The product Research and Development division of the Cavanna Packaging Group was created with the aim to constantly innovate its products and solutions, and to be the first to offer those solutions to it's customers. This will allow the customer to present products that do not yet exist in the market or are still in the laboratories. The primary objective of Cavanna is to utilize it's long history of creating innovative solutions to meet the requirements of the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). This area of expertise is not just limited to packaging equipment and packaging material, but the customer can talk about processing technologies, new devices, mathematical algorithms and innovative materials: in practice everything that makes things easier, more efficient, cleaner and more sustainable.
Our Research and Development division has a dedicated staff whose primary objective is to develop innovative solutions that will create new products and ideas for our customer. Some of the many ideas being developed by our Research and Development division are the following: ultrasonic welding, composite materials, FEM analysis and dynamic simulation, as well as collaborative projects with universities and external engineering and systems authority. Other applications, such as sanitary design have rapidly evolved from a research phase to a real catalog of products, whose applications range from the packaging of cereal granola bars to fresh cheeses.
Compared to last year and utilizing the results of the FEM and Multybody simulations, we have developed a new family of prototypes of top-loading robots. These lighter and faster robots are able to cover a working envelope 20% larger at improved speed and energy consumption ratios of up to 25% respect to the older types. For what concerns the application of single-pick robots for the packaging of random stream of products, Cavanna has created an off-line strategy simulator able to visualize and predict the behavior of complex lines (we are currently studying a system with more than 20 robots). This software is able to facilitate both the coding (by anticipating problems and issues) and the design of the new lines, allowing Cavanna and the final customer to have a feeling of the statistical behavior of the robotic system with the suggested layout.
The studies on the advanced materials (plastic, composite) and on innovative production and assembling techniques, is constantly progressing, being now part of the DNA of the company, which regularly uses, for example, carbon fiber to fabricate standard components. For this purpose, the ability to create synergies together with the most advanced specialists in this field, with research labs and with spin-off of the local universities, assumes great significance. Also the ergonomy features are getting more and more important: reducing dimensions, allowed lifting weight, and the improvement of the accessibility of the equipment, as well as its functionalities, has justified developments which we are sure will provide good results.
Our Research & Development division has paid special attention to robotics and strategies for coordination of multiple robots in order to offer solutions that are extremely flexible and fast, using the smaller space, without neglecting the historical and uniqueness of Cavanna. The R&D department has allowed Cavanna to become a single supplier for a turn-key line conceived, designed, built and tested by a single team of people in a single factory. Customers have been and always will be welcome to join this loop relying on a proverbial discretion and professional integrity. The product Research and Development will dedicate a portion of its resources to the development of projects and innovative technologies together with the customers.