Page 31 - Packaging News July - August 2019

MEMBER NEWS
COBOT CO ADDS MISSING PIECE OF IIOT PUZZLE
SMC WIRELESS SOLUTION IS NICE FOR COPRICE
SMC has supplied a new wireless solution to boost palletising at a major rice company. CopRice, a subsidiary of SunRice, operates three stockfeed mills turning rice bran, rice brokens, and rice hulls into equine feed, pet food, and cat litter.
When it needed to increase the productivity of its robotic palletiser, it turned to SMC, says Dawid Croucamp, robotic and automation engineer for SunRice and CopRice.
“We made use of a manual spacer to perform this process previously and looked to SMC to help automate this process for improved efficiencies.
“In terms of the application, the robot gripper needed to adjust the gripper tines automatically for each SKU as it was being palletised. The problems that we faced in the past were a limited number of inputs and outputs, expensive fieldbus modules and failed solutions due to vibrations on the gripper,” he said.
SMC supplied a new wireless fieldbus system, the EX600-W, as part of a customised solution; the EX600-W is ethernet/IP and Profinet compatible, can withstand electric noise and, says SMC, is suitable for harsh industrial environments.
The system fulfilled all of CopRice’s requirements, according to Angus Christian, area sales manager for SMC ANZ.
“Based on the customer’s requirements, the EX600-W was the perfect solution for this project. We had only recently launched it in Australia, and we were all pleased with the outcome during the initial trial phase,” he said.
Croucamp was pleased with the affordability and ease of use the EX600-W offered, as well as SMC’s sales and technical support.
“The expandable option on the slave manifold allows us to easily add more valves or IO units in the future as needed,” he said. “In time to come, we plan to add more IO units and valves to the EX600-W to replace all the existing fieldbus IOs.”
The robotic palletiser at CopRice was upgraded with an SMC wireless solution.
Universal Robots has become the sixth company to sign on to the Open IIoT panel, joining forces with APPMA members SMC Corporation and Nord Drivesystems as well as Balluff, Beckhoff Automation, and ZI-Argus.
The company cites the need for factories of the future to be smart, and the focus on Industry 4.0, as its motivation for joining the Open IIoT (industrial internet of things) panel.
James McKew, regional sales director for Universal Robots in the Asia Pacific, says, “It is an honour for us to join Open IIoT. This cements our commitment to Australia, and allows us to harness our knowledge of the industry on a public platform. Over the years, we have worked hard to ensure that cobots are accessible to all.
“In addition, the rapid adoption of collaborative robotics has created an ecosystem of end-of-arm effectors and the companies that developed them. SMC Corporation is one of our global UR+ Partners, and we are pleased to be joining them and the other Open IIoT foundation members.”
Universal Robots’ pioneering work commercialising the world’s first cobots (collaborative robots) has seen the company carve out a niche for itself in the world of advanced automation and robotics.
Missing piece: Hand in end-of-arm effector towards a fruitful partnership.
Helping to solve unanswered questions around Industry 4.0, and dispelling myths, the team at Universal Robots hope to further educate audiences on cobots and their numerous benefits.
McKew believes that Universal Robots is the missing piece to the Open IIoT puzzle, “We look forward to what the future holds, and have no doubt that this will be a fruitful partnership,” he said.
MARKEM-IMAJE MAKES SUPPLY CHAINS SMARTER
ABOVE: Markem-Imaje’s Packaging Intelligence solutions enable digital supply chains.
Markem-Imaje has unveiled a range of “packaging intelligence” products to ease manufacturers through the supply chain digitalisation process.
Represented in regional Victoria, regional NSW, and South Australia by Foodmach, Markem-Imaje has developed what it calls scalable, end-to-end solutions which are seamlessly integrated to help manufacturers maximise the benefits from digitalisation.
Product tracking creates unique fingerprints and aggregates data so products are seamlessly trackable at item, case and pallet-levels, delivering reliability and safety for distributors, resellers and users. Not only does this make
recalls more efficient, it also identifies product diversion and helps prove counterfeiting.
Promotional coding makes it easier to use packaging as a way to run ‘always on’ digital promotions. It removes need for costly real-time controllers and hardware and unique codes are printed on demand, even at high speeds.
Line and data management improves data accuracy and line efficiency by enabling seamless manual and automated data and information processing, marking and coding, including full integration with third-party systems such as ERP and MES.
Pallet tracking enables seamless pallet tracking through the automatic application of compliant tracking labels containing real-time data and no impact on production rates.
Coding integrity minimises rework and scrap by identifying product coding errors in real time so manufacturers can address issues before too many products have been incorrectly marked.
Packaging integrity avoids waste from pre-printed packaging material mistakes by confirming codes are being printed on the material in the right orientation.
The solutions are based on the information management system, CoLOS, which to date has seen over 17,000 installations worldwide.
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