Provides great advantages in packaging lines
The growing need to improve the productivity of packaging processes around the world is being faced by the industry by increasing the degree of automation of packaging and packaging lines. The development of faster, more flexible, and less delicate production and distribution systems than the existing ones tends not only to reduce costs but also to increase production.
Motion detectors, use of robots, monitoring, online and offline troubleshooting, software, and systems integration are things that increase the productivity of the systems provided by manufacturers to users. Even a minimal increase in efficiency brings considerable economic benefits.
Only those who adapt quickly and flexibly to the continuous expansion of the range of products and packaging formats with increasingly shorter production cycles will be able to satisfy the wishes of customers today really well. In order to increase the flexibility of production, the motors and control devices of fast packaging machines and packing machines that have a single axis are replaced by multiaxial systems.
The general reduction of the workforce and the simultaneous lack of specialists and qualified workforce pose an additional burden for the packaging industry, as it has to produce more every day with some personnel. As for the machines and the integral systems of packing and packing, it is also required an increase in their functionality and that they take up less space.
At interact 99, fast servo drives, stepper motors, programmable robots, and sensors were presented, which are essential components of all kinds of packaging and packaging operations, such as filling, loading, placing crown caps, corking, closing, sealing, etc. packaging, bottling, packing and welding. Other novelties could be seen in the following fields: labeling, coding, weight control, verification, transport of articles, storage, packaging, packing, and palletizing. In addition, current electronic control systems, the most advanced software, and data transmission protocols in networks were presented by means of which packaging and packaging processes can be coordinated and their productivity increased.
Another of the central themes today is the technology of dialogue between man and machine. Intelligent solutions reduce the learning period of the personnel, as well as the times for the preparation of machines and the work necessary to adapt production processes; they help monitor process performance, with extensive information and fault location capabilities. Touch monitors are smaller in size, but offer better readability and optical qualities.
Another important aspect of further automation or modernization - with a view to simplifying programming - is the seamless communication between the user-specific software and the control software. Automatically deployed hardware, smooth data transmission and compatibility between machines from different manufacturers, icons on the touch screen, and the improvement of the network formed between different machines and systems from different manufacturers around the world are increasingly common in the packaging sector. and packaging. Apart from the aforementioned advances, there is naturally an extensive field related to the coupling between electronic systems and mechanical components, such as shafts, shafts, reducers, brakes, and couplings. Or pneumatic systems, whose innovative solutions offer considerable potential for energy and cost savings. Robotics today goes far beyond the gathering of items on pallets and is an integral part of many packaging processes. Loading and positioning robots perform numerous functions throughout the packaging and packaging process, from packing and loading to feeding and positioning.
Automation functions were one of the main arguments used by American packaging companies in the past century to justify capital investments in machinery.
A recent study by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute came to that conclusion. Almost half of those consulted referred to the importance of the reform for production reasons, without technical complications, to the progressive integration into computerized systems and the trend towards more and more user-friendly control systems. The intensive use of robots, self-diagnosis systems, higher speeds, servomechanisms, and powerful video systems was classified as important technological trends by another 30 percent of those consulted. Also the reduction of moving parts, the less space occupied a better evaluation, the easier computing of data and the advances in the technology print-and-apply they also considered them important. The share of electronic equipment in turnover for packaging and packaging machines in the US represents 10 percent of about $ 4 billion. In general, the growth rate of automation systems for packaging and packaging processes clearly exceeds that of the machines themselves.
Although engineering tasks are generally outsourced and technical support is often carried out by system integrators and original equipment manufacturers, most users of packaging and packing machines have a decisive influence by defining the desired electronics at the time of purchase. The packaging and packaging lines that must meet very special specifications, in terms of speed, flexibility, preparation time, efficiency, and control logic, are designed in part by resorting to computer simulation.
Another trend observed is the growing number of machine builders providing remote technical assistance services, thus taking charge of the monitoring operations, locating anomalies, maintaining, and optimizing customer equipment. Electronic technical assistance and support services link suppliers and customers around the world via the Internet and optimize, in addition to technical support, the fulfillment of spare parts orders, which consequently, reduces the cost of automation.
Another evolution that will characterize much of the activity in our sector is the incipient formation and expansion of organizations in the field of automation, which will respond to the need for international standardization of automation systems by proposing models of solutions for networks that, at the edge of the next millennium, they will make the motto of global connectivity of packaging machines a reality.