The formula for successfully finalizing projects consists of: constant synergies with customers through attention to their requirements; research for reliability and repeatability; technical expertise; accurate and coordinated management of every aspect of the project; and constant innovation to improve performance.
Gianmarco Pincelli, Bonfiglioli Engineering's Technical Sales Manager, spoke to us about the origin and performance of three of the company's many valuable projects completed in the past 15 years. These success stories are only a sampling of the customer-centric approach adopted and improved over these years.
New technologies for new challenges
One of Bonfiglioli Engineering's most successful projects is the design and implementation of the PK-VS model, the world's first Blow-Fill-Seal (BFS) strip testing machine.
Gianmarco describes this project in his own words. “This project began in 2006, based on a request from a multinational pharmaceutical company to design a new system to test single-dose strip cards.
Challenge: until 2006 our activity in the pharmaceutical sector had been limited to applications with glass packaging. Blow-Fill-Seal (BFS) was an entirely new area and devising a reliable and efficient test system required undivided expertise and attention. We overcame many difficulties associated with this new project, providing our customer with several machines that were installed successfully, on various production lines.
Sometime later, the customer called on us again to develop an advanced version of the model that maintained the level of reliability and accuracy but offered better performance in terms of machine speed and integration to the production line. This was a new challenge: the technology we had already developed had to be integrated more effectively on the customer's production line so that it could test more products per minute without negatively impacting the accuracy of the results.
Solution: a new version of the PK-VS that is fed vertically and equipped with a product tipping system. This design was based on the characteristics of the line on which the machine would operate, allowing us to meet all the customer's requests and increasing testing speed to more than 200 pieces per minute.
Take away: high success rate thanks to open and constant dialogues with the customer’s technicians, who explained the characteristics of their line and what would be needed to improve the machine’s performance. We were committed to accurately responding to every question or need. The result of this synergy is a machine guaranteeing much better test speed results while generating less noise and reducing energy consumption.”
Over the years, these results convinced many other customers to purchase Bonfiglioli Engineering machines for numerous production lines.
360° service for a custom-built project
C’est en janvier 2018 que cette nouvelle ligne est partie en production. A ce jour l’objectif a été rempli et la machine de test apporte pleine satisfaction.
It was in January 2018 that this new line went into production and to date the goal has been fulfilled and the test machine brings full satisfaction.
Jean-Francois Battaini, Recipharm Kaysersberg’s Project Manager
Here is another narrative of a winning collaboration with a French pharmaceutical company, Recipharm.
Challenge: the customer needed a machine that would support high-speed testing, for greater production efficiency.
Solution: Our testing and handling technologies allowed the company to double the number of performed tests per minute, to detect much smaller micro-holes, to reduce the false rejection rate by 400% and to cut power consumption in half.
Take away: the customer was satisfied not only with the technological aspects, but with project management as a whole: Bonfiglioli Engineering provided assistance during the documentation phase, interfaced directly with the customer and developed a project based on the structure of the line on which the machine would be installed, taking into account specific upstream and downstream connection requirements. This meant that, once developed and installed, the machine was immediately fully operational. 360° support for projects!
Innovative technologies and results beyond expectations for the food & beverage industry
Bonfiglioli Engineering’s experience in the pharmaceutical industry has led to remarkable results in the food & beverage sector as well.
Challenge: providing a solution to test plastic bottles containing baby milk for a baby food manufacturer. The containers to be tested were of various sizes and contained powdered milk that was already diluted and ready for consumption. Given the specificity and sensitivity of the product, using inspection technologies like those used in the pharmaceutical industry was an essential requirement.
Solution: a machine designed to be capable of testing 100% of the customer's production, identifying the presence of micro-holes up to 20 microns in diameter in plastic packaging.
Take away: the machine was successfully installed and brought on line on time, and the results exceeded the customer's expectations as the machines work on an algorithm that adapts the sensitivity of the test to the stability of the production line, which in this specific case was very high. As a result, the stability of the customer's line increased the efficiency of the inspection machine, allowing to exceed the target and to detect leaks even below 20 microns.
Designing, creating, and improving leak detection and packaging integrity machines is an on-going process at Bonfiglioli Engineering for over 45 years. Success is determined by the complete support and involvement in each project of our team of experts for various packaging inspection technologies.
We are not just a machine manufacturer. We are your trusted partner for packaging integrity testing and analysis through feasibility studies, technical expertise, validation packages, product handling and custom-built solutions.
