Major Saudi Arabian polymer producer Sabic (Riyadh; www.sabic.com) and its partner Coperion (Stuttgart / Germany; www.coperion.com) have installed customised packaging lines and a palletising island at the former's plant in Pontirolo / Italy. The companies wanted to develop fully automatic and robotic bagging lines that had extreme flexibility, fast cleaning capability and continuous tracking.

After a first-phase dummy prototype, the project progressed to installing and commissioning six specialised lines. Barcode readers identify the various different compounds produced at the plant, automatically setting the parameters on the relevant bagging machine as well as the labelling. Operators use screens to easily identify which batch is being bagged in each line and the barcodes also ensure each batch goes to the right pallet.

All the equipment is designed to be removed for quick cleaning and easy maintenance without interfering with the rest of the system, which remains in operation. In the palletising area, two robots with four axes provide a flexible layout.

Sabic said it was the market leader in Italy for small lots of plastic compounds with highly customised properties that require specialised process technologies.