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Case study: At the heart of innovation

At the leading-edge in products and processes, Noberasco has chosen Markem-Imaje as its printing partner. SmartDate X60 printers are operating on the lines of the new site of Carcare, ensuring quality and reliability. Strong points include the benefits of SMILE long-term leasing and Markem-Imaje's solution-provider approach.
Case study: At the heart of innovation

Each year, in Carcare in the province of Savone (Italy), Noberasco produces over 15,000 tonnes of soft fruit and 12,000 tonnes of dried fruit. Managed by the Noberasco family since 1908, the company is an icon of the successful ‘made in Italy’ mark in the food sector with nine completely automated production lines, and sales that have doubled over the last five years, now topping the €130m mark. Noberasco is well recognised in Italy’s organic market and exports up to 10% of production. "We were the first to use refrigerated air transport for dates and to implement an innovative process to propose preservative-free organic products with no added fat," says Davide Cammi, director of Noberasco’s production site in Carcare. "We’re also at the cutting edge of where the latest trends of Industry 4.0 are concerned. When we designed this new site, we set up an interconnection process between equipment and automated systems.

"The idea was to collect all data off the lines and feed it to the equipment for programming and operating." In a sector where consumers are increasingly demanding, Noberasco sets the standard for excellence when tracing its products. Print quality and reproducibility of data are vital.

From the outset in 2007, Noberasco acquired several SmartDate thermal transfer coders from Markem-Imaje. The relationship between the two companies was further strengthened in 2016 through the SMILE long-term leasing solution. "We valued this solution as the cornerstone that would help develop our partnership," Cammi maintains. "We have converted a variable cost into a fixed one. We are assured that every five years we can opt for the most advanced coders. SMILE helps us to simulate, in advance, the quantity of consumables that will be used each year, integrating their cost into the fixed fees. Our contract also includes an exchange programme that ensures, in the event of breakage, we can receive a new part within 24 hours and replace it on our own to start the line again quickly."

Noberasco’s trust was also gained through the expertise and experience in the technical field demonstrated by Markem-Imaje teams. "With our preservative-free soft products, our core business, a critical aspect needed to be considered during the coding phase," Cammi continues. "The very high temperatures and throughput rate make code adherence on flexible film difficult. There was a risk of characters not being legible and print not impeccable. After an intense series of tests, we achieved a perfect balance that enabled us to carry out production in line with our quality standards."

Another strong point was integrating the CoLOS software: "Today we can transmit print data directly from our quality office to line coders. We eliminate any possible default in transcription or codification arising from human errors. Our next stage is to fit each line with a camera to evaluate print quality, as well as coherence of printed data compared with the data base," Cammi concludes.

19 Sep 2018 13:34

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