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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AUNPALL (DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW AUTOMATED MACHINE TO UNWRAP PALLETS EFFICIENTLY ANDSAFELY)

Teaser

Summary

Located in Emilia-Romagna (Italy), EMMETI is a dynamic and modern company and a leader in the palletization and depalletization sector. Our over 40 yearsâ€™ experience in the packaging industry (specializing in the food and beverage sector) provides us with a formidable reputation and our customers recognize the high quality standards of our machines. Our key business activity is manufacturing palletization and depalletization machines and associated systems for packing lines around the world, delivering cost effective and flexible solutions to reduce downtime, increase efficiency and improve the quality of the final product.

Our project, AUNPALL, is an innovative, stand-alone, automated unwrapping machine for pallets, capable of cutting and removing in seconds the protective film from the pallets before entering in the packaging process lines. This transforms the current bottleneck of the packing line (slow process step) into an opportunity. Furthermore, AUNPALL comply with the beverage sector technical specifications (particularly to handle fragile products) and safety requirements (for the operators). Added to this, easy maintenance and affordable price, increased work safety by means of optimum accuracy in cutting and film removing, and combination of unwrapping and depalletizing in one workstation, it is clear that our AUNPALL machine will be an invaluable addition to the industry.

At EMMETI, our team has been performing a feasibility study during the last four months in order to analyze the key areas of our project. Technically, based on our original prototype, we have further studied and worked on the developments to reach the industrial version of our system. We have carried out additional tests and evaluated the quality of the operations, to ensure the integrity and quality of the products in the pallets. We have also prepared the Execution Plan for the project.
Commercially, we have studied in detail our target markets in order to prepare our marketing strategy. We have also performed a Freedom to Operate analysis, which is required to check and validate the innovation of our product. Lastly, we have prepared financial projections in order to evaluate the return on investment of the AUNPALL project.

Work performed

We at EMMETI have been undertaking a feasibility study during the last 4 months, based on the original Work Plan proposed in the Phase 1 proposal, in order to analyze 3 key areas of our project.
On the technical side, based on the original AUNPALL prototype, we have further studied and worked on the industrial prototype, focusing on the cutting technology, the vacuum system, the dedicated control software and artificial vision. We have carried on additional tests on the plastic films and considered the variety of wrapping configurations to ensure flexibility of use and quality of cutting. We have also drafted the Execution Plan for the subsequent developments of the project, covering tasks such as planning, budget, risk analysis and organization.
At a commercial level, we have studied in detail our target market (packaging machinery) in order to prepare our marketing strategy. We have performed a Freedom to Operate analysis, which is required to check and validate the innovation of our product. This analysis has confirmed the novelty of AUNPALL and the absence of existing thread for its commercialization.
Finally, we have prepared financial projections in order to evaluate the return on investment of the AUNPALL project. Different sources of funding have been considered as well, leading to our decision to present a Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Phase 2 (target being June 2016).

Final results

AUNPALL is a cost-effective, fast automatized plastic film unwrapping solution for palletized products (up to 60 pallets/hour), providing our customers with a safe and effective addition to packing and unpacking lines in a number of industries and sectors.
AUNPALL is a complementary addition to EMMETIâ€™S depalletizing product portfolio and will be offered â€“ via our wordwilde distribution network â€“ as part of a complete solution, integrated and aligned with our customersâ€™ specific requirements.