The Client
SERANO was founded in 1974 and has since specialized in the production and packaging of nuts. Today, SERANO holds a leading position in the Cypriot market, with its products distributed worldwide in more than 20 countries across Europe, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and soon in China and North America.

The Need
Given its large production volumes, SERANO was seeking a solution for fully automating the secondary packaging processes for two of its production lines. The solution needed to accommodate the high productivity of the lines while maintaining their full flexibility.
ZENON AUTOMATION SAICT, a member of the THEODOROU GROUP, with over 40 years of expertise in robotic end-of-line automation, was tasked with designing and building a system capable of handling a wide range of products of varying sizes and primary packaging (pouches or cups), with minimal adjustments during product changeovers.
The system also needed to have the ability to either carton the nut packages into cardboard boxes or group them and shrink-wrap them afterward.
In addition to its flexibility, the system had to occupy the least possible space to allow operators easy access to any point in production while also complying with necessary safety regulations.

The Solution
ZENON designed and delivered to SERANO an integrated and fully automated solution, consisting of two identical hybrid-function robotic systems for secondary packaging (cartoning or shrink-wrapping).
Each system fully meets SERANO’s needs by fully automating the following processes:

For packages destined for cartoning:
- Receiving nut packages (pouches or cups)
- Forming the cardboard boxes
- Grouping the packages according to the cartoning arrangement for each product code
- Inserting the packages into the formed cardboard box
- Moving the box to the sealing station
- Closing and sealing the box with packing tape

For packages destined for shrink-wrapping:
- Receiving nut packages (pouches or cups)
- Grouping the packages according to the desired arrangement
- Stacking the grouped packages in layers
- Shrink-wrapping the groups

Each robotic cell is equipped with a full control panel featuring a touch screen that can store different cartoning and shrink-wrapping programs for each product code. It also supports scalability for the future addition of new product codes. Additionally, the system is equipped with the necessary tools for immediate and effective remote support from ZENON’s experienced technical staff.
All ZENON systems come with a complete safety system that complies with current regulations (CE – Machine Directive) to ensure the safety of personnel and equipment, and they receive the relevant CE certification.

The Benefits
- High productivity
- Reduced operational costs
- Reliability and minimal maintenance needs thanks to the proven design and excellent build quality
- Fast product changeovers due to an innovative approach for interchangeable parts
- Connectivity with the company’s IT systems
- Optimal resource utilization (space, human resources, existing equipment)
- Minimal handling requirements and error reduction

With full respect for SERANO’s production needs, ZENON swiftly and efficiently completed the installation and commissioning of the two systems, thus minimizing downtime for each production line.

The pharmaceutical warehouse APOSTOLOS PAPANIKOLOPOULOS SA, which is going through a period of great growth, wanted to modernize its infrastructure in order to be able to respond to the increase in its customer base, the increase in orders and the large volume of work per day that this entails, while continuing to offer a high level services to its customers, executing their orders with accuracy, speed and reliability and keeping their level of satisfaction high.

The Solution

ZENON AUTOMATION SAICT, a member of Theodorou Group, known for its expertise in the design and implementation of robotics, handling and automation solutions for packaging and the supply chain, implemented a solution adapted to the needs of APOSTOLOS PAPANIKOLOPOULOS SA, which integrates the old system of the company in a new, modern, independent and unified system of fully automatic execution of orders.

This involves 3 distinct stages:

- the automatic collection of orders in boxes using robotic systems
- the automatic handling of boxes within the company
- the automatic invoicing, packing and sorting of orders by route, ready for distribution by the company's vehicles

In the first stage, there are provisions that manage the empty plastic boxes, small or large, used to prepare the new orders. Then these boxes pass through two modern and fully automatic A-Frame type medicine collection machines of the well-known Austrian company SSI Schaefer, which were supplied and installed by ZENON AUTOMATION SAICT. These machines undertake the collection of the high-speed codes (A) of the individual orders.

In the second stage, after the fast-moving products have already been collected, the boxes are automatically moved from the mezzanine to the ground floor, where the old automatic arrangement, now integrated into the new system, is used to introduce the slower-moving and special products. It is essentially an old-style A-Frame and three manned manual picking stations using portable terminals and inserting the products into the respective boxes.

In the third and final stage the boxes are automatically guided to two automatic printing stations, where the invoice is printed and inserted inside the box, before it is also automatically closed with a lid and sealed with a plastic ring.

The boxes are then sticker-coded with order and customer information and automatically sorted into 16 aisles, depending on which car will pick them up to deliver the orders to customers.

The system also undertakes the automatic handling of the empty boxes returning from the circuit, so that they can be taken to the devices of the first stage and re-supply the system.

The above procedure is carried out 2 or 3 times a day, with speed, correctness in the execution of orders and avoiding delays, which could put the car routes out of schedule.

It was particularly important to implement the project in parallel with the work of the warehouse, so that its operation would not be disturbed at all and the service of its customers would continue uninterrupted.

Thanks to proper preparation and thorough planning by ZENON executives, the individual subsystems that had been tested individually were installed in parts, allowing their completion and transition from the old system to the new in just one weekend without any interruption to the warehouse operation.

The perfect collaboration with EPSILON CSA, which supplied APOSTOLOS PAPANIKOLOPOULOS SA with the line's ERP & WMS software, played a catalytic role in the implementation.

The Benefits

In a short period of time since the implementation of the solution for the complete automation of order fulfillment processes, its benefits have been immediately seen:

- Errors that were much more likely before in a manual process are now avoided,
- The products are priced and packaged correctly, so that they are distributed safely and on time with the company's cars to the pharmacies,
- The company's customer base, the speed of order execution and the company's reliability have increased,
- In the same period of time, the company can now cover a much larger volume of customers and orders, having significantly increased its productivity.
- The company now manages to fully respond to this demand by keeping the timetables of the cars, without the need for additional staff
- It has significantly increased the level of satisfaction of its customers
- Upgraded and reused old equipment under the centralized control of the new system.

Zenon Automation SAICT
zenon.gr/en

Fully automated End-of-Line system for liquid detergents

> 2 automatic and 4 semi-automatic case packing lines
> Automatic case Sealing, weighing and labeling
> Central overhead case conveying line
> Case sorting system by SKU
> Central palletizing and wrapping system
> Automatic pallet labelling

Zenon Automation SAICT handed Syngenta a complete system that automated the process of secondary and tertiary packaging.

The system includes:

- 2 pick & place systems for bottle caps
- 3 cartesian bottle casers
- Robotic palletizer for cases
- Pallet transfer
- Stretch wrapping
- Lines & tanks SCADA system

The system that Zenon Automation implemented in Kyknos SA covered the company's need for automating the process of palletizing of metal cans.

Zenon's complete solution includes: a) palletizing of carton trays with cans, b) stretch wrapping of ready pallets, c) 30 carton trays per minute, d) 4 different sizes of cans.