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Danone, Festo & Hybernya: A Winning Blend of Flavors and Know-Hows

Festo and Hybernya Industrial develop an end-of-line automated packaging solution for multi-packs for Danone and Danup yogurts in Mexico.

Hybernya, and Festo for Danone Mexico has warranted greater stability t
The solution implemented by Hybernya, and Festo for Danone Mexico provides greater stability to products moving on conveyor lines.

Increasingly, consumers understand variety as a better purchasing experience, one that food processors have been addressing by combining diverse product references within a single pack. In supermarket and store shelves, customers appreciate the convenience of finding their favorite flavors in multi-packs, with added economic benefits in most cases, on top of greater convenience.

However, this alternative imposes technological and processing challenges on production facilities, while demanding the development of specialized technological solutions for packaging lines. The technical adaptations needed to positively respond to these challenges calls on the participation of different specialists to configure every step to offer a variety of products in multipacks and avert jeopardizing their company’s productivity.

In Mexico, Danone has accomplished this mission for its Danup and Danone branded yogurts, by building a productive synergy with two companies, Hybernya Industrial and Festo, that resulted in the assembly of an industrial automation solution which takes products that come out from their yogurt production lines and automatically diverge them to eight different lines to combine into a variety of flavors and create multi-assorted presentations. At the Irapuato Industrial City, within the State of Guanajuato, Mexico, they began the adaptation of machinery and systems that would allow for this process, backed up by the work of a team of professionals from Hybernya Industrial, a 100% Mexican company dedicated to the development of end-of-line engineering projects and from Festo, the renowned multinational German-born supplier of intelligent solutions for productivity and competitiveness through factory automation with pneumatic, electrical, control and process technologies.

A market-wide innovation

This solution, developed by Danone’s plant at Irapuato, has become a milestone for the yogurt packaging industry in Mexico, given that before its inception there was not an equipment in the whole country which could manage this modality of multi-assorted packaging. These types of processes were conducted manually by operators who would grab products from each line and take them to the packaging machines. What was the challenge? “To streamline production and delivery times for two flavors of both Danup and Danone brands in multipacks, for which we developed a pioneering and disruptive solution in terms of separation and product handling of the two flavors simultaneously”, pointed out Stefanny Villareal, Senior Engineering Manager for Danone Mexico.

The line’s structure integrates mechanical elements provided by Hybernya Industrial with Festo’s control and electromechanical axes to build a configuration which supports three essential pillars of OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness): “availability, quality, and performance”, as highlighted by Hector Ramírez, F&P Applications Engineer at Festo Mexico, while explaining that various areas within the companies were involved in this project as a multidisciplinary endeavor.  

Following an initial conversation to understand the exact requirements Danone had, the project’s reach and how to achieve it, the alliance was sealed, and technical and performance parameters were set. “Hybernya and Festo own cutting-edge automation technologies and offered us a technical solution that suited our different requirements including space availability, adequate delivery times and production speeds, generating a low carbon footprint, and optimal maintenance”, the Senior Engineering Manager from Danone told Mundo PMMI.

Danone Mexico's engineering, R&I, and production teamDanone team photo: Hamurabi Castañeda, Eder Toscano, Stefanny Villarreal, Julio Corona, Fernando Gutiérrez, Andrea García, Janet Loera, members of Danone’s engineering team, R&I, and production.

Line efficiency

After scaling the Project and building prototypes, Hybernya Industrial and Festo identified the scope of their participation and started developing the solution by integrating specialty components from each company. Based on a stars system developed by Hybernya where each one picks up one bottle with different flavor as they run through, to achieve the desired combination and then places it on the line, one after the other.

From there, products reach a robotic cartesian double-axis diverter, made by Festo, classifies bottles with the different yogurt flavors in a uniform and automatic fashion to drive them towards eight separate packaging lines. Thanks to the performance of this new solution, Danone and Danup yogurts today reach supermarkets and other points of sales in six, eight, or twelve-unit multipacks.

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