Page 48 - Packaging News Magazine Sep-Oct 2018

48
LINE CONTROL & AUTOMATION
www.packagingnews.com.au
September-October 2018
Lifting the lid
A custom lid scheduling solution for a meat processing industry leader has seen the company streamline its production and logistics processes.
New single-
tube linear
actuator
ROSE & Krieger, a Phoenix Mecano company, has launched a 100 per cent corrosion-resistant single-tube linear actuator for both light and heavy movements. According to Sascha Humphreys, sales manager at Phoenix Mecano Australia, the E-II single-tube linear unit is an “all- rounder for format adjustment”.
“There’s growing demand for this product from the food manu- facturing sector, because these stainless steel actuators
also operate with FDA-ap- proved lubricants and are suitable for washing down. They are there- fore recommended for width, height and length adjustment in packag-
ing machines for the food industry,” says Humphreys.
The stainless steel version of the popular actuator
is now available
in the common sizes 30 and 40 and has an upgraded temperature
range of -30 to +80°C. Higher temperature ranges are an option.
The unit can be
supplied with a
second free-run-
ning guide
carriage, end
element, stainless
steel ball bearing as screw bearing and with drain hole as standard.
The guide carriage and fixing ele- ments are made from stainless steel and a range of variants facilitates connection to your design.
Slot covers provide dust protec- tion or stroke limitation. ■
E-II: All rounder for format adjustment.
INCREASED demand for trayed meat prod- ucts saw the The Northern Co-operative Meat Company Ltd (NCMC), Australia’s largest meat processing co-operative and an industry leader in meat processing look to expand its production line. The company contracted Fibre King to supply two lidding machines as well as create a custom lid scheduling solution that would enable the production team to pre-empt the upcoming lid (SKU) requirements in the production room, so streamlining the logistics process.
In order to build the lid scheduling software, Fibre King’s engineers collated the data file from the chiller and extract- ed the individual SKU details of each tray that was accepted into the chiller the day before, and in the order that they were accepted. By implementing a bar code scanning system they were able to track each tray and send it to the correct lidder, with the correct lid type for the SKU. They could then work out which SKUs would be presented out of the chill- er the next day.
There can be over 30 different SKUs per day adding to the complexity of the line. The two Fibre King lidding machines have a capacity for 12 SKUs at a time.
The lid scheduling software was pro- grammed to display the queuing of SKUs required via a 55-inch monitor in the pro- duction lidding room. The information displayed shows what lids are required in the lidders in present-time as well as what lids are required for the next hour of
production, and for the next four hours. This enables the operations team to orga- nise when to have which lid SKU avail- able in the lidders, which lid SKU they need in the room for the next hour and which lid SKUs are no longer required.
The improved visibility and predict- ability of which lids will be required as production proceeds has significantly reduced the requirement for manual handling and rework of trays of meat weighing up to 27 kilograms. If a tray of meat is scanned as it arrives at the lid- ding machine and the required lid is not available in any of the 12 magazines, the tray is rejected to a rework conveyor. By ensuring all the required lids are present in lidding machines to satisfy the coming hour of production the need to reject
trays of meat for rework is eliminated.
ABOVE: The scheduling system has increased visibility and predictability of lid requirements.
BELOW: A monitor in the production room displays the lidding schedule.
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