Page 36 - Packaging News Magazine May-June 2018
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END-OF-LINE SOLUTIONS www.packagingnews.com.au
May-June 2018
Keeping it compact
GMP Pharmaceuticals has recently installed a fully automated case packing and palletising solution that met a key challenge: a small footprint.
GMP Pharmaceuticals’ Girraween, NSW facility specialises in the man- ufacture and packaging of health- care products, natural health and dairy products. With escalating sales in the dairy product sector, GMP needed to improve output within their facility to match the predicted demand.
The dairy product line required an automated case packing and palletis- ing solution but the space available was limited. This meant that tradi- tional solutions were not suitable and OEM Fibre King was approached to solve the problem.
Fibre King’s end-of-line solution for GMP Pharmaceuticals included two machine innovations that the packaging specialist has recently de- veloped in response to common problems experienced by its custom- ers, including a tight footprint.
One of the machines used was the next generation of Fibre King’s Top Loading RSC Case Packer, the other its new Compact Modular Palletiser (CMP).
The Compact Modular Palletiser (CMP) is a semi-automatic compact pal- letiser developed for low- to mid-speed palletising applications where space is at a premium. The machine features a pick-and-place vacuum gripper which is entrusted to a cantilevered, gantry- style mechanical structure.
This mechanical structure, in con- junction with a multi axis-control system, allows the vacuum gripper to pick and accurately palletise the product. The vacuum gripper head supports a fourth rotation axis to al- low complete freedom of movement for a variety of palletising require- ments. The standard CMP supports the direct placement of pallets on the floor, inside the palletiser.
“As space was constrained, the fa- cility could not enjoy the luxury of ac- cumulating cases on a long conveying system,” explains James Windsor, MD of Fibre King. “This required the pal- let changeover to be swift, so as not to stop the upstream equipment.”
The pallet changeover needed to be automatic so the options to in- clude a dual-level infeed and outfeed pallet conveyor was ordered. This option enables the operators to load empty pallets onto a low-level pallet infeed conveyor, and retrieve the completed pallets from the high-lev- el pallet outfeed conveyor.
“With a dual level pallet convey- ing system in place, the line can run continuously without being reliant on an operator being on permanent stand-by,” Windsor adds.
By working in partnership with GMP Pharmaceuticals, Fibre King provided a solution that improved both output and efficiencies. ■
Robust design
FOR simple pallet conveyor technology ap- plications, Nord has developed an efficient drive combination consisting of an asyn- chronous motor and a Nordac Base fre- quency inverter. MD for Nord DriveSys- tems in Australia, Martin Broglia, explains that this drive solution is tailored to the re- quirements of pallet conveyor technology and boasts a robust design for durability.
“This particular solution can be com- bined with all Nord geared motors and can be extended according to customer specifications,” Broglia says.
“By standardising this solution, we have reduced the number of versions to considerably reduce stock of spare parts. This has also helped to optimise mainte- nance and reduce costs,” he adds.
The three-phase asynchronous motor powers up to 1.5kW and features high overload capacity, solid workmanship and a long service life. The frequency in- verters are installed close to the motor and are equipped with an integrated PLC. The freely programmable PLC processes the data from sensors and actuators, pro- vides diagnostic options and communi- cates with the higher-level controller. A pre-installed software for control, param- eterisation and diagnosis is configured for the special drive requirements of pal- let conveyor technology.
The drive units can be integrated into all common bus systems. The AS interface or I/O interface are especially suitable as a simple and cost oriented solution for com- munication in pallet conveyor technology. A different bus system can be used with- out any problems if there are more sophis- ticated requirements. ■
The approach was to employ a combination of existing and newly developed machinery to efficiently case pack, case label and palletise complementary healthcare products, natural health and dairy products.


































































































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