It was Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. Erick Dusi, Sales Manager at Robatech Italy, heard his phone ringing. A final call just before the end of the day, he thought. Marco Locatelli, owner of Locatelli Saline di Volterra S.r.l., called to ask for help as his packaging line had stopped. The adhesive application was no longer working. Locatelli urged that by Friday, the line had to be running again – on Monday morning, they would have to load two trucks with 1-kg salt packs. Erick Dusi reacted with humor: “I think you have dialed the wrong number. This line is not for miracles.” Although the problem concerned a third-party system, he immediately realized how serious the situation was.
Erick Dusi responded with humor: “I think you've got the wrong number. This number isn't for miracles.” But even though the problem concerned a third-party system, he immediately realized how serious the situation was.
Locatelli Saline di Volterra S.r.l., headquartered in the Tuscan town of Volterra, produces 1-kg salt packs on its packaging line. A third-party adhesive application system applies hot-melt beads to the long bottom flaps and the top flaps of the packages. The line operates in batch mode, and a large order was being processed.
However, in early May, problems started to occur. The adhesive application became unreliable, and salt spilled from the packages. “The manufacturer of the adhesive system offered Locatelli a service appointment, but not for another five weeks,” recalled Erick Dusi. “So they reduced the machine speed to be able to continue production at all, but the amount of waste production kept increasing. Eventually, Locatelli had to stop production.”
On May 15, 2025, Marco Locatelli initially decided on an operational lease with Robatech. Although Robatech immediately inspected the line and prepared an offer, the bank’s credit check took time. Time that Locatelli did not have. Any delivery delay would have caused serious consequences for the business.
It was Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. when Marco Locatelli called again, this time to immediately place a purchase order for a new adhesive application system with Robatech. Erick Dusi and his colleagues from sales and finance postponed their end-of-day plans. By 7:00 p.m., all administrative and financial formalities had been completed.
On Wednesday, the team at Robatech Italy’s warehouse assembled the components: a Concept B 5 adhesive melter, four heating hoses, four SX Diamond application heads, an AS 40 application control system with encoder and signal generator, and the matching nozzles for bead application.
Thursday, May 22, 2025, 10:00 a.m. A delivery truck from Locatelli Saline di Volterra S.r.l. arrived at Robatech in Cesena. The adhesive application system was ready for transport to Saline di Volterra, 250 km away.
Six hours later, Giulio Rodani, Operation Manager at Locatelli, had already prepared the packaging line for installation. At 5:00 p.m., a Robatech service technician arrived, checked the preparatory work, and gave the green light for installation on the next day.
Friday, May 23, 2025. A second Robatech service technician arrived on site. It was time to install, program, and run test cycles on the new adhesive application system. By 2:00 p.m., the line was ready for production.
Monday, May 26, 2025. Locatelli Saline di Volterra’s packaged salt is ready for collection in securely sealed packages.
“With our hot-melt system, we were able to increase the packaging line speed by 50% – up to 180 cartons per minute,” summarizes Erick Dusi from Robatech. “Additionally, scrap production dropped to zero. It seems our service truly works wonders.”