Established in 1954 in Parma, Zanichelli Meccanica SpA manufactures machinery, complete lines and processing plants for the food industry, under the ZACMI trademark.
Represented by over 2,500 installed machines and more than 1,000 customers worldwide, the company relies on a turnover of 30 million Euros, 98% by export and employs more than 110 workers.
Its mission is being a reliable technological partner for the food and beverage industry on a world scale, through long, experience, consolidated know-how and unceasing commitment to innovation, supported by research and development activities. 8% of the annual turnover is invested in the in-house Research and Development Department, that engages five dedicated engineers with five pilot plants to define the best solution for customers’ products, and over 2,500 tested products.
ZACMI competences range from filling to seaming, from processing to packaging.
Filling, seaming and packaging
The food and beverage fillers are suitable for solid, liquid and viscous products, in rigid containers, such as glass and plastic bottles and jars, aluminium and tinplate cans. The telescopic filler is designed to fill solid products, whereas the vacuum and piston fillers, are more suitable for liquid and solid product filling and finally, the flowmeter filler is ideal for liquid foods.
The automatic oil-lubricated clean design seamer with 3, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 heads, made entirely of stainless steel, is suitable for closing any rigid round can. The vacuum seamer, available with 6 and 8 heads, handles tinplate and aluminium cans for vegetable and granular products and it is provided with very high vacuum level in the chamber (0.9 bars relative pressure). The Double Seam Monitoring (DSM) is a device that monitors seaming in real time, detects any seaming anomalies and/or can and lid defects.
The complete filling and packaging lines designed by ZACMI include: container infeed section, the filling-closing section, pasteurisation-sterilisation section and, in collaboration with other partners, the labelling and packaging section.
ZACMI also offers spiral pasteuriser-coolers, suitable for rigid and flexible containers, and pouches, as well as tunnel pasteuriser-coolers for food products in rigid containers.
The Customer Care portal, contains information, technical sheets and updated manuals related to purchased machines, where spare parts can be ordered.
The after-sales service provides technical support and training on installation, commissioning, maintenance services and consulting to improve machine performance. The Remote Access Service (RAS) programme connects the company with customers’ machines to monitor and support problem-solving and to update the Software online. The Augmented Reality, available through app, enables customers’ connection with smartphone, tablet and smart glass and the planning of a live training session to increase the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
Filling and closing: ZACMI takes care of it
ZACMI’s mission is to study a suitable solution for all customers’ requests « ZACMI proposes solutions in the scope of filling and closing: for these two processing phases, we have
developed an increasingly advanced technology, to meet customers’ requirements», the Sales Area Manager, Fabio Belicchi highlights. It is worth underlining several aspects of the offer. «Speaking of utmost quality, we immediately think of our D.S.M. system that, mounted on seaming machines, allows the can seaming precision in real time, in combination with the machine setup concept», Mr. Belicchi explains. «Moreover, our filling machines can reconfigure filling parameters according to the various environmental and production conditions». A function that satisfies customers’ search for technology able to perfectly match their reality and to suit changing circumstances.
Product quality and integrity, through remote monitoring
«Still speaking of highest quality and integrity», Mr. Belicchi adds, «it is worth underlining that ZACMI filling and closing machines can be equipped with a remote monitoring system: connecting with the user, it is possible to check the machine production parameters instantaneously, enabling the remote machine setup».
ZACMI is highly acquainted with the target of making processing and line configuration phases more flexible and leaner. «ZACMI has hugely invested in maximising its product lines’ flexibility, for both single machines and complete lines», Mr. Belicchi confirms. «The Flexible Line concept is linked with the capability of integration and total control for multi-filling lines, where the operator can automatically configure the line through recipe-product». That is not all, Mr. Belicchi adds: «Together with the line configuration management, also single machines of the system can be autonomously configured by the recipe-product to optimize specific filling parameters. Moreover, our filling lines can be connected with customers’ production plans to create a fully integrated production environment (Digital connection to customer production management) ».
Focus on process safety
Another theme on which ZACMI is highly focused is the process safety. «ZACMI machines comply with all national and international legislations and the highest standards of coded safety», Mr. Belicchi outlines. «We have developed some existing systems to further increase the machine safety. Concerning the factory IT security, all operator-interfaces (of single machines and of complete ZACMI lines) are configured with specific access for operators, setting up a matrix for authorization levels that control machine access».