BARCODING, LABELLING & PACKAGING FEATURE
TRAY SEALING MACHINES with real time production data
Installing eWON Flexy VPN routers along with an internet-based remote access system into high-speed food tray sealing machines is providing users with added value options
either end. The technician making the remote connection can only access 'his own' machine and is therefore unable to enter the customer’s local network.
It quickly became apparent that the eWON-Talk2M solution could provide exactly what customers wanted in terms of real time production data
B
y installing eWON Flexy VPN routers and using the Talk2M Internet-based
remote access system, a manufacturer of high speed food tray sealing machines is now able to offer its customers a range of added-value options including real time visualisation, production management and fault diagnosis tools which minimise costly downtime in high pressure food production environments. Packaging Automation (PA) is a leading
manufacturer of tray sealing and pot filling machinery which are used in a wide range of applications in the food industry including fresh produce, soft fruit packing, fish, seafood, meat, ready meals and sandwiches and pot filling for puddings and sauces. Full packing lines can be specified and installed to include tray denesting, conveying, tray filling and film sealing. Tray sealing machines capable of sealing from 12 to 200 packs per minute are fitted with the eWON Flexy and Talk2M solution which enable remote diagnostics and real time visualisation of live production data on the machines. “This solution provide us with remote
connectivity into the heart of the customer’s machine via the Internet, enabling our engineers to remotely access and diagnose faults, regardless of the machine’s location so that we can get to the root cause of stoppages quicker and help our customers maintain higher levels of production and improved OEE,” says senior R&D engineer Rui Cardadeiro. “These features are critical to our 24/7 customer support service. In addition, we
can offer customers a live, web-based view of their machine and its current operating state (stopped/running) as well as live production statistics including output, current running speed and historic detail of stoppages and changes to machine parameters. We’ve developed mobile dashboards that allow customers to compare OEE statistics across different products on each line which helps them to identify trends and performance variations by shift and line. Inefficiencies or idle time can be spotted quickly to prioritise improvement activities.” Available in the UK from M.A.C.
Solutions (UK), the eWON Flexy is a flexible, modular, industrial machine-to- machine (M2M) VPN router. This concept is based on standard base units which can be extended by modular expansion cards, offering users an almost unlimited number of connection permutations. The current range of eWON Flexy extension cards includes: dual serial port card; Ethernet WAN card; Cellular 3G+ HSUPA card; 802.11b,g,n WiFi/WLAN client card; PSTN dial up modem V92/34/32/22bis; and 3-port USB card. The multiple award- winning Talk2M solution allows the issues of security, configuration and implementation to be resolved while working with the existing firewalls which are employed to protect the company’s networks from outside attacks. This solution provides a secure
communication route via the Internet between user and remote machine without altering the computer network at
CUSTOMER FEEDBACK In 2013 PA commissioned Lancaster University to conduct market research on its customers. This involved asking a sample of PA’s customers what kind of data they would find useful to visualise on their tray sealing machines. The feedback was that they wanted to see live, real time production data in the form of KPIs, OEE, machine speeds, waste, efficiencies, audit trails and alarms. “Shortly after the research was
concluded I attended the eWON FlexThink Conference in Belgium where the eWON Flexy router was launched,” continues Cardadeiro. “While there it very quickly became apparent that the eWON-Talk2M solution could provide exactly what our customers wanted in terms of real time production data. I liked the fact that the solution was flexible, affordable and easy to integrate for both our small and large food producing customers.” After the conference Rui contacted
M.A.C. Solutions who advised and guided him on how to integrate the eWON Flexy with the tray sealing machines. “I’ve had a very good working relationship with M.A.C. Solutions over the past two or three years,” concludes Cardadeiro. “The eWON Flexy is a very flexible solution that allowed me to develop a range of added-value options on our high speed tray sealing machines over a period of four months. eWON Flexy is a low cost solution that is easy to use, deploy and scale up. There is no dependency on an Internet connection as the system still works locally if the customer only wants to use the system internally. For those customers who use it over the Internet web access is totally secure. Those who use our production management (Data Connect) software absolutely love it and want more of it. “We are already developing new features and add-ons to satisfy these needs.”
M.A.C. Solutions T: 01527 529774
www.mac-solutions.net
FACTORY EQUIPMENT | FEBRUARY 2017 27
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