Mackle upgrades pet food formats with Clevertech and OMRON

Mackle Petfoods, in collaboration with Clevertech, is launching its new production line dedicated to the manufacturing of single-serve flexible pouches for dog and cat food, designed to double production with minimal investment. The automation of some of the critical processes has been entrusted to OMRON, which also supplied the Delta robot vision systems. Clevertech was responsible for the engineering and implementation of the system, including handling for depalletizing empty crates, palletizing full crates for quarantine product management, drying of the pouches and transport of both pouches and crates along the line.

At a Glance

To meet the growing demand for single-serve, recyclable pet-food packaging, Mackle Petfoods worked with Clevertech and OMRON to automate a previously manual pouch-handling process. The new line integrates iX4 Delta robots, FH vision systems and PLC control to manage flexible pouches with ±1 mm accuracy. This turnkey solution improved efficiency, reduced errors and increased output to 135 pouches per minute, whilst reducing labour needs and line footprint. The system is designed to double capacity in future and aligns with EU sustainability goals by supporting mono-material packaging. Mackle now benefits from faster production, improved quality and a future-proof packaging process.

Key Benefits

• 50% increase in productivity compared to manual operations
• Elimination of placement errors through high-precision vision and robotics
• No dedicated operators required for pick-and-place tasks
• 30% reduction in footprint, freeing up valuable factory space
• Future-ready line designed for scalable output and sustainable materials

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“We wanted to automate a completely manual process to boost efficiency, productivity, and to future-proof our operations. We’re already running 135 pouches per minute, and the system is designed to double that capacity.”

Gareth Rogers

Head of Engineering, Mackle Petfoods