How Cama Group’s FW746 case packer delivers flexibility, performance and future-ready automation
The global pet food market continues to grow at a remarkable pace, driven by new consumer habits, premium ingredients and increasing product variety. In such a competitive landscape, leading brands must stand out not only through innovative formulations but also through the way they package, protect and present their products.
Today, secondary packaging solutions are a strategic asset — they combine efficiency, flexibility and shelf appeal while supporting sustainability goals and cost optimization.
According to Mark Chivers, Global Key Account Manager at Cama Group, “Optimized packaging capabilities are the result of both advanced engineering and deep domain knowledge. End users increasingly rely on partners like Cama Group, whose extensive experience in machine design and packaging automation ensures tailored solutions that match even the most demanding production requirements.”
Flexible and high-performance packaging for the pet food industry
Cama Group is a worldwide reference in secondary packaging machinery, offering a complete range of cartoners, case packers and robotic systems.
With installations across multiple industries — from pet food to confectionery, bakery, dairy and cosmetics — the company combines precision mechanics with smart automation to deliver highly efficient and fully adaptable packaging lines.
Among its latest developments, the FW746 mini wrap-around electronic case packer stands out for its compact design, high throughput and fast changeover capability. For pet food manufacturers dealing with frequent pouch size and carton configuration changes, this solution guarantees a smooth, continuous and error-free packaging process.
The machine can handle 85 g and 100 g pouches in packs of 6, 12 or 24 units, reaching speeds of up to 250 pouches per minute — an impressive performance within such a small footprint.
A real case: increasing packaging capacity for a Ukrainian pet food producer
A leading pet food company in Ukraine needed to expand production capacity to meet growing demand. The challenge was to find an agile and compact secondary packaging solution capable of handling different pouch sizes and carton counts without complex retooling.
After a detailed technical and operational analysis, Cama Group proposed the FW746 case packer, customized for the customer’s layout and production requirements.
The process begins with single-lane product feeding, where pouches are evenly spaced using accelerating conveyors. They are then positioned in pairs into servo-driven Racetrack Conveyor pockets, which ensure precise handling and continuous motion. Two trains of pockets alternate, maintaining an uninterrupted flow that maximizes efficiency and output.
At the loading station, a motor-driven pusher transfers each group of products into pre-erected wrap-around cases. The cases are sealed with hot-melt adhesive and sent to the outfeed.
Operators can easily switch between formats by adjusting the insertion device and extractor — no major re-engineering required. This intuitive format change capability ensures minimal downtime and rapid adaptation to market variations.
Smart engineering for real-world productivity
Although the FW746 system is compact, its design reflects the same engineering rigor and innovation found in Cama Group’s most advanced turnkey solutions. Every project, regardless of size or complexity, benefits from the company’s customer-centric design philosophy, where flexibility, reliability and performance are equally prioritized.
“The FW746 carries the same DNA as our high-end solutions,” explains Chivers. “It allows customers to respond quickly to new product launches, small batch runs or mixed SKU packaging — without sacrificing speed or consistency.”
This versatility makes the FW746 suitable not only for pet food packaging, but also for a wide variety of food, personal care and pharmaceutical applications where multi-format, high-speed performance is required.
Industry 4.0 control architecture for smart production
A defining feature of the FW746 is its Industry 4.0–ready control platform, which integrates seamlessly into digital production environments.
Through Cama’s advanced automation architecture, users gain access to real-time performance data, energy monitoring and predictive maintenance analytics. This allows operators to optimize line performance, schedule interventions and prevent downtime before it occurs.
The system’s open architecture ensures future scalability, supporting integration with upstream and downstream machines, as well as remote diagnostics and format data storage.
In practice, this means every FW746 can evolve over time, adapting to new formats, product types and sustainability objectives — an essential factor for long-term ROI.
Modularity and cross-industry innovation
Cama Group’s engineering approach is founded on modularity. Every mechanical and control component can be configured, expanded or replaced to suit the customer’s needs.
From robotic loading systems and custom magazine designs to vision inspection and rejection modules, each project can be scaled or upgraded as production evolves.
This approach is reinforced by the company’s cross-industry experience. Lessons learned in confectionery or dairy are often transferred to the pet food industry, driving faster innovation cycles and improved performance standards.
“It’s this cross-industry technology transfer that really sets us apart,” says Chivers. “Our customers benefit from solutions tested and proven across multiple sectors.”
Measurable results and continuous improvement
Following installation, the Ukrainian customer reported:
- Increased throughput, reaching 250 pouches per minute with consistent product quality.
- Reduced changeover times, improving production flexibility.
- Enhanced case appearance, with precise alignment and sealing.
- Greater operational visibility, thanks to integrated data and diagnostics.
In many projects, the introduction of a Cama system has become a benchmark for upstream and downstream performance, encouraging customers to optimize other parts of the production line to match the machine’s throughput and precision.
