Confectionary & Snacks

Cartoner for Ritter Sport

A robot places individual bars from transport cartons onto a feeding conveyor belt.

Flexible Packaging for Chocolate Variants

  • Two TLM cartoning lines pack 330 bars per minute each
  • Pick-and-place with image processing
  • Flexible grouping of bars with varying thicknesses (10 to 13 bars per display box)
  • Serialization for full traceability
  • Tool-free format changes

Requirements

Multiple Varieties, One Packaging Format

Ritter Sport is one of Germany’s most iconic chocolate brands – not least due to its signature square shape. At its Reichenbach facility near Stuttgart, Ritter packs its bars into display boxes for retail.


The challenge: with around 40 flavors ranging from delicate marzipan to hearty whole hazelnut, bar thickness varies. This means the number of bars per box is constantly changing. Ritter needed a packaging system that could seamlessly handle different varieties without tool changes, while ensuring maximum efficiency and process stability.


Another requirement: the company was looking for a serialization solution to uniquely identify each bar and box. The aim was to automate data capture (e.g., best-before dates) and reliably apply product information for full traceability.

Solution

Flexible Packaging and Reliable Serialization

Schubert supplied two identical TLM cartoners, each handling up to 330 bars per minute – fully automated, precise, and highly flexible. At the heart of each line is a camera-guided pick-and-place process: the chocolate bars arrive loosely packed in cardboard trays from the Waldenbuch production site. High-resolution cameras detect both quantity and position. Carton trays that are not completely filled or contain displaced bars are rejected – keeping the process smooth and stable.


The serialization solution is fully integrated: each bar receives a 2D data matrix code with relevant information such as batch and best-before date. In addition, an SSCC number is printed on each box to clearly assign it to the individual bars inside. Schubert integrated cameras and printers to provide a reliable traceability solution at full line performance.

“For us, camera-based robotics are all about efficient, smooth processes.”

Marco Wleklinski

Project Manager at Ritter Sport in Reichenbach

Technical Details

  • Use of image processing to check the number and position of the bars in the carton trays
  • Output per line: up to 33 display boxes per minute
  • Preprogrammed filling quantities for 10 to 13 bars per box
  • Automated product positioning

Perfect Orientation in the Display

The bars are fed in cardboard trays and placed by two pick-and-place robots onto a conveyor – five bars per cycle, with the sealed areas of the individual flowpack – the so-called fins –pointing outward. A single-lane infeed transports them to a grouping chain, where they are briefly positioned upright on a fin.

A tilting unit rotates the bars 90 degrees, aligning them with their text front-facing and the fins pointing outward again. A TLM-F2 robot groups 10 to 13 bars per the variety and inserts them into the formed display boxes. Sensors continuously monitor the product count. Simultaneously, folding and gluing steps are carried out – enabling a fast, flexible, and perfectly aligned packaging process.

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