Colomer Italy recently extended its production capacities with a new space allocation strategy. The Italian cosmetics maker, a company of the Spanish Colomer Group, is specialized in the production and processing of hair colors. As part of a modernization project at its Bologna site, a Romaco Unipac U 20100 tube filling line has been installed underneath the processing equipment. In future, the colors can thus be fed directly from the mixing vessels to the dosing unit of the tube filling machine. This is especially practical for filling shear-sensitive products, which have to be processed extremely gently. Alternatively, the product solution can be stored temporarily in special tanks before being transferred to the inlet hopper of the tube filler.
The Unipac U 20100 tube filling machine has already been operating in line with a Promatic PC 4200 cartoner at Colomer Italy since 2005. At present, the machine is mainly used to fill Colomer’s premium ‘Revlonissimo’ and ‘Voilá’ hair color series. The company’s intensified positioning in the contract packaging sector has resulted in an overall broadening of the Colomer product range. Technologies that can be used particularly flexibly and adapted to changing production conditions in no time at all are therefore increasingly called for.
Complete changeover in less than 40 minutes
“The Unipac technology meets all our requirements for efficient tube filling processes,” emphasizes Dr Giacomo Anfuso, engineering and production manager at Colomer Italy. “Product changes can be completed in next to no time, and this is also impressively confirmed by the Romaco line’s outstanding OEE values.”
The Unipac tube filler is connected to two mixing vessels by means of a special quick-release mechanism. As soon as one batch has finished, the next one can start straight away. The operator simply has to exchange the feeders and the product-contact parts. A second set of already cleaned format parts for the tube filling machine is available for this purpose.
Less than ten minutes are necessary to change the pump of the tube filler, the flexible pipe, the dosing nozzle and the hoses. Next, the process parameters have to be set and the laser engraving with the batch and shade numbers programmed. All in all, the changeover process for the complete tube filling line is completed in less than 40 minutes. The Unipac U 20100 tube filling machine manages between 60 and 100 tubes a minute, depending on the quantity to be filled.
“Thanks to our increased flexibility, Colomer is now one of the leading contract packaging companies,” Dr Anfuso reports. “We combine many years of experience with service excellence, and are able to comply with even the most unusual customer specifications. Our trust in Romaco Unipac tube filling technology meanwhile dates back more than 30 years.”