Platform for the food and beverage industry
In addition to the automated filling plant itself, the result includes several roller conveyors, a weighing chain conveyor and two quick roll gates. The entire line, including the control system with self-learning algorithm for optimizing the filled weights, was custom designed and realized by Bascules Robbe for the existing filling room.
Text Elise Noyez | Image Bascules Robbe
Does Bascules Robbe still need an introduction? After all, the Torhout-based family business has been putting itself on the map as a specialist in everything to do with roads for more than 175 years. However, if this history already sounds reliable and familiar in numerous industries, it is towards a more versatile and integral, yet equally solid, future that Bascules Robbe is orienting today. Which, according to the current management, lies in a role as a partner for customized turnkey solutions, in Belgium, the Netherlands and France.
The legacy of the past 175 years, the enormous experience and expertise in weighbridges and weighing devices, has long been used to intervene in production and filling processes in the food industry, among others, in a service-oriented and solution-oriented manner. For example, a producer of frozen potato products saw how a fully custom-designed weigher on elevator system optimized the filling of octabins, and tobacco producer J. Cortès can control the dosing of flavour very precisely without losing valuable space in the factory thanks to a creative solution involving a belt weigher attached to the ceiling.
It is this commitment to providing customers with pragmatic solutions to the specific questions, challenges and circumstances they face that drives Bascules Robbe ever further in the design and realization of, in particular, filling lines. The automated filling line at Belgosuc is therefore just one of a growing number of complete packaging lines that the West Flanders company has since realized, both in Belgium and in its northern and southern neighboring countries. Recently, a Dutch customer, active in the distribution of nuts and seeds, among others, invested in a new line for filling big bags and 20 kg bags. Both the bag filler and the weigher for the big bags and the conveyor belts were manufactured in Torhout by Bascules Robbe, and the assembly and automation of the line, including sealer and metal detector, was also entirely in the hands of the family business. At our southern neighbors, Bascules Robbe is then busy producing several filling lines including lid sealers and metal detectors for a slightly more challenging product category, namely caramel granules and syrup. Meanwhile, with a clear eye on the future, research is ongoing in the company's own workshops into, for example, the use of cobots for placing empty packaging.
With the current expansion of activities and in particular the full management of control, automation and integration, Bascules Robbe is thus positioning itself increasingly prominently in the market as a future-oriented one-stop shop for simple weighing installations as well as complete filling lines. This combination of design and production as well as programming, integration and calibration offers special advantages, not least in terms of speed, flexibility and reliability. Witness the constant investments in knowledge, machinery and vehicle fleet. The entire production process is now digitized, allowing very efficient and customer-oriented work with respect for the requirements of hygienic design. The fact that programming is also done in-house means that installation of the automation runs flawlessly and any changes can be implemented quickly. Furthermore, the installations are supported remotely, so that the majority of software interventions are handled in an extremely short period of time. Finally, with a single point of contact for all aspects of the installation, there is, above all, no longer any doubt about who to contact in case of questions or problems.
