Anyone who not only has to place a label precisely in a lid, but al-so has to place a much smaller second label on top of it in a spe-cifically defined way in the next step, surely appreciates precise work – and above all, the technology that allows this precision to be reproduced again and again. This is one of the reasons why the company J. M. Schmitt, which has specialized in round pack-aging for many industries for almost 100 years, has chosen label-ing technology from HERMA. Particularly with composite cans for tobacco products, extremely precise labeling is required – also be-cause the legal requirements for this are strict. For example, a la-bel with a prescribed warning must be placed on the inside. This in itself is not an easy task, as the plastic lids are recessed as well as very lightweight, thus making them prone to slip on the conveyor belt. To make matters even more difficult, the tobacco manufacturer also wants to apply a humipad, a small cellulose pad, on the inside. The end user can moisten this later to keep the tobacco fresh. "The humipad has to be placed centrally in the middle, exactly in the circular frame provided for it,” Stefan Schmitt explains. He is responsible for purchasing at the company, which is based in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany. "The warning notice may not be covered under any circumstances; even the lines of the circle must not be touched. Strictly speaking, it would then no longer be possible to sell the packaging.”
Stop, lift, dispense
To solve this tricky task, J. M. Schmitt has been using HERMA technology exclusively for many years in the form of a special solution of the 452E top labeler. It was equipped with two HERMA 500 applicators for this purpose. Emerging from a steep bunker, the lids move through the machine on a conveyor belt. One appli-cator applies the label with the warning, and another applies the humipad, which is slightly larger than a 2-euro coin. Because the lid has a recess, it is first gripped from the side by two centering jaws. They stop the lid and at the same time use compressed air to lift it slightly so that there is no abrasion from the conveyor belt that continues to run underneath. Then a suction pad, which has previously picked up the label from the movable peel plate, is used to apply a label into the lid from above. Finally, the jaws retract and the labeled lid moves along on the conveyor belt. "Technically, this wasn’t easy to solve," Schmitt points out. But it wasn't the only challenge. The humipads are almost three millimeters thick. This is why HERMA installed special deflection rollers in the applicator. With a "normal" radius of these rollers, the pads would fall off of the label web before even reaching the peel plate. "The handling of these pads is quite demanding,” Stefan Schmitt confirms. In the second applicator, the lid is centered again and stopped briefly so that another suction pad can place the pad precisely without even touching the precisely specified target frame. J. M. Schmitt sometimes labels 25,000 to 30,000 lids on this line per day.
But it’s not just the precision of the HERMA 500 that Stefan Schmitt finds so exciting. "The accuracy and reliability of the predecessor, the HERMA 400, was already very good. The big plus now is the reproducibility of the results. Thanks to the large touch display and the simple user navigation, it’s easy to save and recall the parameters. Things that were previously solved by adjusting the light barrier, for example, the time at which the dispensing process is triggered – we can now regulate that ourselves using the software on the applicator." The large display, which can be operated quickly and intuitively like a smartphone, offers employees optimal access to the machine. "Parameter management is very important," says Schmitt. "Anything that cannot be stored in the recipe or that doesn’t have a scale is in the hands of the person who sets up the machine during the next changeover. And that will lead to deviations – and we can't afford that in our business.”
The fact that HERMA applicators are not only precise but also quickly available due to their modular design has also helped the company. When the flood came in the summer of 2021, J. M. Schmitt was on the brink of disaster. A wave almost two meters high of muddy floodwater from the Ahr river swept through the production halls. “In an unbelievable feat of strength," Schmitt recalls, "the family that owns the business and our 50 or so employees spent weeks shoveling the masses of sludge out of the production area. Many specialized machines couldn’t be salvaged. It was vital for the company to get the production line going again. "Although there were material shortages everywhere at that time in particular, HERMA was able to supply the necessary applicators within a very short time," says Schmitt. Stefan Schmitt would have been only too happy to spare his company the once-in-a-century flood that triggered the company’s leap in labeling technology. The horror of those days and their existential consequences are still too present in everyone’s memory. He is still satisfied with the new possibilities, however.
