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Punched up pita packing

New cartoning technology powered by an advanced electric drives and control solution is paving the way for growth at Milwaukee-based Kangaroo Brands, a rising maker of pita bread products.

Carton varieties. The cartoner handles a wide variety of carton sizes, so ease of changeover was a must.
Carton varieties. The cartoner handles a wide variety of carton sizes, so ease of changeover was a must.

Kangaroo Brands, Inc. is a fast-growing maker of ready-to-serve pita bread and sandwiches, sold through a wide range of retailers and to national warehouse store chains. As sales have continued to increase, greater productivity and flexibility were clearly required. The Milwaukee-based firm got what it needed in a compact, servo-driven Veronica vertical cartoner machine from Ultra Packaging, Inc., which is powered by a complete electric drives and control solution from company Bosch Rexroth Corporation.

When Kangaroo initially introduced its pita pocket sandwiches, the company used a manual cartoning process. However, once Kangaroo began supplying large retailers such as Walmart and the like, its needs changed. Not only have sales risen steadily, so has the variety of SKUs.

“In serving the larger retailers and club stores, we had to begin packaging our pita sandwiches in different count cartons,” said Justin Rice, Kangaroo plant manager. Now used are four different carton sizes: a four-count, a six-count, a 12-count, and a 14-count carton.

With these changes in production, Kangaroo recognized that investing in end-of-line automated cartoning, with the ability to quickly and efficiently change carton sizes, was essential. In addition, the new cartoning system needed to be implemented while keeping the process running in a physically limited space.

To meet these requirements, Rice contacted Ultra Packaging about its Veronica vertical cartoner with Rexroth electric drives and controls. “We have a long-standing relationship with Ultra Packaging and have purchased other machines from them, so when we decided to automate cartoning we chose to consider their Veronica machine,” says Rice.

Kangaroo already had two automated flow wrappers processing its pita sandwiches, so automated cartoning made sense. The Veronica VHL is a seven-axis cartoner designed by Ultra for operations that require flexibility (multiple carton sizes), quick changeover (typically 10-15 minutes), and user-friendly servo technology. It’s a fast and reliable machine for erecting cartons from flat paperboard blanks and precisely transporting and synchronizing the loading, closing, and gluing of the cartons.

Versatile and efficient
The Veronica’s versatility and efficient performance is built around its advanced Bosch Rexroth drives and control platform. The Rexroth IndraDrive Mi integrated drive/motor system drives each machine axis. Each servo unit consists of a Rexroth motor with the drive electronics integrated into the motor housing, which allows the units to be located out on the machine rather than inside the control cabinet. The motor and drive combination also offers greater design flexibility, with multi-protocol communications hardware that supports PROFINET IO, EtherNet/IP, EtherCat, and Sercos III.

The integrated motors and drives save space and cooling requirements in the cabinet and reduce the machine’s component cost: a single cable for power and communication runs from the power supply in the cabinet, with each IndraDrive Mi daisy-chained to the next. This brings significant savings.

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