Packaging

Robotically fed flow wrapper controlled over sercos III

Tasked with the development of a robotically fed flow wrapper for a demanding food-related application, packaging machinery expert Tekpak found that motion control and automation products, sercos III linked, were the key to producing a simple to use machine that provides the required high performance with reliability and value for money. Technological advances have transformed the business and IT worlds, and are now doing the same for industrial automation, including the packaging industry. More intelligent machine-to-machine (M2M) communications are allowing machine performance data to be collected in real time, analysed and responded to, where required. The goals are to reduce packaging machine downtime to the minimum, whilst improving efficiencies and flexibility.

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Servo Technology Is Key to More Cost-Effective Machine Building

This year’s interpack saw the introduction of the Fawema FA 217, a brand-new bag filling and closing machine for pre-made bags. The new machine, which is equipped with automation technology from Schneider Electric, demonstrates that modern servo drive solutions can do more than just increase flexibility. With the FA 217, the company was also able to reduce manufacturing and operational costs at the same time.

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A Sugar Stick Every 0.5 Seconds - Italian filling machine with real-time automation from Rexroth

They can be found everywhere from gastronomy to offices: various forms of sugar packets and sugar sticks are a must for hot drinks. In Europe alone, consumers use several hundred million of these packets every year. At a unit price of under 0.5 cents, low costs and the highest throughput are essential for production. The Italian company M.F. snc Macchine automatiche now offers a new, high-performance machine for filling these small packets. M.F. relies on lean automation from Rexroth with real-time communication via a sercos automation bus.

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Tea Bag Manufacturing

Real-time communication for timeless pleasure. From commercial gimmick to a consumer good filled a million times a day: the tea bag is celebrating its one hundredth birthday this year. Teepack Spezialmaschinen GmbH & Co. KG from the Lower Rhine region, a subsidiary of Teekanne GmbH & Co. KG, has been producing machines for the manufacturing of tea bags for 60 years. As a world market leader Teepack continues to develop new modules, to fit tea bag manufacturing to current trends. The drives of the machine stations communicate with each other in real-time via sercos III. With this PERFECTA reaches a clock cycle of 400 tea bags a minute.

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More flexibility in Machine Construction thanks to Industrial Ethernet

The dream of an intelligent factory is almost as old as industrial engineering itself. The higher the number of employees and workstations working in parallel for the production of a product, the more communication and control is required. What was once defined by a strict working cycle is now done by information channels constituting the nervous system of a company.

Read the complete sercos article "Ethernet in Machine Construction (Part1)"

Trends and challenges in industrial automation

Everything used to be very simple. The machines set the pace on the plant floor. Maintaining a perfect rhythm made the work more efficient. The rules are different in today’s state-of-the-art production environments. Fast reaction to change has become an additional success factor which contributes to high productivity during normal day-to-day operations. No matter how well you prepare, you cannot plan for every eventuality.

Read the complete sercos article "Ethernet in Machine Construction (Part 2)"

Data traffic with high performance and tested reliability

Maximum efficiency is the goal of every machine manufacturer. Every project has to be judged in terms of how far it offers an optimum balance between results and costs. Therefore, new technologies are not taken up simply because they are new but because they improve efficiency without raising costs unnecessarily.

Read the complete sercos article "Ethernet in Machine Construction (Part 3)"

How companies can master the conversion safely and systematically

One should love all things old, recommends Theodore Fontane in his book “Der Stechlin”, whereas the new has to be lived. This is generally easier said than done, however, since switching to a new technology involves numerous hurdles. Opportunities, risks and costs have to be weighed up. And there is also an emotional component, as no one ever likes to say goodbye to something which they have got used to.

Read the complete sercos article "Ethernet in Machine Construction (Part 4)"