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Networking in the Real World
The packaging industry is heading toward greater networking, but there are some potential pitfalls and roadblocks along the way.
World-class packaging operations. That’s the prospect held forth by the proponents of increased networking and integration. Broader, more comprehensive networking can increase the degree of automation, reduce labor costs, boost quality through remote monitoring and diagnostics, heighten packaging line flexibility and align packaging more closely with both processing operations and business level needs.
In theory, the argument is well nigh irrefutable. But how does it play out in the real world, the place where production demands trump other concerns and the best available, rather than the most elegant, solutions have to be found on a daily basis?
It’s a question that doesn’t lend itself to a simple answer. Packaging operations are too various for that. Gehl’s Guernsey Farms Inc., of Germantown, Wis., is the nation’s largest low-acid, aseptic dairy packaging facility. Its 750,000 square foot plant houses 15 packaging lines encompassing every method of aseptic processing available today: steam infusion, steam injection, tube in tube, tube in shell and swept surface. An array of diet and nutritional shakes, cheese sauces, puddings and pie fillings, and iced coffee drinks are produced, some under the Gehl Foods name, some as supermarket brands or for fast food restaurants and convenience stores. Beverage cans, single-serve cups, pouches and bag-in-box packaging rolls off Gehl’s lines - a total of 2 million servings per day. As with most packaging plants, machines from multiple vendors are employed, including Hassia cup filling and Goodman form/fill/seal equipment, and Douglas case packers on the beverage lines and the cup fill line.
“The actual communication network across our packaging lines varies greatly,” says Greg Dake, control engineer at Gehl’s. “That’s largely based on how long the machines have been in the plant, coupled with how advanced some of the machine suppliers have been in terms of communication networking.” Dake says Gehl’s relied largely on Allen-Bradley’s proprietary DH-45 network, still in use in parts of the plant, before moving to DeviceNet.
“We use DeviceNet quite heavily on our new installations, primarily for control of two different types of applications. The first would be variable frequency drive enclosures, commonly provided by our OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), that are controlled through a DeviceNet network, and then we have long conveyor wiring runs that reach multiple sensors over long distances. We typically use DeviceNet with those to minimize cable length.” Dake also cites the reliability of DeviceNet, and the fact that because so many vendors support it, adding new devices to a DeviceNet network is relatively easy...
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Smaller, Faster, More Flexible Cartoner -
The controls cabinet on this cartoner is 50 percent smaller than that of comparable machines. Changeover is said to be the fastest in the category.
“With this new technology, there’s no need for drives to be installed in the controls cabinet, so we deliver a machine with a controls cabinet about 50 percent smaller than before.”
That’s how Zorn Momich, president of Z Automation (www.zautomation.com), sums up one of the benefits gained by selecting PacDrive from Elau (www.elau.com) as the automation platform in Z’s new CH-7.5-250C horizontal cartoning machine. The reason the controls cabinet contains no drives is because both servo drive and servo motor are integrated in a single Elau unit. These integrated motor/drive units are installed wherever an axis of motion is required. With drive and motor integrated in this fashion, Z Automation not only cuts down on the size of its controls cabinet. It also simplifies wiring connections and shortens installation time. And with 10 axes of servo motion on the machine, that kind of simplification goes a long way.
Additional simplicity and compactness are gained because no programmable logic controller is involved. Both logic and motion are governed by the PacDrive automation controller.
Z Automation is also among the first to use Elau’s iSH Series Intelligent Servo Modules. Each self-contained servo module receives power and communication from a cable coming out of a nearby distribution module. The distribution modules are fed by a shared power supply in the control cabinet. This approach means Z Automation is able to do away with something found in a more conventional configuration of servo motors: the encoder cable and the power cable extending from each servo motor back to the control cabinet...
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