Harro Höfliger is a company that has survived and thrived by constantly adapting to the marketplace through a combination of skill and the sheer will to turn on a dime...or a pfennig, if you prefer. When economic and geopolitical changes resulting from the end of the Cold War threatened its very existence as a leading producer of standard packaging machinery, the company turned its business model 180 degrees. It now produces some of the most specialized machines in the world. And while technology companies around the world have sacrificed engineering head count to please financial analysts, this company has accelerated its investment in engineering. In fact, 35 percent of its employees in the development center are mechanical and electrical engineers.

Harro Höfliger is a world-leading designer and manufacturer of wound dressing and transdermal medical patch machines. In addition, the company has also become adept at the critical tasks of dosing everything from powders to gels, of encapsulating three-dimensional objects such as eye cups and pads onto a range of substrates, and integrating assembly, testing and packaging systems into production machinery for everything from parenterals to inhalers to complete drug delivery kits. Since the 1980s, the company has held core competencies in pouching, cartoning, turnkey lines and blister-forming fundamentals.

COMMITMENT TO MODULAR DESIGN
A major contributor to Harro Höfliger's success is its commitment to modular machinery design with all of its strategic advantages. The company interprets customer specifications intuitively, integrating requirements into clever modules of functionality on three conceptual planes: control; supply; and production. Elau has been an essential part of all of these developments. In fact, Harro Höfliger sees Elau not as a supplier, but as a vital development partner in the application of automation technology. This relationship, stretching back a decade to the first continuous transdermal patch machines, has contributed a modular approach to automation software that enables Harro Höfliger's modular mechanical design.

"We have standardized on Elau systems for all of our machines, and they supply about ninety-five percent of our servo drives," says Volker Scheub, Harro H?fliger's electrical and electronics division manager. "Other companies are serving a wide range of markets, but Elau has focused on packaging machines, and we feel that their systems are the best available for these applications. And they give us excellent support."

In 1998, Elau introduced its PacDrive™ system, which replaces mechanical drive trains and conventional PLCs with a fully integrated automation controller, digital servo drives, intelligent motors and human machine interfaces (HMIs). It integrates motion, logic, programmable limit switches, temperature control and even robotic kinematics in software. There are no performance-degrading add-on hardware modules, backplanes or software handshaking. Centralized control assures the fastest-possible response times and highest servo axis counts. With this system, machine modules don't require their own control hardware. Modularity is achieved by activating the appropriate software modules in the centralized, Pentium-based controller.

The PacDrive family of controllers covers a wide range of performance, from the basic C400, with its 16 servos and logic, to the extremely powerful automation controller, the C600, which incorporates 99 servos and logic. When you want to run control and HMI on the same platform, the P600 includes 22 servos, logic and a PC. "We started with Elau's previous generation systems, but now we're using the C600 and P600 controllers," says Scheub. "Elau integrated motion and control into one processor with one language to program both tasks, and it has motion libraries ready to use, which is a big advantage. Also, Elau brought this to the market very early, so we could put it on our equipment."

ALL CONTROL APPLICATIONS ON ONE PROCESSOR
The Elau automation system integrates all control applications in an IEC 61131-3-compliant program on one processor. This facilitates fast system response, well-structured software development and simplified validation, commissioning and service. For example, applications performed by separate PLC and motion control hardware typically spend 30 percent of the code interfacing the two controllers. Utilizing Elau software libraries, a properly implemented IEC 61131-3 program can perform the same motions in 200 lines of code that would require 800 lines of ladder logic. And, unlike conventional PLCs, PacDrive can readily open, read, analyze and execute files, allowing it to dynamically interact with management systems such as MES.

Complementing the system solution, Elau offers a range of HMI panels. Embedded panels provide economical and self-contained functionality for use with PacDrive C-series automation systems. PC panels provide full Windows™ CE and XP functionality, so no separate PC is required. Graphic panels are for use with PacDrive P-series automation, which integrate PC-based HMI functionality with control. All of these HMIs incorporate diagnostic capabilities, including the generation of error messages when problems arise, so technicians can easily diagnose and correct problems. Machines also are equipped with modems that enable Harro Höfliger technicians to look at machines from their home office to make corrections and even change machine functions.

This ability to make changes can present problems, says Scheub. "Eighty percent of our machines are in the pharmaceutical industry, and it can be risky to make remote changes, because machines are documented by FDA, and an undocumented change could cause problems. To prevent this problem, a new provision from Elau allows companies to lock operating parameters so they cannot be changed without permission."

MODULARITY PROVIDES ULTIMATE FLEXIBILITY
Modularity is a recurring theme at Harro Höfliger, because this culture of modular thinking translates to exceptional speed to market for specialized machines. Base module designs are adapted to the characteristics of new materials. Using Elau's servo technology, Harro Höfliger engineers may integrate web infeed modules of four, five, six or more materials into a process. Product changes on the multifunctional machine may involve switching from infeed modules of one, two and four, to the materials coming from infeeds one, five and six. Servo-driven production units, such as rotary die stations, are programmable for a wide range of lengths and speeds. A flying knife for patches, for example, may need to accommodate cutoff lengths from 3 to 50 cm. The combination of Elau software and Harro Höfliger engineering allows this flexibility with minimal changeparts, mostly by setting new parameters at the HMI.

This provides the ultimate in flexibility. Instead of changing recipes at the end of a run, each cycle can be a separate recipe.

You can get infinite variability from a continuously operating process. Thus, different package formats can run side by side. You can fill to order, in sequence. You can run package promotions, such as a dispenser and refill, in-line.

This built-in flexibility is important to end users because they can maximize machinery utilization through frequent format changes only if low-volume runs are cost-efficient. It's important to Harro Höfliger's business model because it is faster and more productive to build specialized functions if you can start with standardized, modular mechanical and software building blocks.

More information is available:
Modular control system: Elau, 847/490-4270. www.elau.com

Pharmaceutical machinery: Harro Höfliger, 215/345-4994. www.hofliger.com.