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The FMCG industry‘s automated packaging processes bear the distinctive mark of a German company. Sixty years ago, Gerhard Schubert founded his business, which has repeatedly raised the bar for robot-based top-loading operations.
Much of today's standard top-loading packaging technology, from pick-and-place to transport and vision systems, dates back to 1966. At that time, Gerhard Schubert had just set up his own company because he was determined to develop the world’s first modular assembly system for top-loading packaging processes.
He laid the foundation for his thriving business with a hot melt carton erector, the company’s first commercially available packaging machine. This proved to be a successful idea and sparked the development of several others, as erecting and gluing cartons were only two steps in a much more comprehensive process.
Both filling and sealing were important processes that required adequate systems as well. Together with erecting and gluing, these are the main functions of top-loading machines, which Gerhard Schubert was convinced had potential. He therefore set to modularise the basic functions of top loading to address the varying requirements of different industries.
Rather than using ready-made, stand-alone machines for different tasks, Gerhard Schubert envisaged a small number of assemblies that could be combined in various ways to meet almost any packaging need – and build almost any packaging machine or line.
This gave rise to the Schubert Special Machine Construction Kit, or Schubert-Sondermaschinen-Baukasten (SSB), which comprised several assemblies, though at the time they were all mechanical ones.
The development clearly called for optimisation, and from the 1980s onward, Gerhard Schubert laid the groundwork for the fully robotised TLM portfolio known today. Over time, the robots became more and more sophisticated. Vision technology developed in-house enabled them to recognise and pick up products without any further assistance.
From then on, the innovations came thick and fast: In the mid-1990s, Schubert’s VMS packaging machine controller was launched, forming the basis for the Schubert Machine Construction Kit (Schubert-Maschinen-Baukasten, SMB), which included controlling technology integrated into the machine bed.
The first TLM machines went into operation in 2000. The principle was to make them even more compact, more accessible and easier to operate, so the control cabinets were moved up into the frame. The launch of the Transmodul in 2009 marked a significant shift in the transport within packaging lines, offering unparalleled speed and agility.
Today AI, sustainability and new packaging concepts are changing the industry. With ever more intuitive solutions – notably the TOG series of fully standardised production cells, a new generation of TLM, the extended Lightline range for pre-configured packaging tasks, and the Packaging Competence Center – Schubert remains true to its roots by making things as easy as possible for its customers.
More information on Schubert’s packaging technology and innovation history is available on the company’s website.
