A, always the same is the change

　　Packaging machinery is the most extensive and full of changes in the market, because packaging machinery for the production of objects in the ever-changing, such as packaging container materials (plastic, glass, metal, paper), capacity (100ml, 100mg, 1l, 1kg), shape (round, square, shaped), packaging combinations (such as drugs inside the bottle, external box, etc., the box and then installed a larger box) No other machinery manufacturing industry has so many variations as packaging machinery. And, according to its packaging objects and materials, etc. are also divided into many packaging fields.

　　1. Food and beverage - this includes beer, cola, liquor, milk, chocolate, coffee, eggs, candy, mineral water and other daily food packaging.

　　2. Corrugated packaging - this includes corrugated paper equipment, cutting equipment, folding and gluing equipment, and other equipment.

　　3. Pharmaceutical packaging - such as blister packaging of tablets, injections, preparations in boxes, bags, bottles and other ways.

　　4. Tobacco packaging - this includes variations of soft boxes, hard boxes, strips, boxes, etc.

　　5. Fresh packaging - milk, yogurt, fruit, eggs, etc.

　　All these changes in packaging have posed challenges to machinery and control systems, how to adapt to so many changes?

　　Second, the development trend of packaging technology and the demand for automation systems

　　1. The demand for inline production

　　Inline production is the original discrete units are combined into a continuous production process, eliminating the material in the production process of handling, online storage and other links, reducing online logistics and eliminating intermediate logistics links to greatly improve efficiency.

　　At Chinabrew 2010, KRONES, the world's most renowned provider of total filling line solutions, presented their integrated machine that combines blowing, cleaning, in-line inspection, filling, capping, labeling, hot film packaging, stacking and cartoning into a single production line, thus allowing beverage manufacturers to produce at the highest speed, as the entire production process is eliminated. The turnaround time of the whole production process is eliminated, which makes the efficiency of the whole plant increase significantly. In addition, the entire production process is monitored by a strict management system, and the data can be integrated into a large plant structure so that real-time analysis of quality data, energy consumption data, and process improvement and quality tracing can be carried out during the entire production process.

　　At SinoCorrugated, we also saw domestic manufacturers develop integrated machines for slotting and printing, die-cutting, gluing, and palletizing of corrugated board. This not only increases efficiency, but also improves quality, as pre-printing technology can better maintain the strength of the corrugated surface.

　　In the production line of baby diapers, various materials are put on the roll, cut, pressed, sorted, palletized, packaged, heat sealed and boxed for lamination, which can produce various products quickly.

　　The requirements of the production line for automation are in the following aspects:

　　1). Open and flexible interface design: an open system can be connected to various sensors, instruments, security systems, which includes not only the interconnection of equipment, but also the ability to interconnect with the upper ERP/MES, CIMS and other systems, including open interfaces such as OPCServer, connection with the database, etc.

　　2.) Flexible hardware design - First of all, there must be a complete product line to meet a variety of control system products, such as B&R's GMC includes control for synchronous servo, asynchronous servo, DC, stepper, hydraulic, etc., but also includes the robot and CNC library support capabilities.

　　2. More flexible production: fast process changeover

　　Due to the huge change ability of the packaging object, a huge challenge for the flexibility of the production system, on the one hand, the process to quickly switch, on the other hand, no need to design a new machine for a new production, which is reflected in the adaptation range of the production system, and the flexibility of the production system is not only reflected in the organization of the production plant, process optimization, on the execution side, provided by the automation system is a fast process switching, as well as the expansion of the production range brought about. In this regard, the contribution of motion control technology is considerable. How has motion control changed the flexibility of production systems? We can see from several examples:

　　2.1 cutting: the most common packaging action is heat sealing action, whether in horizontal or vertical food packaging machinery exists in this unit, and cutting action changes are size and pressure, and these are the easiest to achieve in the motion control, because only a cut size and pressure of the torque output value changes can achieve this, while the original system requires mechanical changes in accordance with the parameters of adjustment.

　　2.2 Filling: The system can automatically adjust the filling process according to the volume demand of the bottle, and modify the action logic of each valve according to different beverages such as carbonated drinks, beer, and water, which are very easy for automated systems.

　　For control technology, for example, B&R's motion control ACOPOS enables online switching of electronic cams, which can be "counted while moving" - it relies on real-time communication technology to ensure rapid switching of the relationship between the various motion axes to achieve online process switching capability.

　　3. Safety technology

　　As end-users and governments pay more attention to personal safety, the safety of the system must be taken into account, and this is mandatory, especially for Chinese packaging machinery manufacturers who want to enter the European market.

　　Follow IEC61508 defines the entire product life cycle of safety technology, from system safety identification, assessment, system design, testing, operation, maintenance and dismantling of the entire process are defined corresponding methods and standards, including EN62601, 61784, etc. defines the entire safety design, as well as EN61800-5-2 definition of adjustable speed system safety standards, namely SafeMotion's definitions of SLS, SS1, SS2, SBC, etc.

　　For this reason, automation manufacturers have launched SafeLOGIC, SafeMotion and SafetyFieldbus technologies that meet SIL3 and PLe levels, and it is worth mentioning the openSAFETY technology from B&R, which can run on top of different fieldbus and Ethernet technologies and is available for both end users and machine manufacturers. It is available and it is an open source technology (OpenSourceTechnology)

　　4.OMAC/PackML

　　OMAC organization by the world's leading packaging users such as P&G, Netstle, CocaCola and well-known automation manufacturers RockwellAB, SIEMENS, B&R and other international organizations, has been committed to making packaging machinery with a consistent operator interface, and has a common program modular design, so that the end-producer such as P&G. CocaCola, Netstle, etc. can be installed regardless of the manufacturer's mechanical and electrical systems can be freely operated, because all the operator interface is designed to be uniform, anyone can quickly achieve the operation of the machine, and even for maintenance personnel, the modularity and openness of the software also allows them to quickly modify the program and for the process adjustment and for process adjustments.

　　PackML defines the different states of the machine such as starting, suspended, stopping, aborted, etc. The process of running the machine is a combination of these processes, and no matter how complex the machine is, the operator is presented with a simple and easy to learn picture.

　　At the same time, OMAC also defines a unified architecture for the hardware design of machine systems, including different system designs based on PC, PLC and drive as the control center.

　　Uniform and standardized operation is the future development of packaging machinery, and the inclusion of large end-users is bound to make this trend come true.