The search for sustainability: Machinery

The Lomax NB from CIVision separates contaminated containers from those that are malformed to ensure that they do not get recycled.

The word "sustainability" in any discussion about packaging almost universally brings to mind images of new, recyclable and compostable materials, including polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) and polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA) plastics, pulp paper protection replacing expanded polystyrene (EPS) and new, environmentally acceptable coated paper trays and cartons replacing the indestructible ones of the past. But packaging machinery will also play a significant role in the growing green revolution. As the means of turning emerging innovative materials into finished packages, machines and their controls will be the engines that drive widespread sustainability.

From the discriminating use of vision systems and "smart" robots to developing more energy-efficient production equipment, machinery designers and builders are responding to the industry-wide call for greater sustainability. Some simple solutions to controlling waste, such as printing cases on-demand rather than maintaining preprinted inventory, are coming into their own as cost-effective means to achieving sustainability.

Learn how paper packaging at PACK EXPO Las Vegas serves sustainable initiatives at www.packagingdigest.com/ info/pmmi07

Many of those responses will be on display at PACK EXPO Las Vegas 2007 (www.packexpo.com), being held Oct. 15 to 17 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Here are just a few examples of what visitors will be able to see up close at the upcoming show:

The Lomax NB (Neck and Bottle inspection) system developed by CIVision (Booth S-5202) is designed to help bottle makers assess their product output. The system inspects blown bottles for defects that would make them unsuitable for use and identifies them for rejection. The Lomax NB employs up to nine separate cameras to detect a wide variety of defects. They also discriminate between bottles that are physically malformed or otherwise not suitable for use and those that are defective because the plastic is contaminated with foreign material such as metals or carbon.

The Adept Quattro s650 robot increases line productivity and helps lower energy costs.

Those containers exhibiting contaminants are identified first and are ejected into one bin, to be discarded as unusable and not recyclable. Those bottles that are malformed, or that exhibit bubbles or other weak areas that might cause filling, labeling or shipping problems are rejected into another bin for regrinding and reuse in making new containers. Bottles that have passed both inspections go into another bin for delivery to customers.

Not separating out the contaminated bottles, which is what happens in the course of most inspections, not only returns dangerous contaminates to the bottle-making process, but it also may exacerbate the problem by scattering them throughout several "new" bottles.

Lighting plays a critical role in these inspections, and the Lomax NB utilizes a single-spot white LED to illuminate the inside of each container as it passes along the production line. As the inside of the containers is illuminated, the sidewalls of the containers fluoresce, highlighting any black particles present.

The first four cameras are positioned around the production line. The field of view of each camera is greater than 90 deg, and the four cameras obtain a full surface profile of the bottles being inspected. Each camera is triggered by a photoelectric sensor, and digital images are then transferred to a host PC for processing. As each image is captured, a specific region to be searched for defects is found, and the camera looks for any black particles larger than a set threshold within this image. Subsequent cameras inspect the bottle's neck and top, while an overhead camera verifies the dimension of the bottle neck from above.

Kiwi's case printers help reduce preprinted inventory and reduce material waste costs.

All of this takes place at speeds of more than 350 bottles/min.

Adept Technology, Inc. (Booth A-5364), a global provider of intelligent, vision-guided robotics and robotics services, recently introduced the Adept Quattro(TM) s650 robot, said to be the world's fastest light-payload packaging and handling robot. The new robot is targeted at the food, consumer goods, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries.

The Quattro s650 robot utilizes a patented four-link parallel drive and a carbon-fiber construction to provide packaging cycle times twice as fast as conventional packaging robots, at up to 240 pick-and-place cycles/min. The Quattro s650 robot integrates its controls inside the robot, virtually eliminating external control cabinets, saving factory floorspace and simplifying installation.

The new robot is controlled by Adept's SmartController(TM) platform, which provides fully integrated vision and conveyor tracking for up to six conveyors, making the Quattro an ideal solution for high-speed packaging applications in which products are randomly located on moving conveyor belts. The Adept Quattro features over-the-belt mounting, a 1,300-mm work envelope and a 250-mm Z-stroke. Adept also offers a washdown option for use in sensitive manufacturing environments that require frequent washing to prevent product contamination.

"What makes the s650 unique is the intelligence and simplicity that comes from its embedded, fully integrated controls and vision platform," says Seema Gupta, packaging product manager of Adept. "The combination of Quattro's speed and the elimination of the complexity and expense of large, external control cabinets found in traditional packaging robots brings a new level of throughput and flexibility to high-speed packaging applications."

Warner Electric's new Smooth-Start UniModule clutch/brake aids sustainability by preventing sudden starting and stopping of production lines.

The speed of the s650, combined with its ability to pick and place items scattered randomly on a conveyor, increases line productivity and thereby reduces the amount of energy needed to pack an equivalent quantity of product compared to that packed by a standard, "blind" robot.

The ability to print shipping cases on an as-needed basis eliminates the need for costly preprinted case inventory, cutting costs in material waste, warehouse space and inventory handling. Kiwi Coders, Inc. (Booth C-2823) makes a variety of such printers, including its Heavy Duty Flat-Case Printers. These machines deliver commercial-quality printed cases as needed, with clear, sharp bar codes, logos, printed instructions and handling information.

The Kiwi Model 2482, for instance, prints cases at up to 50/min. The press is designed for quick changes of imprint information, minimizing downtime and making just-in-time printing even more practical. A typical changeover takes minutes, including a complete type change and cleanup.

The Model 2482-2C is a two-color version of the printer, designed with the second printing stand mounted on casters for easy removal for type changes, cleanup and maintenance. Both printer models handle cases up to 26x44 in., with imprint areas of 22x44 in. Kiwi's larger one- and two-color case printers can handle cases up to 36x44 in. with imprint areas of 32x44 in.

The printers feature several type-mounting systems. A magnetic printing cylinder using curved metal plates carrying either permanently mounted metal dies or changeable Channelok mounting enables frequent text changes. A Flexback printing cylinder with flexible plastic plates is recommended when printing large amounts of copy. Kiwi says the Magflex cylinder uses dies with a flexible magnetic backing—convenient when numerous small blocks of copy or graphics must be changed frequently.

The new Smooth-Start(TM) UniModule clutch/brake from Warner Electric, Inc. (www.warnerelectric.com) is designed to deliver smooth, consistent starting and stopping performance at lower torque ranges from 0 to 50 percent of maximum-rated torque, the range that usually proves most challenging.

IndraDrive with Safety-On-Board by Bosch Rexroth can help reduce potential waste and limit the energy needed to shut down and restart a line by maintaining constant operation.

How does this aid sustainability? Sudden starting and stopping of any moving production line not only can cause waste as products spill or can cause damage as containers slide, but it also reduces the efficiency of the line and wastes energy.

"Conveyor applications have evolved into requiring new levels of start-stop precision," reports Warner Electric product manager Scott Fuller. "For instance, conveyors today handle a much wider variety of shapes, sizes and weights, and torque needs have to adapt to those variables."

As a result, Warner Electric engineers and product designers developed the Smooth-Start UniModule. The new clutch/brake can deliver both faster starts and stops at maximum torque and smoother starts and stops at less torque as needed. For even greater control, the clutch and brake torque levels, when linked with Warner Electric's CBC-300 controller, can even be set independently of each other. At the same time, the controller supplies constant voltage to the clutch/brake even when supply voltage varies.

Smooth-Start Unimodule clutch/brakes automatically adjust for wear, so they require no maintenance throughout their working life, eliminating the need for maintenance downtime for greater productivity—another sustainability benefit.

Safety concerns lead many companies to install protective systems that can shut down machines quickly and completely when an unsafe condition is detected. While this protects personnel from injury and the company from liability, it can also interfere with productivity by shutting down the line, possibly damaging product as well as consuming valuable time.

Safety no longer requires a complete shutdown. A new way of handling safety challenges supports sustainable operations by reducing potential waste and limiting the energy needed to shut down and restart a line by maintaining operation.

IndraDrive with Safety-On-Board by Bosch Rexroth (Booth S5032) features Safe Motion(TM) technology, a safety solution housed directly in the equipment drive that incorporates integrated safety functions and meets with the latest standards for safe stopping and safe motion, the company says. Safe Motion is considered an important type of safety system because it directly affects machine movement and operator safety.

Equipment incorporating the safety-on-board feature offers packagers not only operator safety, but also efficient equipment performance. Bosch Rexroth says one of the main benefits of this drive system is its ability to safely reduce line speed rather than shutting down the line when a safety-related incident is detected. Operators can set up the machine or clear jams without risk, even while the machine is operating.

Safe Motion technology achieves a quick response to incidents through monitoring contained in the drive itself. The IndraDrive with Safety-On-Board is said to offer reaction times up to 400 times faster than conventional solutions that use contactors to produce a safe stop. This reaction time is necessary, Bosch Rexroth says, in order to provide adequate operator protection around the highly dynamic servo drives of today's high-speed equipment.

More information is available: