Page 16 - Food&Drink Nov-Dec 2020

COVER STORY
Packaging line
whisperers
Transforming a series of machines into a fully functioning packaging line requires more than just conveying, writes Foodmach CEO Earle Roberts.
UNDER the newly announced $1.5 billion Modern Manufacturing Strategy, businesses with less than $5 billion turnover will be able to claim the full value of any investment in plant and equipment. This effectively represents a 30 per cent discount.
The uptake of Industry 4.0, where data from each sensor, product and machine on a packaging line is fed into higher-level management systems is putting pressure on manufacturers to modernise. Perhaps now is the time to consider that new case packer, palletiser or stretch wrapper – or even a fully integrated traceability solution.
Once you assess the market and select new equipment for your production line, you’ll probably be fairly confident that, for the money, it’s best-in-breed. You imagine it working seamlessly with your existing machinery. All you need to do is install it.
However, balancing a packaging line to run at optimal speed and function is a skillset all on its own.
The key to mastering balance and maximising the benefits of your new equipment is integration.
NOT ALL INTEGRATORS ARE EQUAL
Integration of packaging machinery into full packaging lines requires whole-plant expertise and – to do it really well – mechanical, electrical and software skills along with automation expertise. Integration can just mean ‘the joining of single machines together with conveyors’, or it can refer to a holistic systems-based approach that creates a machine ecosystem with ‘eyes’ and a ‘brain’.
The aim of any good line integrator is to transform your packaging operation from a series of stand-alone bits of automation into a fully integrated unit using a unified ‘language’ reporting to a single
command point. Doing that well requires extra skill – and programming expertise.
LIMITING BOTTLENECKS
Your shiny new piece of equipment will only operate as fast and efficiently as the upstream and downstream machines. Machines will always break down or require material replenishment. Optimising the line balance minimises the impact when this happens. The trick is to maximise critical machine production by maintaining a steady flow of product along the entire production line. Most likely, its optimal functioning will depend on proper ‘V curve’ speeds, increasing available accumulation and improving machine restart times.
An example of this would be a filler that stops three times per hour for an average of two minutes per stoppage:
3x2=sixminutesperhouror 10 per cent line efficiency.
Providing that the infrastructure and accumulation is in place, it is usually possible to recover more than 50 per cent of these losses on a line that has not been previously balanced.
MACHINE TO MACHINE COMMUNICATION
Getting all the machines on
a line “talking” to each other
is a top priority. The best integrators will ensure that the machine software is correctly programmed, that it works together with every machine on the line, which in turn works with all the others. At every juncture, there will be an electronic “handshake” that signals the next piece of equipment to take over. If the timing isn’t perfect,
a fault could be detected and operations suspended.
Integrating each of the machines – fillers, case erectors, shrink wrappers, labellers, case packers and sealers, conveyors, palletisers – to do their job at the right time and the right speed is
16 | Food&Drink business | November-December 2020 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au