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FEATURE MOTION CONTROL


Making more of motion control in packaging machine design


Packaging machine design calls for ever greater levels of performance and flexibility, combined with the ability for faster product changeovers. To help meet these challenges, Gerard Bush, of INMOCO, advises engineers to make greater use of electronic motion control technologies


required, for example. XY tables or other placement processes offer a solution. The next operation on the packaging


line will be enclosing the products and sealing them. For this, simple mechanical systems might well be adequate, but increasingly picking and placing is being provided by Cartesian systems with defined motion profiles. On food or liquid processing lines,


T


he level of automation


within packaging lines has increased dramatically over recent years. End users have called for greater performance, the ability to handle smaller batch sizes, and rapid changeovers from one batch to the next. As customers look for ever greater customisation, packaging machines are required to handle a broader range of products, faster and more efficiently. Electronic motion control has thus become critical to the design of such machinery. It can provide the ability to quickly change from one product batch to another. Furthermore, electronic motion control has become an important aspect of virtually all functions of a packaging machine’s operation. The operations starts with the sorting and portioning of products to be packaged. Options for sorting, directing, or rejecting products could include everything from pick-and-place robots or XY tables, to mechanical flippers, or pushers and spinners. Simple mechanical devices offer effective solutions for use with large batch runs of a single product. However, their lack of adaptability means they are not so good on machines that accommodate smaller batches or multi- product runs. Here, an electronic solution is preferred because of the speed with which they can switch from one batch to


20 FEBRUARY 2017 | DESIGN SOLUTIONS the next.


Trapezoidal or S- curve velocity point-to-


point moves can be readily programmed into the motion


control system, or custom profiles can be quickly developed to replicate the functionality of mechanical cams. This enables motion to be controlled and synchronised. On beverage lines, the ‘portioning-of-


products’ function is manifested as a liquid dispensing operation. This will have similar motion control aspects, but they will cover the control of pumps to dispense the required amount of liquid. Alternatively, a packaging line might be fed from an extruder, requiring the cutting of correct sizes of material from a continuous feed. This is most easily accomplished using a rotating knife, but even here there can be important motion control considerations. For example, the knife will need to be synchronised with the extruder speed so that product portion sizes remain constant, even if the extruder speed increases or decreases. This synchronisation can be readily accomplished using an electronic gear profile or with an electronic cam. In some applications, there may be a


benefit in looking at more sophisticated methods of handling the cutting of products from the material stock pieces, when two or more product sizes are


operations might include applying caps to bottles, or a film or foil cover. Motion control can be used to ensure that caps are secured to a set torque by running the amplifiers in electronic torque mode. Film application, on the other hand, will typically be a web tensioning operation. Maintaining the web at a determined tension is a further motion control task. Options include simple control of mechanical dancer arms to control both the supply and tensioning spool using electronic motion solutions. The same considerations may need to be applied to the final sealing of the containers for the product batch.


As the packaged products approach the outfeed, a final operation will be the labelling of boxes or cartons. Here, the application of the label is provided by a mechanism such as a moving arm. Designers will need to look at how the speed of the labeller is synchronised to the conveyor speed (perhaps using electronic gears or cams) and how the arm deals with different product sizes. In all areas of packaging machine


design, electronic motion control can deliver improved flexibility and performance. However, users of today’s high capability packaging machines typically do not want to use wall- mounted controllers, as is often necessary with PLC-based solutions. Instead they prefer motion control ICs and amplifiers that are ultra-efficient so that they can be directly integrated to the equipment frame. INMOCO can supply Performance Motion Devices (PMDs) to meet the needs of high-tech packaging machines. The equipment is also well suited to advanced applications that require both configuration flexibility and dynamic motion performance, yet can be easily configured to handle multiple motion control requirements.


INMOCO www.inmoco.co.uk


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