Ausonia, in Pratovecchio (Tuscany), an Italian company producing toilet paper, kitchen rolls and nappies for babies, has installed a new packaging line for multi-nappies. FlexLink has delivered a turnkey ceiling handling system, allowing full automation of production and a better use of the working area.

“We have been co-operating with FlexLink for a long time”, says Mr. Ceccon, Project Manager, Ausonia. “We were used to assembling the purchased components ourselves, but this time we asked FlexLink for a complete system able to solve all problems of the plant. It was very important for us to minimize the system adjustments for size changes”. 

Packs running on their feet 
“The new Ausonia packaging line for nappies is about 40 meters from the shrink wrapping machine”, explains Giuseppe Govi, FlexLink. “Our purpose was to connect the two machines, minimizing the floor space keeping and ensure that the floppy handle of the envelopes shouldn’t get stuck into the conveyor.” 

“The basic concept is that packs must run on their feet, leaning on the side which has less variation in size. Doing that, we get the advantage of having the handles always positioned upwards. Moreover, due the need of minimizing the floor space, the lines must run above the working area.”

C-shaped wedge elevator
“At the outlet of the new packaging line all packs run through a metal detector lying down on one side”, says Claudio Morabito, FlexLink Application Engineering. “To turn the packs on their feet we use a C-shaped wedge elevator. The task of the elevator is to bring packs to four meters above floor-level, turning them in such a way that, at the end of the path, they have the handle positioned upwards.

Ceiling line with needle roller chain
“A four metres high ceiling line runs for 30 meters up to a 15 degrees gravity chute, bringing products to an existing FlexLink line”, explains Marco Alberto, FlexLink project engineer. “The shrink wrapping machine is fed through the use of a pneumatic pusher which turns the packs. A needle roller chain allows buffering of products during the short machine stops, without damaging the packs.”

Advantageous turnkey solution
“The complete solution offered by FlexLink has been of great advantage for us”, concludes Mr. Ceccon of Ausonia. “We needed to bring packs of nappies to the shrink wrapper being placed at 40 metres from the packaging machine. FlexLink has provided us the solution, fulfilling all our requirements, and solving problems as they occured. The use of a needle roller chain has proved to be the optimum solution. At present we are studying to extend the same solution to the other existing lines.”