flow is managed without accumulation at the infeed and ‘friction time’ between the bottle and the system – when the bottles come into contact with machine parts – is dramatically reduced (by at least 20 times) compared to traditional infeed systems. It also offers fully automatic changeovers in less than one minute, with no need for mechanical adjustments.

Didier Saussereau, Product Manager at Gebo Cermex, said: “We have received an excellent response at Interpack to the “Smart Machine” concept that we are demonstrating on our booth. CareSelect^™ is part of Gebo Cermex’s Agility 4.0^™ program, which is already helping producers achieve the benefits of Industry 4.0, by making packaging manufacturing plants more connected, flexible and responsive. This award demonstrates that we have a role to play in the Industry 4.0 movement and we look forward to continuing to contribute to this journey.”