Microline is a Bologna-based company specialising in the design and development of packaging solutions for tissue products, with considerable expertise in secondary packaging applications for consumer goods, including food and beverages. It was in this sector that the company developed its relationship with Caffè Cagliari, a premium coffee roaster based in Modena, which had specific packaging requirements for its range of 500g and 1kg coffee bags.
Microline developed a special version of its ML800, a shrink wrap bundling machine. The machine used at Caffè Cagliari can handle both 500 gram and 1 kilo bags. It can pack between 25 and 30 bags per minute, producing up to 5 or 6 bundles. It is a machine fully in line with the dictates of Industry 4.0, whose features include the MRA remote assistance system with the possibility of adding an advanced network of sensors to monitor energy consumption. Everything is therefore designed to maximise efficiency and savings for the customer.
But that's not all. Through its partnership with Caffè Cagliari, Microline used the ML800 as a pilot machine for the development of new environmentally friendly materials. Specifically, the Bologna-based company decided to use the Caffè Cagliari bags to run a series of tests on the ML800 to verify the handling and performance of environmentally friendly packaging products. The project was part of the company's environmental policy, which has been in place for several years and has allowed it to develop machines with a much lower environmental impact than its competitors. In fact, Microline's bundlers such as the ML800, flow wrappers and wrappers do not produce any waste, thus eliminating packaging material waste and saving between 20% and 30% compared to the competition.
Specifically in the area of packaging materials, tests carried out on the ML800 have shown that it is compatible with the use of zero impact eco-film. The tests confirmed that the performance of the eco-films was on a par with equivalent plastic products in terms of mechanical strength, pack quality and throughput. No hardware changes are required on the Microline machines, which only require a simple change of parameter settings on the HMI panel to use the compostable films.
Although the machine used at Caffè Cagliari currently uses traditional packaging films, the complete absence of trimmings is proof of its ability to guarantee savings. Above all, the machine's productivity is in line with the project's objectives, making it an important addition to the Modenese coffee roaster's bagging line. The ML800 bundler has been connected to Caffè Cagliari's computer system to allow real-time exchange of production data such as batch/order number, average, maximum and minimum speed, quantities produced and any waste. The use of a bundler in the coffee industry is further proof of the flexibility of Microline technology, which offers packaging solutions not only for the tissue sector, where it is a key player, but also for a wide range of other sectors.
