Miller Magazine Issue 110 / February 2019

73 TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM MILLER / FEBRUARY 2019 nager since January 2017, shares his assessment of the innovative technology and talks about the advantages and ongoing development of Schubert’s eighth standard system component. Mr Schubert, the Flowmodul is now being used by many of your customers. What is your assessment since its market launch? To date, we have sold 38 Flowmodul components to both existing and new customers in a total of eight countries. Our objective for 2018 is to sell 30 Flowmo- dul systems. Sales in 2021 are expected to increase to 100 machines. Our flow-wrap technology is currently being used to package a wide range of products such as chocolate, biscuits, cakes, chocolate figures, yoghurt cups and even ice cream – which demonstrates that the Flowmodul is already showing great success in many different indust- ries. As planned, the Schubert Flowmodul has evolved into an important growth factor for our corporate group. What makes the Flowmodul so unique? The Flowmodul packages products into flowpacks with unbeatable efficiency, providing high flexibility and quality control while saving space. This innovation has enabled us to fully integrate the flow-wrapping process into our modular machine concept as well. With the Flowmodul, small batch sizes, short product lifecycles and high-level product diversity can be handled more efficiently than ever before. This is what makes the app- lication so attractive in many sectors. In combination with the TLM pick-and-place robots, the Flowmodul can respond quickly to new market requ- irements. This gives our customers decisive competitive advantages. Our customers also benefit from the many advanta- ges of a combination of primary and secondary packaging proces- ses. Uniform control, ease of use, highly flexible robot loading, and the fact that customers are given a solution from a single vendor are also important arguments. We can respond to customer wishes quickly and implement them on an individual basis. With the Flowmodul, Schubert now offers a highly efficient pri- mary packaging solution. Have you also been able to win over new customers? During the initial launch period, we most often sold the flow-w- rapping unit to customers who had already been working with us very successfully. These customers know that we always keep our promises and were confident that the new sys- tem component would also deliver all the benefits they have come to expect from Schubert technology. We are very pleased that we have also been able to win over customers who had not worked with us pre- viously with a primary packaging solution. For the first time ever, a flow-wrapping machine can be seamlessly integrated into the packaging process. And ultimately, this is what convinced existing as well as new customers. What feedback have you received from customers who are already using the Flowmodul? The feedback we are receiving clearly reflects satisfa- ction with the compact combination of primary and se- condary packaging processes. Our customers appreciate the fact that Schubert packaging systems are operated with the high-level efficiency we promise. Additionally, they are very enthusiastic about the close contact we maintain with them, and they confirm again and again that the quality of collaboration with our family busi- ness is exceptionally positive. We take good care of our customers and their applications, and we work together with them to achieve an optimal solution. What are the most recent developments relating to the Flowmodul? With the latest model variants, we are even more closely oriented to the TLM concept, which has always made our modular machine approach so successful. With the focus on our users, we have significantly im- proved accessibility for maintenance and cleaning. We have also made suspension of the film rolls more ergo- nomic. This all makes the Flowmodul even easier and more efficient for technicians and machine operators. Depending on the product and the desired film, Schubert offers four different sealing methods for its Flowmodul.