Digitax ST servo-drive from Control Techniques boosts throughput of a packaging machine.
At the world’s largest chocolate factory in Veghel, Holland, Mars is constantly searching for increased efficiency through refinement of production machinery to increase throughput, eliminate bottlenecks and reduce costs. So, when it came to very specific requirements for a servo-drive for a show-box packaging machine on the ‘Snickers’ production line, Mars’ improvement engineer, Kees Kleijn, asked the advice of Control Techniques, one of the main drives suppliers to the plant.
“We use both Epsilon EP and Unidrive SP extensively,” explains Kleijn. “But for this application Control Techniques suggested their most recent servo product, Digitax ST and this has proved to be ideal. I really like the fact that all Control Techniques drives are flexible in operation and are completely compatible as retrofits with other equipment, such as PLCs, drives or motors that may already be fitted.”
The machine is designed to pack Snickers bars (or Mars bars) into ‘show-boxes’ for use at the point of sale. The same machine can be used for different sizes of show-boxes, holding either 24 or 36 bars.
Bars are fed down the production line to the packaging machine, whose main motor is controlled by a 4 kW Unidrive SP in closed loop which is synchronised to the previous machine on the line. Bars are rotated 90° and moved into the ‘buncher’ section controlled by the new Digitax ST servodrive that feeds bars onto a chain feed packaging conveyor with separators that have to be precisely positioned between the bars to prevent any product damage. From here the bars are stacked together in sixes, over three rows and fed into the show box, front and back, with a Control Techniques Epsilon EP servo-controlled pusher. The machine throughput has been increased 15% per minute, principally due to the increased speed of the buncher.
The Digitax ST range has been designed to meet the requirements of machine designers and system integrators – a compact servo-drive with an unmatched range of flexible integration features, optimised for servo applications requiring high peak torque, exceptional dynamic response, faster installation and start-up as well as ease of integration. Four product variants make up the range at launch – Base, Indexer, EZ Motion and Digitax ST Plus.
Top of the range is the Digitax ST Plus that features a full functionality motion controller, optimised for high performance machine cells requiring drive-to-drive networking, cam profiling and synchronised motion. The onboard drive-to-drive networking links multiple axes and enables true distributed control. The drive’s advanced motion features are programmed in a flexible IEC6113-3 software development environment using PLC-open motion function blocks within Control Techniques’ SyPTPRO software.
“Above all, it is the cross platform compatibility offered by Control Techniques drives that make my development work so much easier,” adds Kleijn. “And the excellent support that I get from the Control Techniques’ Drive Centre in Rotterdam.”
For more information contact Bill Tedd, Control Techniques, +27 (0)11 462 1740, [email protected], www.controltechniques.com
| Tel: | +27 11 462 1740 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.controltechniques.com |
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