Project: Kormotech, Lithuania

To expand market share in Eastern Europe, Kormotech built a new factory in Lithuania.

This fast-growing Ukraine-based company producing wet pet food requested an automated solution for the loading, drying and unloading of their premium brands in pouch.

The challenge was to have a reliable system, suitable for a total capacity of 480 pouches per minute, where the allowable water residue had to be extremely low. Only then, the pouches could be packed directly in cardboard boxes without intermediate storage, which saves time and space.

Our solution is made of 3 robot loaders that efficiently form product layers as soon as the pouches come out of the filling machine in 4 lanes and are approved by an integrated check weigher.

A robot then picks up a full layer of flattened pouches from the formation belt and places them in a retort tray. To achieve the best possible heat process in the retorts, the trays had to be rotated alternately 180° during stacking. Once there is a complete stack, an operator transports the stack to the retort with a trolley.

Unloading and drying

After sterilisation the pouches need to be unloaded for further processing. To do so, 2 robot unloaders were installed. These unloaders work in reverse order. Trolleys with sterilised product are placed in the docking position. A robot picks-up a complete layer of pouches and moves them through the in-line dryer. After drying, the pet food pouches are placed on 2 single liner conveyors and transported directly towards a double infeed case packer.