Star Cuisine produces more than 160,000 ready meals every week. Artisanal in taste, industrial in scale. When the company moved to a larger facility in 2022, a new challenge emerged: how do you automate a production process without compromising on the quality and authenticity that make StarCuisine so distinctive?
The Challenge
StarCuisine works on the basis of daily orders, which means the production process is different every day. Small batches, fast changeovers and a wide variety of meals are the norm. On top of that, the company works with three different trays: aluminium, plastic and carton. The new production line therefore had to meet two key requirements: high capacity and extreme flexibility. The line also had to be future-proof, ready for further automation down the road.
"The delivery of the line went smoothly. We are very enthusiastic about the complete solution."
The Solution
Sismatec delivered a complete, integrated production and packaging line that matches StarCuisine’s needs exactly. The line is fully prepared for future expansions, such as the direct connection of automatic filling machines, and everything is operated from one central screen. The complete line includes:
- One denester for the three different trays.
- A servo-driven conveyor system with fixed tray positions, fully prepared for the automatic integration of filling machines and recipe-controlled from the screen of the Proseal traysealer.
- Proseal GT1e traysealer for vacuum/gas packaging of aluminium, plastic and carton trays.
- A Tool system that only requires the sub-tool to be changed when switching to a different tray.
- A Marel C-labeller.
- Two cooking kettles for in the Industrial Kitchen.
The Results
The production line runs at full capacity: 58 trays per minute, fully synchronised from filling to sealing. With this set-up, StarCuisine combines production speed with the flexibility it needs for small batches and a varied meal offering.
- Quick changeover time to a different tray of 1 minute.
- Low total cost of ownership
A good partnership between StarCuisine and Sismatec