Speaking at the October 2021 Fakuma plastics industry fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany, Marco Marconi, Sales Area Manager at Campetella Robotic Center srl, an industrial robot producer and automation solutions provider headquartered in Montecassiano, Italy, said “it was the most successful ever Fakuma fair”. Despite the same number of high-quality contacts as at Fakuma 2018, visitors were mainly management-level decision makers.
Visitors came from all of the most important German packaging players, while medical and automotive sectors were also represented. All of them used the opportunity to visit again a trade fair to renew and gain contacts and to become acquainted with the latest technologies, following Fakuma 2020 cancellation. The covid 19 pandemic, as stated by Marconi, sparked an explosive growth in medical and packaging industries whilst the automotive industry’s growth was prompted by the investments in electric cars. The global market is changing abruptly, and both large and small companies need to automate to stay competitive and gain advantages over their competitors.
“Campetella benefits even more from this growth, as it is outstanding at providing All-In-One standardized automation solutions”, Marconi explained, adding that staff shortages worsened by the pandemic encourage investment in Campetella’s automation solutions. As a matter of fact, large companies cannot suffer from a labour shortage when it comes to repetitive tasks, struggling to find and keep operators to package finished products.
Marconi says Campetella solves this problem with a complete range of standard robots that can be integrated within downstream automation solutions. Rather than being limited to just side- or top-entry part and sprue removal from injection moulds, Campetella can perform all quality control and packing functions. Above all, Campetella’s Selective Compliance Articulated Robot Arm (SCARA) excel in packing, placing items directly in cardboard boxes, then passing them on for AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) or AMR (Autonomous Mobile Robot) transfer to warehousing.
No better opportunity as Fakuma 2021 for Campetella, in partnership with Engel and Arburg, to show its fully automated IML stack moulding packaging solutions. Noteworthy, Campetella’s ultra-high-speed take-out GS2 Gunshot X-Series top-entry robot for packaging applications with cycle times down to as low as 2.3 seconds, was exhibited at its own stand. Last but not least, Campetella’s high performance and compact CX1 E-series robot was running at Matsui and JSW’s stand.
Marconi stresses, “Having all these robots managed via one common EVO control system makes life easier since the operators need to be trained only on one programming language. Furthermore, the shared robotic platform among all Campetella products optimizes the management of components, spare parts and enables efficient customer service. This is our strength, so is for our customers.
Campetella increasingly uses lightweight design. This ranges from carbon fibre, wherever possible, to additive manufacturing of hundreds of components overnight in a much cleaner and faster process than traditional CNC production. When 3D printed in PA12 (Polyamide 12), such parts are much lighter than metal equivalents, so enable robots to work faster and free of vibrations. Marconi points out the high degree of vertical integration: “We try to do anything that CNC can make, so we produce 80% of our components for robots ourselves”. Campetella is replacing pneumatic actuators where possible in favour of servo-electric drives using motors from Kollmorgen in the US, the worldwide leader for the production of servo-motors. By doing so, Campetella aims at reducing CO2 emissions while increasing reliability and efficiency.
Business status
Marconi says Campetella has 135 direct employees, plus access to and support from 105 staff working in 26 external sales/service and distribution companies. Campetella expected turnover of €21 million in 2021, with €38 million target for 2025.
A new 7,500 square metres production hall in 2022 will almost double floor space from today’s 8,500 square metres, to accommodate this business growth and enable robot installations to rise from 500/year to 1,200/year in the following years. Campetella have decided to establish subsidiaries in Germany and in the UK in 2022 and another one in the US in 2023. Not to forget the long-lasting strategic partnership with Sumitomo (SHI) Demag plastics machinery, which presented at Fakuma 2021 its first own-branded robot series solution, being the mechanics provided by Campetella
