Project

The production company

Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG is a German market

leader in chocolate bars and

the third biggest in Europe.

It currently offers 28 flavors

in its range. The company,

which was founded in 1912,

today produces all chocolate

products, sold in over 100

countries, at its German site

in Waldenbuch, near Stutt-

gart. The export share of the

unmistakable chocolate in its

square shape is around one

third of its business and this

looks set to increase.

Since 2000, Ritter has been working

together with Bosch Packaging Technol-

ogy. From provisioning to order-related

assembly, Bosch has been the partner

of choice for flexible machinery.

“For a long time, Bosch had been known

to us as a provider of reliable packaging

machinery and good service. However,

we were won over by the way in which

our real needs and requirements were

considered and met. With the machines

we use, we are in a position to convert to

other formats within 10 to 15 minutes –

without the need to use separate tools,”

says Klaus Hätinger, Head of Production

Technology at Ritter.

The three separate access levels for

operation, maintenance and engineering

make it easier for the machine

operator to independently carry out

conversions, maintenance work and

troubleshooting.

Therefore, if the packaging stage was

once something of a bottleneck in the

overall chocolate manufacturing

process, it is now the reverse. According

to Hätinger, packaging technology is

almost faster than the chocolate

production itself!

Challenge

Variety demands flexibility. The increas-

ing competition generated by globaliza-

tion has led to an ever greater variety

for the consumer. Every year, new types

and new formats are designed to be

more sophisticated and individualized.

To ensure the required flexibility of its

packaging production systems, Ritter

searched for a suitable supplier.

The packaging side of chocolate

The Ritter Sport ChocoShop in Waldenbuch. Home of Ritter Sport.

The digitally controlled systems have a

balcony construction with a steel frame

and integrated control cabinet. Modules

enable quick adaptations of the pack-

aging process to different shapes and

seals so that a variety of products can be

packaged using just one machine. The

flow wrapper is operated either using a

modern HMI with a 12.1" touchscreen or

a panel with function buttons, a graph-

ical display and a jogging wheel. Film

transportation and seal roll pressure are

affected by servo drives connected to a

high-speed motion controller via a servo

interface; these make high speeds and

maximum performance possible, even

with hot sealing.

Modules allow a fast adaptation of the packaging process to different shapes and seals. Klaus Hätinger, Head of Production Technology (right) and Ivo Buncuga, Technical Director (left)

Solution

Bosch Packaging Technology B.V.Conradstraat 4

NL-3125 BC Schiedam

Telefon: +31 (0)104885899

E-mail: info.packaging-sdm@bosch.com

www.boschpackaging.com

ProductsBenefits

Contact

“ We are planning to in-stall this solution for additional production lines. It is important to us that the systems are still available in 10 to 15 years so that future solutions can be implemented – we see no alternative to Bosch.”

Klaus HätingerHead of Production Technology Ritter

Short change over times make it

possible to cover many different

formats with a single production line

High speeds and maximum perfor-

mance possible, even with hot

sealing

The three separate access levels

for operation, maintenance, and

engineering make it easier for the

operator to independently carry out

conversions, maintenance work and

troubleshooting

High degree of system effectiveness

10.2

017

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osch

Pac

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olog

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.V.

Currently, Ritter operates a total of

22 Bosch systems in Waldenbuch, of

which 19 are modular, servo-controlled

flow wrappers.