Page 40 - Packaging News Magazine July-Aug 2020

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SMART FACTORY | www.packagingnews.com.au | July-August 2020
The future factory is here
Data and analytics are combining with mechanical innovation and augmented reality to make a safer
and more efficient factory. Rockwell Automation is one company that is bringing these things together in a heady technological brew.
ROCKWELL Automation has released its new small-frame intelligent tracking system, iTrak 5730, which the company says improves throughput in multi-product applications by using independent cart technology to support smart,
flexible, and efficient machines. The iTrak 5730 system has a 50mm minimum pitch that makes it ideal for primary packaging applications, such as flow wrapping, end load cartoning,
and form-fill-and-seal pouching.
The system also easily integrates into a manufacturer’s architecture, providing analytics that help opti- mise energy use, monitor parts wear
and reduce downtime.
Product manager for iTrak Michaela
Kaufmann says the system extends existing iTrak flexibility and produc- tivity benefits to meet the growing demand for customised food and bev- erage products.
“The technology is truly scalable. Your system can have as little as a 50 millimetre pitch in a small, standalone machine, or be as large as 100 metres and part of a large, complex line.”
Independent cart technology can provide machine flexibility, better
traceability, and increased uptime, the company says.
By using magnetic propulsion, the individually controlled carts can quickly start and stop, which reduces machine wear and is energy efficient.
Rockwell Automation independent cart technology sales manager, Asia Pacific Max Kiah says: “We are always exploring ways to enhance our offering and better support our machine assembly, food and beverage manufacturing customers; enabling them achieve their manufacturing and throughput goals without restriction.
Bob Hicks, Asia Pacific regional segment lead for OEM at Rockwell tells PKN this latest release of the iTrak is all about simplifying its integration.
“Before there was a bit of black box and a bit of magic involved, but this latest release is all about sim- plifying the start-up and most importantly, simplifying the inte- gration into the overall system, which, in turn, offers a high degree of flexibility,” he says.
“There is a lot of buzz about batches of one, and plants need the flexibility
Future on track: iTrak 5730
BELOW: Bob Hicks, Asia Pacific regional segment lead for OEM at Rockwell Automation.
to deal with a wide range of SKUs, and this technology feeds into that.” Hicks says Rockwell also includes augmented reality templates for opera- tor training and maintenance. The company also puts predictive analyt- ics to use in its systems and software. “When we talk about augmented reality and predictive analytics, the product is just a device that feeds into
the overall platform,” he says.
You can imagine an operator stand- ing in front of the machine puts on his Google glasses, and then we can overlay onto the real machine mechanical drawings of how to
change a part, for example.”
Hicks says the ongoing Covid pan- demic has sparked interest in indus-
trial augmented reality.
“In some cases, a machine builder
might not be able to get to a site to troubleshoot and fix things,” he says. “We can use this augmented reality to help them get over those hurdles – you can have an untrained mainte- nance person with the machine get- ting coached by an expert remotely.” Hicks says this technology can also link everything into an analytics sys- tem and put predictive algorithms into use. “You can be looking at a machine with an iPad, and it can be running a predictive analytics algo-
rithm,” Hicks says.
“For example, it can suggest the
operator reduce the machine’s speed by 10 per cent or the motor is going to trip out. You can run the predictive analytics over the top of the aug- mented reality.”
With these great strides in applied technology, the factory of the future – a safer, more efficient factory – is possible today. ■
When we talk about augmented reality and predictive analytics, the product is just a device that feeds into the overall platform.”
– Bob Hicks