Papadopoulos: OCME and Robopac offer flexibility and optimisation
for packaging and palletising processes

The story of Papadopoulos, a renowned Greek company and leader in the food industry, is one of passion as well as foresight. The first biscuit bakery was opened in 1938 by Evangelos Papadopoulos, a young man who had fled Asia Minor with his family to seek his fortune in Greece.

Passion is still the driving force behind the success of a company with four production facilities, 33 brands, more than 200 products across five product categories, more than 1500 employees, and a global presence in 67 countries.

E.J. Papadopoulos S.A.’s success is closely linked to its constant commitment to innovation, high quality, respect for the consumer, ethics, and excellence. Strong international expansion has brought about new challenges in optimising production processes, which is where the Aetna Group comes into play. The partnership between the two companies was born precisely on these premises and on the ability of the Group from Castel San Pietro Terme (Bologna, Italy), to provide great flexibility to customers in the food industry, a field where competence and experience define excellence at all points.

The analysis of the Papadopoulos operation conducted by Aetna Group revealed that several packaging and palletising processes needed to be rationalised in order to meet the demands of a diversified market. As a result, two main, highly innovative and extremely efficient technologies were identified: Pegasus and Rotoplat 3000HD.

Pegasus is an OCME-branded palletising robot equipped with a row gripping clamp capable of achieving 10 cycles per minute. As part of the configuration of the robot island installed at the Greek factory, a motorised robotic gripping head was installed with an attachment capable of lifting and depositing trays containing bread without damaging or crushing the contents.

As a result of the precise control and synchronisation provided by the Program Maker software, the picking and palletising pattern composition systems were optimised. In fact, through the use of a software, the customer is now able to customise palletising programs for each packaging based on all formats produced by the line.

At the same time, the implementation of Rotoplat 3000HD allows safe wrapping of loads, minimising the risk of damage during transport and storage. Rotoplat 3000 HD offers a number of advantages, including short installation time, small footprint, high production capacity and long uptime.

Thanks to the integration of these two machines, the synergetic work between Aetna Group and Papadopoulos has produced significant results in terms of increased productivity and reduced downtime. This has allowed the major Greek player to further consolidate its leadership.

The precise control and synchronisation offered by the Pegasus Presa Fila technology ensures optimised handling of pallets, dividers and packaging materials, while the implementation of Rotoplat 3000HD allows safe wrapping of loads, minimising the risk of damage during transport and storage.

Konstantinos Seretakis, project engineer of the Greek group, comments on the result: “We are really satisfied with the end-of-line provided by OCME and Robopac. Thanks to the program maker software, the Pegasus Presa Fila palletiser allows us to be independent and modify the palletising format as well as pattern in just a few clicks. The Rotoplat pallet wrapper supplied by Robopac, on the other hand, is one of the most efficient machines in the plant. In fact, its ability to distribute the film evenly allows our products to remain compact and stable throughout the supply chain.”

The collaboration with E.J. Papadopoulos S.A. affirms Aetna Group’s position as a reliable and highly professional partner, capable of providing complete innovation on tailor-made and sector-specific dynamics, to support a continuously evolving landscape such as the food industry in maintaining its competitiveness and dynamism.