The value of packaging technology
Cama Group was established in 1981, offering a distinctive range of packaging machines and robotic solutions. The company remains a rapidly growing leading supplier of advanced end-of-line packaging systems and continuously invests in innovative solutions. Alessandro Rocca, Group Sales Director, and Paola Fraschini, Marketing Manager, told Hannah Barnett how Cama operates so effectively.
Core values are key in all Cama Group does. The company strives to establish a long-term partnership with customers, to ensure its machines are as efficient as possible and to deliver safe, sustainable packaging systems. These standards are complemented by the company’s motto: ‘technology with added value.’ Cama’s engineers have years of experience and technical know-how, which they bring to the development of its innovative machines to produce environmentally friendly packaging.
As Group Sales Director Alessandro Rocca said: “We saw that with our knowledge and capability, we were able to empower our customers in the transition from plastic to cardboard. At the beginning, we just followed market trends. But now we are in a position where we can give our customers solutions for things they have not even thought of yet.”
With six subsidiaries around the world (U.S, China, Australia, France, UK and Northern Europe), the company maintains a strong international reputation. “We are in bakery, we are in confectionary, we are in pet food, we are in ice cream, we are in ready meals: and our work in non-food sectors like cosmetics and health accounts for 15 to 20 per cent of our business. We have a presence in so many categories,” said Mr Rocca.
Cutting-edge projects
Cama has been able to flex its innovative capabilities in several projects recently. One was for an international carton supplier, converting a ready meal tray from plastic to a near-identical cardboard alternative. The customer lacked the in-house expertise to make it a reality themselves, so Cama developed a patented process that created an effective coupling between the tray and flange. “This was a very long process of R&D to develop a special machine capable of producing these trays,” explained Mr Rocca. “But there are a lot of potential customers in this market; everybody wants to move into sustainable trays.” Another chance for innovation came in the form of a vegan chocolate supplier, who wanted to replace its single-use plastic packaging with cardboard envelopes. It was a brand that attracted premium pricing, which needed to be reflected in the packaging and product quality. This was an interesting project because the packaging was completely new to us,” Mr Rocca recalled. “Nobody is packaging chocolate into a cardboard envelope, or at least it is only for very premium consumers. We started from the packaging, because that was already specified, and we based the machine around it. “We were pleased with the result because we delivered the machine at the Cama standard of high operational efficiency and transitioned it from semi-automatic to automatic. The wrapper is a recycled plastic film. There is no single use plastic at all.” Projects developed at Cama also take sustainability issues into account. One example of this principle is a project undertaken for a co-packer working with a large global confectionery brand. The challenge here was a spherical chocolate product that relied upon a plastic insert to both support the confectionary in transit and present it to the customer. Cama’s solution was to replace the plastic insert with a special cardboard design. Once the customer’s existing Cama machine was modified by Cama, the spherical chocolate was neatly packaged using the cardboard insert which was designed to ensure no perceived difference to the product presentation in the carton. Cama’s clever design delivered more sustainable packaging for the client and removed another single-use piece of plastic from the supply chain.
Similar levels of sustainable design can be seen in another Cama project for a confectionery supplier to a global coffee-shop chain. For this client, the challenge was to replace the thermoformed plastic trays and the low-quality film lid used to package a lollipop-shaped ice cream.
“At first, the customer approached us only to automate their packaging process,” Mr Rocca explained. “We also suggested using a cardboard alterative to the poor quality materials the client was currently using. Cama took a more sustainable approach, developing a cardboard carton tray with dedicated cuts, folds and slots that orientated the confectionary in the same way as the original plastic tray.” The flow pack replacement was designed for maximum shelf life and the requirements of cold-chain supply. The result of this redesign by Cama was a package of higher quality and greater rigidity. This innovative and unique packaging design delivered a better product and removed even more single-use plastic from secondary packaging.
The value of robotics
Cama has been producing robotised systems since the end of the 1980s, when its founder, Paolo Bellante, designed and produced the company’s first industrial robots for the bakery sector. With over 100 patents, the research and development department has created its own integrated multi-purpose robots specifically adapted to the needs and characteristics demanded by the packaging sector. The Delta Triaflex robot, with carbon fibre arms, is suitable for fast and smart product handling, top loading cartons and/or feeding ancillary packaging machines. The 2-axis robot is designed for heavy-duty work, handling a wide variety of products, such as flow-wraps, bags, thermoformed packs and cartons. It can load these products onto RSC cases, boxes and trays. The lighter alternative comes in the form of the ‘Y’ shaped 2 axis robot.
“We are equally divided between our work on robotics and on packaging,” Mr Rocca said. “In the beginning we only had packaging machines, and we developed robotics separately. Then we combined the two. We are very well known because we can apply robotics to any of our packaging machines and this offers the greatest point of flexibility possible.”
Sustainability & Industry 4.0
Another exciting innovation is the Smart Packaging Hub. Conceived during Covid, the Hub is essentially an online trade show comprising six companies. Each company has its own booth area, with renders of the machines, videos and brochures; each can interact with the others and with online customers. Alongside Cama, the other four companies in the Hub are: Baumer, Zacmi, Clevertech and Tosa. The digital meeting platform demonstrates excellence in automated technologies for food packaging in terms of investments in research, development and training activities. And the numbers speak for themselves: with 1,200 machines delivered per year and 2,000 collaborators so far, the combined yearly turnover of companies in the Hub is €400 million. The Smart Packaging Hub does not exist solely online either. The companies that make up the network have been present at physical trade shows and are intending to be at the 2024 Anuga Food Tech event. One of the standout qualities of the Hub is that it makes best use of the varied capabilities of the different companies. “The network is growing more every day and we are receiving common projects,” explained Paola Fraschini, Marketing Manager. “The idea behind the network is to offer to the market a unique point of sale for food and beverage solutions. Customers can find all they need by working with our six companies; from primary, to secondary, to palletisation.” This innovation is also a strong indicator of the Cama Group’s dedicated contribution to Industry 4.0. “Every year, we invest more than 5 per cent of our turnover back into R&D, especially into Industry 4.0,” said Ms Fraschini. “The result is, we are now able to sell machines equipped with Industry 4.0 solutions as an assistance package. Within this package we have Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and a digital twin simulation.” Industry 4.0 complements Cama’s push towards its own sustainability very effectively. For instance, the company can offer an AR representation of a machine to a customer who can verify the feasibility of the solution. The software can also create accurate simulation models to improve systems planning and decision-making, followed by emulation trials that can test a system before installation. Alongside this, Cama is shifting all its paper manuals, from thousands of physical pages, online to an interactive iPad digital document. There is a lot going on for Cama, as it responds to a rapidly evolving and demanding industry. But the company is not merely keeping up, it is blazing a trail. “What you design today is old tomorrow, which makes it a challenging market,” as Mr Rocca reflected. “But it also means that everyday there is something new and exciting, which keeps me alive.”
