Page 10 - Industrial Technology EXTRA 10th May 2021

HEALTHCARE...

Safety upgrade safeguards

production of wet wipes

In response to the soaring demand for hygienic products for use in the fight against

covid-19, the world’s most innovative wet wipes manufacturer Nice-Pak turned to
Euchner, a leading international specialist in safety engineering, to deliver a safety
system upgrade in a strict timeframe for a converting machine that was being
overhauled at its production plant in Flint, North Wales.
s a result of increased
production demands,
machine utilisation and
Auptime are a critical
KPI at Nice-Pak. Consequently,
the engineering teams were given
a very short installation window
to undertake a significant
machinery refurbishment with the
overall objective of producing a
more reliable and intuitive
machine.
Generally, machines used to
produce wet wipes are high speed
and it was determined a high
integrity safety related control system was required. according to EN-ISO-13849, as well as high levels
This outcome had a significant impact on the use of of diagnostic coverage coupled with reliability.
series wiring of the machine’s safety devices. The CTM’s internal monitoring allowed Nice-Pak
Euchner worked closely with Nice-Pak to design to connect multiple switches in series and still
and manufacture a bespoke Industry 4.0 ready achieve high levels of safety-integrity up to Category
solution based on the company’s novel CTM 4/PLe. This series connection significantly reduced
interlocking switches and their associated IO-Link the amount of field wiring that was required on the
interface. Nice-Pak’s risk assessments determined machine and in addition to the safety signals, the
that the safety equipment needed to meet the simple wiring architecture also carried inclusive
requirements of Performance Level PLd/PLe, diagnostic data.

May 2021 • INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY EXTRA • p10