Ampack filling machine delivers flexible productivity for Norwegian dairy producer

TINE SA is Norway's biggest producer, marketer and exporter of dairy products, with a total of 5675 employees and a history dating back 133 years. Established as a cooperative of 15,000 Norwegian milk farmers, TINE SA processes 1.4 billion litres of cow's milk and around 19 million litres of goat's milk every year to produce premium dairy products.

The portfolio encompasses around 200 different products, including yoghurt, sour cream and various types of cheese, which are sold worldwide under the TINE brand. Strict controls and state-of-the-art technology are fundamental for the company to guarantee the highest quality.

With growing production requirements, TINE SA needed to centralise production in Oslo and also expand capacity, without compromising the quality, freshness or sustainability of its products.

Set for the future

Havard Lamberg, process engineer at TINE SA, explained that the company had taken over the production of another dairy factory and needed to achieve higher production volumes while also improving hygienic standards. TINE wanted to ensure the best possible cup sealing during the packaging process and needed a new cup filling machine that could be easily integrated into the existing packaging line within a narrow timeframe.

TINE SA sought a partner to implement this ambitious plan and selected packaging specialist Ampack, whose portfolio of Bosch Packaging Technology includes filling machines for cups and bottles, as well as dosing systems and peripheral machines that are used to fill and package highly sensitive products such as clinical nutrition, dairy products and baby food.

TINE SA's new Ampack cup filling machine is an eight-lane inline machine, which can fill pre-formed cups with various products, such as yoghurt products, viscous dessert products, sour cream and cottage cheese. It encompasses the following stations: cup placing, steriliser, dosing device, lid station, sealing station, snap-on lid station, packer and tray transport.

Great emphasis on product quality

“Thanks to the new machine, we can process our dairy products much more efficiently and without neglecting the strict hygiene standards. The system's hygienic design has demonstrated to us that the construction has been well thought out, resulting in an optimised cleaning process with minimal effort. This provides a firm basis and good initial position to bring fresh TINE SA products into the refrigerator," said Havard Lamberg.

Higher productivity and flexibility following trouble-free commissioning

The ability to combine maximum productivity with a high level of flexibility was vital for TINE SA. Whereas the old machine could only process up to 12,000 cups/h, the new packaging line is designed to handle 18,000 cups/h. Several different cup formats, as well as different packaging materials, can also now be processed by the same machine.

The larger reserve magazine for the packaging material is a further advantage, contributing to the high level of user-friendliness. Despite TINE SA seeing an increase in its production margins, the effort required by the operating personnel remains about the same and the compartment only has to be refilled every 12 to 18 minutes.

“When a company increases its production capacity, by implication this also usually results in a need for more operating personnel, which adds to personnel costs. This wasn't the case for us," explained Havard Lamberg. “Since the layout of the new machine replicates the previous one, control and operation remain pretty much unchanged. Our employees were therefore able to work with the new Ampack technology without any problems." The high-performance system runs a two-shift operation for five days a week, with machine stops kept to a minimum and therefore very low usage downtime.

TINE SA was able to increase production in line with objectives — and without significant production losses during the installation phase.

Bosch Packaging Technology is distributed in Australia by Nupac Industries.