In the 1960s and 70s, thanks to the intuition and determination of the founder, a new idea of packaging automation takes shape.
THE FIRST PACKAGING MACHINES
For the company the beginnings were not simple. In 1964 Paolo Cassoli had many ideas, but very few resources. Between uncertainties and risks, a path of vision and entrepreneurial ability was launched.
Paolo Cassoli began designing on a drawing table placed at the foot of his bed and assembled the first packaging machine in a garage. It was a compact and fully automatic machine: it was the RA/CI, a multi-roll machine capable of packaging 2/4 rolls of toilet paper, in 2×1 and 2×2 format, with kraft paper for the packaging and glue for the closure.
The first order arrived very quickly and today an example of that same machine is kept at the Museum of Industrial Heritage in Bologna. For the second contract, Paolo Cassoli accepted a new challenge. He had to adapt the RA/CI for two rolls packages, one on top of the other or best described as end on end, in 1×2 format, with one label on each end of the package.
To be able to make this happen, Paolo Cassoli moved to larger premises where he directly followed the production phases: design, planning, assembly and testing. This machine rightly gets excellent reviews and at the same time, the tissue market was starting to grow very rapidly.
ROLLS AND NAPKINS: EXPANDING SECTORS
The demand for packaged toilet paper was growing, and with it the demand for transparent packaging. The first attempts are made with parchment paper, a fragile and thin material, which can tear and break during the folding phase.
Important changes/modifications were therefore deemed necessary to the RA/CI which shortly after was further transformed: it had to suit the needs of polyethylene, which was a new packaging material, resistant, protective, economical and perfectly transparent.
In 1968 arrives the RA/2CIP, an automatic multi-roll packaging machine (2, 4 or 6 rolls) that respects the standard of 40 packs per minute. For the RA/2CIP and the company it is an extraordinary success.
Great satisfactions also come from another machine, the first automatic packaging machine for single-stack napkins, the RA/1S, producing 20 packs per minute. A few years later the RA/2SPV will arrive, suitable for the packaging of 2-ply cellulose napkins folded in 4.
ONE INNOVATION AFTER ANOTHER
Evolutions and innovations on all fronts follow one another over the years. In 1970, the first semi-automatic horizontal bagging machine arrives, the IN/3S, to which is added the FA/3, the first banding machine for logs, the paper winding phase that precedes the cutting into rolls.
In 1974, in an attempt to offer new space-saving solutions to facilitate the new transport on pallets, Cassoli creates the first semi-automatic vertical bagging machine, the IN73SV. In the same year, the RA/2CIV, an automatic multi-roll machine that can guarantee the packaging of 60 packs per minute, is also launched.
With the RA/3CIPS, Cassoli in 1976 launched the first multi-roll in double layer as a world preview. Today the double-layer multi-roll is the most widespread type of machine for the packaging of 1 and 2-layer toilet paper rolls.