In the food packaging sector, technology plays a crucial role in ensuring product freshness, safety, and quality. Companies like our technology partner, Omron, provide advanced automation, machine vision, and robotics solutions that are transforming packaging systems, making traditional lines smarter, more flexible, and sustainable.
Among the various available techniques, flowpack remains one of the most versatile and widely used formats in the food industry. Its technological evolution is essential to meet today’s market demands.
Contactless quality control with advanced machine vision
Ensuring every product is perfectly aligned, wrapped, and sealed without defects is a constant challenge in food packaging. Advanced vision systems, such as those developed by Omron with artificial intelligence, detect even subtle flaws, from film misalignments to product deformities or printing errors.
Thanks to deep learning techniques, these systems accurately identify genuine defects, minimizing false rejections even when products naturally vary.
Real-time temperature control for perfect sealing
The growing use of sustainable and recyclable materials requires more precise and reliable sealing. Poor sealing can compromise quality and generate waste.
Smart temperature controls like Omron’s NX-TC automatically adjust sealing parameters based on real-time production conditions, ensuring consistency, reducing scrap, and extending equipment lifespan.
Agile format changeover with advanced automation platforms
Frequent format changes have become the norm in modern food packaging. Automation platforms like Omron’s Sysmac enable centralized, synchronized management of the entire line, including axes, sensors, vision, temperature control, IO-Link, and robotics.
This allows for a significant reduction in format changeover times, facilitating the efficient production of small and customized batches.
Collaborative robotics and AMRs to close the production loop
The integration of collaborative robots and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) complements packaging solutions by automating processes from handling to final palletizing.
Collaborative robots work safely alongside operators and adapt to multiple tasks, while AMRs optimize internal logistics, freeing operators from repetitive work.
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Towards digital, connected, and sustainable food packaging
Integration with MES and ERP systems through open protocols like OPC UA and MQTT enables full traceability, predictive maintenance, and production efficiency monitoring.
Technologies such as digital twins and IoT sensors facilitate continuous simulation, monitoring, and process optimization, anticipating issues and enhancing data-driven decision-making.
The flowpack line reinvented
Food packaging is undergoing a profound transformation thanks to advanced technologies that make production lines smarter and more sustainable. Flowpack remains a key format, with its future rooted in digitalization and automation.
At Barcelona Packaging Hub, we especially value the technological contributions of companies like Omron, which provide innovative solutions to tackle the current and future challenges of the industry.