From 1979 to 1995 Cassoli, which had always been at the cutting edge, proposed revolutionary solutions for the transition from mechanics to electronics.
Before finally moving to electronics, Paolo Cassoli and his team launched some very successful packaging machines for the market ie. the PAC 200 and the SUPERPAC series.
The PAC200 was the first double layer machine, presented in 1982 during DRUPA, an important German convention of converting. This model was revolutionary and really innovative because at the time the competitors, Italian and American, offered only machines although faster but only single layer.
The Cassoli’s solution doubles the product handled and produces two different packaging formats at the same time, significantly speeding up and increasing the efficiency of the production process.
The PAC200 was a flexible and reliable packaging machine, which worked at a maximum speed of 160 packs per minute (80 + 80) and helped to optimise space.
The success of this model is so great that even when production had been interrupted, the PAC200s remain operational even today, after more than thirty years, they can still be found in converting operations.
In 1988 Cassoli launched another primary packaging machine, the SUPERPAC, which included machines with 3 and 4 continuous-cycle packaging lanes, to reach the aim of providing advanced and efficient technology. However technological progress did not stop; on the contrary, it provided even more innovative systems, where mechanical aspects were completely replaced by electronic ones.
Electronics brought new inspiration: Cassoli moved from machines conceived for a range of sizes to machines that offered modular solutions.
The difference from competitors consisted in combining four functional groups:
- the product input unit (which may or may not include the double layer unit),
- the film unwind unit (the width of which varies according to the reels),
- the machine body (which is the same for different versions),
- the conveyor unit, called the “overhead transfer” (which varies according to the numbers of layers of the machine).
By bringing these groups together in a schematic way and using new electronic resources, Cassoli presents the EM (Electronic Modular) line: the first fully electronic packaging machine series which surprises the market with its great versatility, eliminating mechanical cams with the use of servomotors.
The single-layer EM14 and the double-layer EM24, which is obtained by transforming the EM14 thanks to simply adding a “retrofit”, are two of the most important models in this particular contest.
Stefano Cassoli, who joined the company in 1978, used to remember that “the EM line was revolutionary. We concocted what today would be considered a ‘multimedia presentation’. To demonstrate this new concept to clients, we created various modules with my son Marco’s Lego bricks. There was no better way to represent the idea of different combinations of the same elements”.