| Process and Packaging: Different Worlds or Just Different Data?
 Processing and packaging have long been treated as two different worlds, walled off from each other by the obvious differences in the two functions. However, a growing number of industry professionals contend that, given the demands of today's business and regulatory environment, this wall has outlived its usefulness.
Process and packaging—the manufacturing operations that combine to bring us the vast majority of the products that we use every day. Typically, though, they operate largely independently of each other. These are vastly different operations, with different mechanical and control characteristics, so their traditional separation only makes sense, right?...
Read more
Automation and Standards Bring New Life to an Old Machine
Curt G. Joa Inc., Sheboygan Falls, Wis., is a builder of web converting machinery for manufacturers of disposable diapers and other household and medical paper products. Recently, a diaper manufacturer approached Curt G. Joa Inc. to help upgrade a converting machine that was outdated and increasingly expensive to fix.
"Fifteen years ago, when this converting system was made, it was considered top-of-the-line," says Kevin Zeinemann, electrical engineering manager at Joa. "But at that time, plant-floor information was not a priority as it is today, when executives look for production data to help them make business decisions."
The old diaper machine employed several third-party systems, including a different human-machine interface (HMI), drive system and input/output (I/O) system, none of which communicated effectively with each other or with plantwide information systems...
Read more
Linear Actuators Handle the Load
Downtime is the bane of any packaging application.
For one newly designed bottle cleansing packaging and sorting conveyor system, improper loading of linear actuators led to excessive downtime.
The de-stacker is positioned at the forefront of the robotic packaging conveyor. Stacks of boxes on pallets containing empty bottles are stocked in the front, waiting to be moved further down the packaging line. As the de-stacker cycles down the pallet stack, it moves the 272-pound pallets into position to be lowered onto the conveyor and on to the next station.
The operation requires a system of actuators to work synchronously to complete two stacking tasks: horizontally driving the bottle boxes into lowering position and vertically raising/lowering the boxes onto the transfer conveyor...
Read more
|
