• Careful product handling ensures high quality
• Flexible changeover between infeed formats
• Easy integration of pillow-pack machine and secondary packaging

Sigpack Systems, a Bosch Packaging Technology company, introduces a new feeding wheel for gentle, high-speed processing of bars. This feeding wheel, developed for chocolate industry applications, can handle oblong and round wafers with or without chocolate coating.

This new development in feeder technology achieves output rates of up to 800 products per minute. With this machine, Sigpack Systems complements its existing portfolio of high-performance, all-in-one applications for confectionery manufacturers. Gentle product handling is ensured by running the line’s vac­uum gripper and product flow at equivalent speeds during pick and place op­erations. The feeding wheel can guide, rotate, group, accelerate or transfer up to three products simultaneously. It enables producers to conduct easy and flexible changeovers between different formats and match gripper size and format to the product. Quick-release couplings allow for easy gripper head changes, thus ensuring fast changeovers.

The feeding wheel is ideal for gentle product handling in primary and secon­dary packaging operations. Depending on product characteristics, Sigpack Systems' HSM pillow-pack machine can package up to 1200 products per minute. HSM machines produce hermetic, loose or tight-fitting pillow packs as required. The compact servo machine can be configured for a variety of appli­cations and works efficiently in multi-shift operations.

"Our innovative feeding wheel increases the flexibility and speed of our all-in-one lines for bar production", says Urs Schweizer, Product Manager at Sigpack Systems. "More and more customers are demanding not just individual instal­lations or machines, but complete packaging systems."

About Bosch Packaging Technology

Bosch Packaging Technology, based in Waiblingen (Germany), is one of the leading suppliers for holistic systems for packaging and process technology. In 15 countries worldwide the company develops, produces and distributes modules and systems for the pharmaceutical, confectionery, and cosmetics industries, as well as other food and non-food industries. In 2007, 4,460 asso­ciates achieved a turnover of approximately 650 million euros ($890 million).

Pressebilder: 1-PA-14711, 1-PA-14752

The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. In the areas of automotive and industrial technology, consumer goods, and building technology, some 272,000 associates generated sales of 46.1 billion euros in fiscal 2007. The Bosch Group comprises Robert Bosch GmbH and its roughly 300 subsidiary and regional companies in over 50 countries. This worldwide development, manufacturing, and sales network is the foundation for further growth. Bosch spends more than three billion euros each year for research and development, and in 2006 applied for over 3,000 patents worldwide. The company was set up in Stuttgart in 1886 by Robert Bosch (1861-1942) as “Workshop for Precision Mechanics and Electrical Engineering.”

The special ownership structure of Robert Bosch GmbH guarantees the entrepreneurial freedom of the Bosch Group, making it possible for the company to plan over the long term and to undertake significant up-front investments in the safeguarding of its future. Ninety-two percent of the share capital of Robert Bosch GmbH is held by Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH, a charitable foundation. The majority of voting rights are held by Robert Bosch Industrietreuhand KG, an industrial trust. The entrepreneurial ownership functions are carried out by the trust. The remaining shares are held by the Bosch family and by Robert Bosch GmbH.

Additional information can be accessed at www.bosch.com.