12-axis servo drive automatic packing system

In the pharmaceutical manufacturer Fresenius Kabi's factory in Bad Homburg, Germany, there is a growing demand for stand-up pouch packaging for enteral nutrition products, which makes it necessary to increase the production capacity of packaging equipment. On the latest Line 3, the company solved the challenges of automated cartoners, said Manfred Grueneberg, Head of Engineering. The solution is: A 12-axis servo-driven automatic packing system was provided by Paal Packaging Machines of Germany. The company's agent company in the United States is Interpak LLC.

In the 12-axis movement, 7-axis motion collects the standing pouches to a certain number. The remaining 5-axis motion is performed by the integrated Fanuc joint robot. It is responsible for picking up the collected stand-up pouches and putting them in In the carton.

"Without the help of automated equipment, pouches filled with liquids are difficult to handle," Grueneberg said. "This kind of bag is not only easy to drop, but it is also easily damaged, resulting in leaks. So it's processing speed." Not as fast as we hoped, we need to be careful with reliability first."

He then said that he was satisfied with the speed of 60-70 bags (1.5 liters)/minute brought by Paal equipment. This line will also handle 1 litre and 1.25 litre stand-up pouches, the latter operating at 90 bags/min. The conversion from one size to another is computer-controlled and takes less than 30 minutes, Grueneberg said.

The auxiliary boxing system is a Paal opener. It is Grueneberg's most admired feature that it can operate the empty box correctly at any time. The suction cup pulls the empty box out of the carton and a mechanical prefeeder minimizes the chance of misoperation. Before the carton is folded and shaped, the bottom is coated with hot melt glue, then the carton is folded and shaped and then transported to the boxing machine.

When the cartons that have just been opened enter the packing system from one side, the filled stand-up pouches will enter from the other side. Regardless of size, these stand-up pouches are all sold through specialized health care channels, not through retail channels. Patients take these drugs through a nasogastric tube or stomach tube.

These stand-up pouches fall from the top into the boxing machine via a high mountain-shaped conveyor belt.

Transmission car

In the middle of the Paal automated cartoning system are two transfer cars equipped with partitions, which are mounted on a conveyor belt and move along an oval conveyor system. Stand-up pouches fall from the feeder conveyor belt onto the partition of a transfer car so that each stand-up pouch can stand on its own bottom in a zone. When each partition is equipped with a stand-up pouch, the transfer cart will move to the loading position where all stand-up pouches on the transfer cart are pushed to a rough-surfaced conveyor belt leading to the automatic unpacking machine. . Each transfer car moves independently, but they always keep synchronized. In this way when one transfer car is in the loaded state, the other is in the unloaded state.

The production line is handling 1.5 liters of stand-up pouches, so the number of stand-up pouches on each transfer car is five. The operation of transferring the standing bag on the transfer car to the automatic picker's position is accomplished in two steps. After pushing the three standing pouches onto the conveyor belt in the first step, the trolley will move slightly along the east-west axis. At the same time, the conveyor belt will move along the north-south axis. Then, when the remaining two standing pouches are pushed onto the conveyor belt, one of them will be in the position between the left and middle bags, and the other will be in the position between the right and middle bags. Instead of simply directly arranging these five standing pouches directly from left to right, this batch positioning transfer method can help subsequent picking robots to grab the five standing pouches more easily and put them into one. Waiting in the empty box.

The role of servo motor

The servo motor plays an important role in the movement of the two white belts that are responsible for transporting the standing pouch to the position of the automatic picker. Each such conveyor is independently driven by its own servomotor. This means that the first one can run at any speed, as long as it is good for collecting products, while the second one only needs to care about how to send the collected stand-up bags to the position of the auto picker. The end result is a stand-up pouch handling system that can send stand-up pouches to the automatic picker's position as quickly as possible without any falling pouches.

Responsible for coordinating this complex 7-axis transfer motion is a Bosch Rexroth PPC controller that integrates both motion and logic controllers. Seven servomotors and their seven additional drives are also provided by Bosch Rexroth. A servomotor is used on the feeding conveyor. It is responsible for sending stand-up pouches to the conveyor. Two servomotors are used to control the conveyor belt equipped with the conveyor. Two servo motors control the two feeding conveyors. The last two servomotors (one responsible for the horizontal axis and one for the vertical axis) are used to push the standing pouch from the transfer vehicle onto the conveyor belt.

"All seven axis movements are controlled synchronously by the PPC controller," said Peter Mueller of Bosch Rexroth. "This ensures that all machine movements can start at the right time. Without this synchronous control, you have to Accelerating the movement of stand-up pouches will cause them to be unstable and they will fall off easily."

Automated pick robot

The automatic picker also uses a mechanical clamp and vacuum suction to ensure that it can hold the standing pouch securely. Five servomotors allow the Fanuc picker to perform the multi-axis actions required for picking tasks, including placing stand-up pouches into cartons. In addition, a photocell ensures that when a standing pouch falls (which causes the picker to miss it), all 5 standing pouches are thrown into the recycling bin before reaching the opener position. In this way, there is no case where there is a factory-loaded carton.

After leaving the cartoning system, the cartons are sent to a Diagraph printer for marking, and then an Optima weighing machine checks again to make sure there are 5 standing pouches in each carton, and finally a Soco System The sealing machine provided by the company uses a tape to wrap the carton. This tape has a tear-away characteristic called Zipper. It forms a triangular tip on each end of the tape, so that the medical staff can easily tear the tape by grasping the tip of the tape without having to use a sharp object such as a knife to cut the tape and avoid the standing pouch Puncture.

After turning 90 degrees, the carton goes through a thermal transfer printing labeler, the printing unit is provided by Zebra, and the labeling unit is provided by Weber.

"Before that, the production date code printed on the carton by ink jet printing was not the only information needed," Grueneberg said. "Product information and country-specific data are printed on the label."

Finally, there is an ABB automatic palletizer that already existed as early as several years ago when the No. 2 production line was installed. In order to accommodate the installation of the No. 3 production line, the palletizer was upgraded so that all cartons from both production lines can be accepted at the same time.

Grueneberg also explained that as the demand for Fresenius stand-up bags continues to grow, further changes and upgrades are also on the company's agenda. But at least the auto-boxing part has now been solved.

"The Paal system is very effective for us," said Grueneberg, who also praised the system's control unit. "I think that if there is no servo motor, these actions are impossible."

Source: Packaging News