MAY 2015 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 29

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are a design and engineering company focused on bringing sanitary secondary packaging equipment into the CPG (consumer packaged goods) market.

Says Alboim: “The second part of our business is as a distributor of value-added CI (continuous improvement) solutions for the CPG market.

“Basically, our objective is to help companies identify areas for continuous improvement and

ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR

For any group of people contemplating starting up their own business, the main question to ask and answer is the existentialist ‘why’? As

in why the proposed business is important or essen-tial in today’s or even tomorrow’s marketplace.

While many would-be business propositions might have a dream that is uniquely their own, for success to occur, the product or service provided must be something that is needed by the prospect-ive customers or consumer.

While some might argue that there are no ori-ginal ideas left, real entrepreneurs will happily examine a market and determine where a real need is going unfulfilled, and fill it with something the industry and the consumer will both find innova-tive and helpful to the bottom line.

Frustrated by a perceived lack of innovation within the CPG (consumer packaged goods) sec-tor, one Canadian company recently decided to stop complaining about it and dedicated itself to resolve the issue of what they called an “obvious dearth of forward momentum.”

Called Bluewater Automation, the upstart Canadian design and engineering packaging ma-chine company was founded in December of 2012. Headquartered in Toronto, with multiple regional offices placed throughout both Canada and the

BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESSOntario equipment designer and engineering services provider brings innovative

secondary packaging concepts to the consumer goods market

(From left): Standing alongside the fully washdown-ready Bluewater Automation F-16 caseformer are: BlueWater vice-president engineering Chuck Breshears; president Jaime Alboim; territory manager for Quebec and Maritimes Andre Vieira, vice-president of business development Brett Payne; vice-president of technology Kevin Keller; Shurtape Technologies eastern Canada account manager Todd Jones; and Shurtape national accounts manager Mark Ewing.

The model F-16 caseformer built by Bluewater utilizes the soft-start and quick exhaust MS-SV series valves manufactured by Festo.

U.S, the new company is wasting no time in mak-ing itself known in the packaging industry circles.

“Although there’s no need to reinvent the wheel, there’s nothing wrong with coming up with a way to make the wheel better for all concerned,” com-pany president Jaime Alboim told Canadian Pack-aging during a recent interview.

“And Bluewater has done just that,” Alboim pro-claims, asserting the crew at Blue water says it can not only talk the talk, but also walk the walk, as well as anyone out there.

Despite its youth-ful countenance, the company has plenty of experience behind its nameplate, with a roster of highly ex-perienced employees sharing almost 100 years of collective experience specific to the secondary packaging segment of packaging automation.

“Bluewater is actually a few things,” Alboim explains.

“First and foremost we

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implement very simple but fast solutions to help with a custom-er’s workf low issues.”

According to Alboim, the com-pany was founded because all seven of the partners had been involved in various areas of the CPG market, including end-users, OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and distributors, and all were frustrated with the lack of innovation both on the equipment and management sides of the business.

“We decided to change the way people think about companies in this market and start from scratch to develop a company based on innovation and progressive busi-ness ideals,” Alboim explains.

“All of us were in agreement that something needed to be done to alter the way people think about companies in this market.”

Alboim says that the manufactur-ing aspect of Bluewater’s business is actually a third-party scenario, “Our partner of choice is located in Toronto, and as such we don’t require a huge infrastructure.

“We do however require our manufacturing partner to pro-vide that infrastructure, while we provide the guidance and exper-tise to oversee product design and manufacturing,” he explains.

According to Alboim, Blue-water struck gold the first time it sat down to design a project—recently debuting the F-16 series caseformer.

As he explains, the F-16 gets its name as a ‘Former’ capable of erecting up to 16 cases per minute, and is available in either a tape-sealing version, F-16T, or the glue-based F-16G.

As to why there was such a long delay from the time Bluewater was formed until the time the F-16 debuted, Alboim responds, “We were ensuring we designed and created the best machine possible, which is exactly what we did.”

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(Above): A small sampling of Beckhoff’s vast array of technolo-gies exhibited at a recent open-house hosted by Bluewater. (Left) Bluewater Automation uses the stainless steel panel PC manufactured by Beckhoff Auto-mation to bring high-performance control to the F-16 caseformer.

Festo Canada shows of a fraction of its products, including the MS-SV series of valves, switches and tubes at a Bluewater open-house event.

MAY 2015 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 31

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lence was key amongst every single end-user we talked to,” begins Alboim.

“And while it seemed obvious that a lot of the equipment available to the end-user was of decent quality regarding sanitary specs upstream and mid-dle-of-line, there did seem to be interest and a real need for the same in the end-of-line production area,” he relates.

Alboim explains that although such end-of-line features as case-packing are historically separate from primary packing and processing areas—espe-cially where food products are concerned—thanks to such factors as space utilization and cost reduc-tion, processors are increasingly looking to obtain faster ROI (return-on-investment) by seeking to move secondary end-of-line packaging equipment into the production areas.

“It might seem like a simple thing to do, but those end-of-line packaging machines simply aren’t designed to be exposed to the washdown environments that are required to maintain a safe and healthy product for consumers and, of course, brand-owners and processors,” explains Alboim.

“So we did something about it by building one.”The F-16 caseformer is a fully-automatic, stain-

less-steel, open-form frame machine that comes exactly as Bluewater advertises—a secondary or end-of-line system built and engineered specific-ally to withstand rigorous washdown applications.

“Our new clean designs are not only suitable for

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The two-inch stainless-steel PrimeLoc tape head supplied by Shurtape provides excellent case-sealing capabilities.

Beginning with a blank sheet, Bluewater per-sonnel scouted numerous production facilities to discuss with end-users what they liked and didn’t

like about their current roster of production line equipment.

“Maintaining the highest levels of sanitary excel-

32 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM CANADIAN PACKAGING • MAY 2015

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wet environments but, more importantly, are de-signed from the ground up to meet strict sanitary specifications,” explains Alboim, noting the team of individuals responsible for the manufacturing of the F-16 are specifically-trained and familiar with industry food safety requirements, including HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points), NAMI (North American Meat Institute), 3-A Sanitary Standards and more.

“Because what we were creating was brand new, we had no limitations when it came to design in the sense that we didn’t have to worry about legacy products to support or have our spare parts business be put at risk,” Alboim relates.

“By taking two full years talking to prospects and industry experts about what was lacking in the field of caseforming and sealing, it played a huge role in our development of the F-16 system.”

According to Alboim, simply having a great con-cept isn’t enough if the materials it is constructed from are below-par.

To that end, Bluewater only uses the “most pro-gressive technologies in the market today,” accord-ing to Alboim, utilizing the engineering expertise from companies such as Beckhoff Automation, Festo, Shurtape and Xiplinx Technologies.

“Each of those companies have had a hand in making sure Bluewater is answering the questions to problems that our clients have identified,” he relates, adding that it was a collective decision of all involved in Bluewater to not only design and build the F-16 with the best materials available, but also incorporate the most forward-thinking con-trol system in the market today.

The small footprint of the F-16—approximately four by six feet—lends itself perfectly to food plants, according to Alboim, especially where space is at a premium and washdown procedures are a requirement.

The F-16 systems open-form frame is constructed of stainless steel, but Alboim points out it’s not just a standard afterthought.

“I can’t state how important it is to note that when we built the F-16, it wasn’t just a mild-steel machine clad with stainless steel, but rather it was

intentionally designed with stainless steel as the primary material,” he affirms.

Utilizing the services of Beckhoff Automation for controls and troubleshooting of the F-16, “it allows us to have a very simple interface, which also allows for advanced troubleshooting, diagnos-tics and set-up procedures,” says Alboim, noting that the F-16 also utilizes Beckhoff ’s IP69k-rated servomotor for the main drive assembly to give the machine better control of the sealing process.

“We evaluated so many control platforms for the F-16, really performing our due diligence, but Beckhoff gave us exactly what we were looking for at Bluewater,” he explains.

Alboim points out that using the stainless-steel panel PCs from Beckhoff brings more high-performance PC-based control to packaging, food and beverage applications with strict cleaning requirements.

Additionally, the caseformer employs Festo’s indus-try-renowned advanced pneumatics technology, in-cluding an industry-leading IP69k-rated valve bank, the new MPA-C valve terminal that helped set a new standard in clean design, according to Alboim.

“The MPA-C terminal allows us to offer an auto-mation platform that is reliable in performance, meets the highest hygienic standards, is f lexible in its configuration, and provides state-of-the-art in-novation,” he says.

Alboim describes the MPA-C terminal as be-ing very easy to clean for the end-user, while also being highly resistant to corrosion and cleaning agents, meeting the requirements for protection class IP69K by incorporating USFDA-compliant materials, including NSF-H1 grease.

Available with fully-functional manual over-rides, Alboim says the Festo terminal can be ex-panded up to 32 valves one at a time.

“The MPA-C also has the ability to communi-cate to many protocols, which simplifies the con-trols architecture,” mentions Alboim.

“We had evaluated a number of pneumatic plat-forms for the F-16, and Festo’s progressive, clean design-solution, coupled with its commitment to quality and support, really won us over at Blue-water,” he relates.

Although many end-users underestimate its im-portance, the F-16 utilizes the PrimeLoc two-inch stainless steel tape head from Shurtape, in order to provide the most-advanced tape head and sealing technology available.

“Surprisingly, many end-users only know that when the package leaves their facility, it was sealed, but not much more after that. We knew we could apply more seal control with a better adhesive sys-tem and so we wanted to ensure that even if the end-user wasn’t as up to snuff on such things, we would be on their behalf,” offers Alboim.

According to Shurtape, the secret of its success is the combination of tape and tape application tech-nology, which increases the strength of the sealed cases, even with recycled corrugated content, and it reduces material waste thanks to lightweighting and a proprietary “Good to the Core” capability.

It can also increase equipment availability/up-time, as it also reduces tape breakage and poor or improper tape application.

“It even provides greater product protection from pilferage, but still offers a no-knife, easy-open case,” says Alboim adding that along with wire-less monitoring, the fully stainless-steel assembly allows for that all-important washdown aspect that Bluewater Automation demands.

Another key supplier utilized by Bluewater is Xiplinx Technologies, who developed SITE-FLO, a discrete, semi-automated, mobile software solution that helps the customer rapidly identify performance improvement opportunities in manu-facturing facilities in real-time.

According to Xiplinx, managers can utilize SITEFLO to map project workf low and operating procedures and assign continuous improvement activities to technical personnel.

“The response to the SITEFLO product from our customer base has been overwhelmingly posi-tive,” Alboim reveals.

“We’re working on installations with blue-chip companies with whom we have deep relationships with, and can see that their potential ROI will be significant.”

Alboim is confident that the Bluewater Auto-mation caseforming solution will allow greater f lexibility to production line design for many end-users in the CPG industries.

“Especially these days, with such rigorous de-mands for cleanliness at the forefront of thought for both the consumer and food processor, main-taining a clean environment in all aspects of the production line has never been such an important focal point,” he ref lects.

“Our F-16 caseformer is exactly what we found the CPG industry asked for, and we have pro-vided—an intricate, small-footprint, full-wash-down stainless steel machine that, oh yeah, can also erect cases quickly and efficiently,” he con-cludes.

“Sometimes you can get exactly what you want and need.”

Bluewater Automation 460

Beckhoff Automation Canada Ltd. 461

Festo Canada 462

Shurtape Technologies Co. 463

Xiplinx Technologies Ltd. 464

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A fully-erected case moves through the Bluewater F-16 former, about to pass over the Shurtape sealing system.