Process optimization of container and packaging machines and automatic lines

In a society of consuming vocation as the current container importance like no other. The effects on consumers of the different packaging and packing containers are of very diverse nature.

In a large area a consumer engaged, on average, 5 seconds each product displayed on different shelves, as this packaging, its distinguishing power, time to convince the potential customer of the benefits of the product (Cervera)(, 1998).

According to the FAO (food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) the use of a suitable packaging could reduce food losses, reducing hunger in the world; These losses can be encrypted between 30% and 50% (third world) and between 3% and 5% (developed countries) (Packforst, 2000).

The annual number of pallets and packaging that can move in a large company of distribution warehouses exceeds 130 million units; Obviously, any effort to make more efficient, both the Group of containers in a package and the grouping of packages on a pallet, will result in a significant reduction in the costs of handling, storage and transportation (Henriksson, 1998).

In a developed economy, a person consumes throughout its existence 130 times its own weight (70 kg) in household containers; these residues should be add their participation in the consumption of industrial packaging or packaging (Cervera, 1998).

With all this data on the table, clearly the importance of packaging and packaging processes to different producers of food and goods of consumption. Its optimization, both for the purposes of cost, productivity and energy efficiency, is primary and priority to those producers.

When designing an automatic line, as to the structure of a process of packing, the concept of flexible production should be a priority. Two points have to be taken into account: the connectivity of the parameters and necessary orders by the production management, and automated adjustment of positions of ceilings, heights, shapes or thicknesses and profiles of movement. Let us focus on this last section.

In a machine or automatic line, nonios and manual settings with cranks can and should be replaced by systems of positioning. In addition to this, an efficient management of recipes will allow machines or lines to change format of packaging or packaging with minimal time and effort.

To this end, the range of linear electric actuators of Larraioz offers the easiest solution for the positioning of tanks, caps or any other mechanism that requires either a pre-posicionado or a movement during the process itself. Basically two families meet these needs: Robocylinder and MPC (multi Cylinder position).

RoboCylinder actuators are equipment intended for the replacement of pneumatic devices. Manufactured by the Japanese House IAI, who proposes a huge diversity of models of electromechanical actuators (over 3,000 references) widely used in the process of packaging and packing of product.

These elements allow very easily control the movement of a top, height, depth, etc... achieving in this way make all the settings of a line of automatic, no manual cranks, without rules, external trasductores, or any other device of measurement or reading.

Format changes, adjustments in cycle or even movements of interpolation, are now as easy as the installation of a cylinder or a solenoid valve.

Both the operator's maintenance without special knowledge of axes or Motion, as the manufacturer or installer of machines and lines of wrapping and packaging, can be on the basis of this time, install, configure and set up systems of automatic adjustment of line with little effort on his part. Without adjustment of complex parameters, without wiring of sensors outside, without end of career: the new RoboCylinder allows movements with maximum tours up to 3 m, repetitividades of positioned 0.01 mm, speeds of up to 3 m/s and up to 2 t. adjustable forces.

Different types of controllers of IAI can easily set up a complex system of actuators, from simple orders of positioned up to complex functions of relations between axles as command of Cartesian robots, Scara, or synchronisms with external devices such as cameras from vision to implementation of tracking of product. All of this is managed through various buses such as Modbus, Profibus or DeviceNet, or simple digital signal among others...

MPC devices are based on the prestigious Swiss firm linear motor LinMot. Engines of separate stem and stator, which do not carry any kind of transmission among themselves. Silent operation, linear motors MPC, are electromagnetic drives linear, free from wear, without intermediate gearboxes, spindles or belts.

The motor consists of only two elements: the actuator rod and the stator. The stem is composed of neodymium magnets mounted inside a tube of stainless steel of high precision. The stator contains the windings, temperature sensor and an integrated electronic card. This card controls the position of the stator by Sensor-Less technology that gives a high repeatability up to 0.05 mm without the need for delicate position transducers.

The design of the engine is based on an effect of magnetic levitation since the field occurs in the 360 degrees of the stator. This also provides a capacity system extremely dynamic: 6 m/s speeds and accelerations of 300 m/s2 (30 G) without any mechanical transmission. The maximum routes reach the 2000mm and can develop forces of 1,000 N.

Their drivers facilitate further movements synchronization, allowing very easily a portico in "gantry", or a system of electronic cam, cutting on the fly, synchronization by mácula… etc.

All these systems are provided on the whole, motor + regulator + wire, with varying degrees of protection up to IP69K, who will make suitable for work in environments of large sealing and hygiene requirements such as food, pharmaceutical or chemical industries. Stainless steel solutions meet the most demanding requirements of different sectors.

LinMot benefits not just in its actuators. Families of B1100 and E1100 controllers allow movement control functions such as positioned simple programming of complete sequences of movement, Gantry axes, relationships counterpart with other axes through freely definable camshaft, or position, posición-velocidad or posición-velocidad - streaming acceleration. The different configurations of interaction through alternatives of control through digital signals, possibility of analog slogans for position, speed or strength, or bus RSLink on RS232 or RS485, CANOpen and DeviceNet, ProfibusDP communication. The new family of controllers E12xx increases the performance of linear engine power, reduces the control loops time optimizing the management of the actuators, and incorporates new buses of Ethernet based real time such as EtherCatPowerLink, Ethernet/IP, ProfiNet, Sercos III.

The use of energy in an efficient way will substantially cut operating costs of the installation and/or machine, as well as benefit the environment. Full convergence between business and development needs, and environment is obvious and essential. The evolution of our company and the sustainable development must go hand in hand.

Usual extensive use of pneumatic systems in lines and machines related to the process of packaging, packing and packaging, hundreds of cylinders can be part of the sequence of product and container handling, without seriously raised the costs of the use of this energy.

Both the RoboCylinder and the MPC are devices designed with the key objective of replacing traditional pneumatic systems. The linear actuators of IAI (Japan) and the linear motor LinMot (Switzerland) using the electrical force as the only source of energy for mechanical transmission. With these devices we can perform operations as simple as that carried out a pneumatic cylinder, move a mass of one point to another, but the fact that servocontrolados systems will allow us to have total control of parameters of the movement such as the acceleration, deceleration, speed, force,... in addition to infinite positions of destiny, really difficult to achieve with pneumatic solutions. You can also perform more complex functions such as synchronizations and interpolations between different axes, use multiple protocols and communication buses to send sequences of movement, to get a feedback from the current position and State of the actuators...

With pneumatic systems, a compressor works by electricity to generate the necessary compressed air for these drives. Generated air is supplied through a network of pipes and other circuits of transmission of the air to the cylinders and other pneumatic actuators. It is in these last few devices where this energy is converted into a force of linear motion. This set of mechanisms is subject to a substantial energy loss.

According to the technological Institute of Tokyo, the energy efficiency of the pneumatic devices around 14%. 100% Of the energy consumida…

-50% Of the power is lost in the own air compressor, due to different factors such as the own energy losses of compression of air, the losses of the engine of the compressor, the losses of the cycles of progress-paro…

-16% Of loss of energy in the different pressure valves of reduction and adaptation.

-5% Loss of energy in the treatment of air, filtros…

-15% Loss of energy in the own pneumatic actuator.

In addition, always compressed air systems have leaks.

Currently many facilities suffer losses by leakage represents between 25% and 30% of the total consumption of the compressor. A hole about 1 mm in diameter in the air circuit is a flight of 3, 5Nm3/h of air, one of 5 mm 85Nm3/h and this to the current costs of electricity is a waste of 7300 euros per year, without taking into account the environmental deterioration this hasthe expenditure itself is already more than considerable.

With RoboCylinder, the speed of rotation of the rotating electric motor mechanically become force of linear motion through a system of energy-efficient transmission.

With MPC in changing electric energy of the engine itself transforms into a linear work, there is not even a mechanical system of transmission of force circular-lineal. The energy efficiency of both families ranges between 80% and 92%, resulting in energy costs of operation of a third and a tenth of what would be the energy bill of pneumatic systems.

The pneumatic cylinder obtains the energy through the pressure of a compressed on a piston air flow. All phases of movement, acceleration, steady speed and deceleration consume power produced by the compressor from electricity. The energy difference between the consumed and produced in the movement directly translates into losses, as pneumatic systems can not return energy to the compressor. On the other hand, the actuators of RoboCylinder or MPC is used directly the energy of the grid with a high degree of efficiency, consuming only at stages where there is really working, i.e. at stages of acceleration, and also by returning to the driver the energy produced in the stages of deceleration.

Using pneumatic means, in automatic lines of containers and packaging, number of errors due to fluctuations in air pressure, made resulting in delays, rejections or quality problems. The use of RoboCylinder and MPC greatly reduce the percentage of refusals or failures, helping thus to improved efficiency and performance of the process. When talking about systems of positioning multipoint and repetitividades up to 0.01 mm, or even higher, is will understand that both the times of filling and packaging processes and cycles of format change can lead to optimal levels.

A parameter to take into account is that of the useful life of the different devices and their maintenance. The estimation of life of a pneumatic cylinder of less than 100 mm tour is 25 million cycles, or 10,000 km to race more than the 100 mm cylinders The useful life of the MPC actuators exceeds 500 million cycles. A solution of pneumatic executing a cycle per second do not stand a year, compared with 15-20 years of operation of the actuator MPC hope.

All IAI Robocylinders available as a standard of AQ seal, which consists of a band of resin impregnated of solidified lubricant. This innovative technology of lubrication ensures a necessity of maintenance for 5,000 km of displacement or 3 years.

The extensive automation of the process of packaging and packaging, is not impossible, moreover, is an enormous added value for those who manage to make it to rational pricing. The range of the production of a certain company, different formats demand of their packaging, and a rapid adaptation of a model to another, requires a solution: Automation.

Automation Yes, but sound, with a graphic interface easily understandable by the operators of the automatic lines, with appropriate recipes and orders management, and efficient communication to the Office of production that manages the needs of packaging and packing of production in real time.

The user interface, human/machine interface, or more commonly known by its initials in English HMI (Human-Machine Interface), is a set of components, both Hardware and Software, that allow the operator to communicate and interact with the control of a machine or process line.

The main requirements of the industrial interfaces have always been, and should remain so, both the operation and robustness and stability of behaviour. The environmental conditions in which these systems are on plants for food or pharmaceutical industries among others, are not ideal and we can find not desired, but unavoidable situations, such as extreme temperatures, humedad… which should be prepared to the interface.

On the basis of the importance of communication, either with the operator or with the various departments, in Larraioz we have developed mixed HMI systems, specifically designed to enrich the "dialogue" with the operator.

These modular conception systems integrate a touch screen 7 ", 10", 15-inch or above, as well as bright pulsantería of capacitive type, all in a same front without or outgoing recesses. HMI screen options encompass different formats 4: 3 and 16: 9, allowing the efficient utilization of the multimedia tools such as video playback, representation of PDFs, MMS communication... Retro screens lighting is made using LED technology, which gives a superior brightness, while minimizing the problems of lack of clarity (common problem on the screens of traditional aging lamp).

The use of luminous buttons allows to make management more frequent or priority of the proceso-máquina, through these, eliminating the need for repeated keystrokes onscreen and increasing also the life of the same.

Each push button includes a foreign in yellow luminous band, green, red or blue, which can rotate to right or left, fast or slow, be fast or slow, indicate directions, staying on, intermittent etc...These possibilities of visualization, are informative for the operator and considerably reduces the risks of operation error, to associate light States to function or dysfunction of the machine.

Larraioz HMI devices may optionally incorporate RFID readers, for fast and secure items and operator identification. Forms and methodology to assign images and associated symbols States, make that an application is easily understandable and intuitive for the operator of line or machine. In addition, the possibility of viewing videos on aid or assistance in screen, give the programmer-Integrator, the possibilities of making a user-friendly system.

Scada Genesis32, Genesis64 and BisViz environments allow designing spectacular applications graphics and production with an optimal time of development management. Tools such as GraphWorX, TrendWorX, AlarmWorX, WebHMI or MMX, completely modular, give place to graphical applications as diverse as the of a simple machine, a full line of production or a global process of packaging, packaging, storage and logistics of a company or group of companies.

With the convergence of processors in 64-bit, multi-núcleos and multi-procesadores, the introduction of the new Microsoft operating systems for 64-bit, and the demand for native applications that take advantage of these resources, Iconics introduces Genesis64, the new generation of HMI/Scada visualization. The Genesis64 Suite includes different solutions that enable the connectivity of the plant's production and facilities to the system of corporate business. Designed to exploit the advantages of connectivity OPC UA, managed code on..NET and SharePoint technology, allows plant operators and IT professionals to integrate the concept of "business and production" in real time.

The new GraphWorX64 provides the platform for viewing, taking the maximum advantage on exquisite representations in 2D and 3D in HMI and Scada applications. The user can build scalable graphics based on vector XAML that do not lose detail when you run a zoom. Likewise Genesis64 takes also advantage over the appearance of slides of Aero, or integration of other tools and applications such as Microsoft Office. The ideal climax involves support for multi-touch interaction with the screen, allowing the operator to interact with the application using Gesture commands to navigate total on it, enlarge or reduce a viewing area, rotate and change viewsscroll...

As a perfect complement to the Scada display for MS Windows operating systems, Larraioz offers, as a tool of connectivity, marketing and technical service of Kepware.

Kepware, United States, is a world leader in communications for automation software, and offers a unique experience in OPC and Embedded device connectivity. Kepware is focused on the development of communication drivers for Automation controllers, entry/exit points and peripheral devices field, operating systems MS Windows such as Microsoft Windows Desktop (Windows XP and Windows 7), Server and Embedded (Windows CE)(Windows XP Embedded and Windows Embedded Standard 7).

Kepware is member of the OPC (OLE for Process Control), the best known and widespread standard of industrial communication, allowing the exchange of data between devices from different manufacturers and applications of control, without any kind of proprietary restrictions. OPC servers allow to communicate information among different PLC, RT of field devices, HMI and Scada stations, and software applications installed on the computers of process control. Even and when the Hardware and Software from different manufacturers, any OPC compliance ensures the viability of a continuous communication and in real time. For devices that do not have support of OPC connectivity, the U-CON Protocol Server enables fast and easy development of communication drivers for almost any device with bus serial or Ethernet, such as bar code scannersreaders of RF, load cells, sensors, and a huge range of industrial controllers.

KEPServerEX tool now offers the new OPC UA Server, along with the option to OPC UA client driver. With support for more than 140 different drivers and communication protocols, OPC UA connectivity provides a robust and secure tunneling solution to avoid over DCOM distributed applications and enable the concept of 'B2B for Automation'.

Larraioz offers as add-on, products embedded in Genesis and Kepware on their controllers MyComputer, already installed, and highly competitive prices, that meet the broad requirements of display and connectivity required by most of the productive sectors and food packingchemical and pharmaceutical,...

On the proposal of Larraioz electronics Industrial mix more than 20 years of hard work in the service of the industry, constantly researching new products and markets, developing solutions to solve efficiently the more complex tasks of automation.

And when we talk about solutions we include every sense of the word: great delivery and quality product, extensive knowledge and support about the same, quick logistics and permanent stock, competitive prices and, more importantly, a huge human capital capable of resolving the most complex needs of automation.