Move, But Don't Touch

Bürstenfabrik Ebnat-Kappel AG (Ebnat-Kappel, Switzerland), a manufacturer of home care brushes, toothbrushes and specialized cleaning brushes, solved a difficult packaging challenge involving motion control, a problem that plagued a new line of interdental flossers.

The package was a thin, decorated plastic bag that was proving difficult to lift, open and fill in an end-of-line workstation.

In the lifting stage, static charge and cling made conventional vacuum handling ineffective, often lifting two or three bags in addition to the one lifted by the vacuum fixture. In addition, the vacuum contact wrinkled or smudged the package.

Plus, conventional blow opening could not be used to make the bag ready for product. Product specifications set a maximum particulate limit on the bag interior and using external, intermittent streams of air to open bags injected too much dust into the packages.

Manual methods were considered. "Unfortunately," says Gottfried Kaufmann, purchasing team member at Bürstenfabrik Ebnat-Kappel, "batch production dictated short runs at relatively high manufacturing rates, making automation a necessity." The solution was a non-contact transfer (NCT) solution from... Read more

VFDs Reduce Wear, Save Energy

They come with many names: variable frequency drives (VFDs), adjustable frequency drives (AFDs), adjustable speed drives (ASDs), speed drives, motor controllers, inverters or alternating current (AC) drives.

But "probably the most widely accepted [name] would be VFDs," observes Brian Geoffrey, senior software engineer with the Embedded Software Development Group within the Drives Division of motion control products vendor Yaskawa Electric America Inc. (www.yaskawa.com), New Berlin, Wisc.

End-users know or should know that VFDs produce energy savings. One of the biggest ways comes from optimizing motor speed and demand, Geoffrey explains. "Applications that benefit the most from this would be fans, blowers and pumps." Why? "Without a VFD, the motor would run at full speed all the time. If a certain pressure or flow less than this maximum is required, an inlet, throttling or bypass valve would be installed. The energy lost due to these kinds of devices can be significant..." Read more

The Odd Couple of Packaging

Together, robotics and vision, two dissimilar technologies with many similar attributes, are bringing new levels of flexibility, safety and traceability to packaging and palletizing operations.

Together, the last two years have netted only modest growth in North American sales for the robotics industry, largely due to fluctuating demand from its largest customer, the auto industry. The bright spot has been sales of robots for packaging and palletizing applications, which continued to grow in 2007. This comes on the heels of a whopping 150 percent growth in this area from 2001 to 2006.

What's fueling this growth? "Robotics offers flexibility. That's one of the prime reasons for the increase of robots in packaging that we've seen over the last few years," says Jim Cooper, manager of packaging distribution, Fanuc Robotics America Inc... Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT

Upcoming Webcast- October 16, 2008
"Machine Safety Design: The Benefits of an Integrated Safety Solution for Machine Builders and End-Users"

Join us for a FREE hour-long presentation and learn about the benefits of an integrated safety solution for machine builders and their end-users. Learn about machine safety design from a customer who has integrated a Rockwell Automation safety solution and an expert who has helped deploy a Rockwell Automation safety solution. Click here to Register!