Festo has global experience in providing solutions for filling and packaging lines. The company provides a wide variety of handling solutions with a choice of drives to meet individual customer applications in packaging, labelling, testing and monitoring in the non-food zone at the end of the value creation chain. From a bottling plant in the United States to a food packaging machine builder in Germany, Festo provided successful solutions for their filling needs.
Festo MPA-S valves with diagnostic ability
An American bottling plant uses a filling machine for wine bottles where all 80 filling heads are actuated by pilot valves. It chose Festo MPA-S valves with extended diagnostics options for this application. The MPA-S offers individual diagnostics where each valve can be monitored separately (wire break, current consumption, switching cycle rate). This data provides the plant with quick and simple error diagnostics and error elimination, thus reducing downtime.
The customer chose to use a uniform basic valve type, namely the MPA, throughout the entire system for two reasons: firstly it provided two diagnostics concepts with a single valve type and secondly, the two valve concepts with identical replacement parts meant easier maintenance and parts ordering.
Linking an MPA to the Festo CPX electrical terminal allows for simple incorporation of electric drives into the control concept. In this way, it merges modern technology of the chosen bus architecture in an application with pneumatic valve technology. When used in combination with CPX, MPA-S is extremely interesting for manufacturers who need a configured, fully assembled and completely tested valve terminal with outstanding communication features and maximised integration of functions.
This solution provided an inexpensive overall concept and a single contact person for the entire project. “In this application, the customer saw Festo as a technology partner and not just a component supplier. They received everything from a single source in a co-ordinated concept,” explains Ernst Smith, product marketing manager, Festo.
Robotic filling solutions
Across the Atlantic, in northern Germany, a global leader in speciality food processing showcases their high-speed solution with a robotic filling machine, which achieves output rates of up to 800 fillings per minute. With this filling machine, it is an easy task to fill products such as salads, jams, butter, or sauerkraut to precise weight specifications.
After filling, the containers are hermetically sealed using a gasification station which feeds nitrogen through ducts to the filled containers. This reduces the residual oxygen to a safe 0,1% of the original volume, thus ensuring a suitable seal for the product’s ‘Best Before’ date. The nitrogen supply is regulated by a Festo DLP, a pneumatic linear drive for process automation applications, whilst pressure sensors control the correct pressure for the nitrogen. Servo-pneumatics are responsible for the precision of the system which uses a Festo controller CMAX to regulate the position and force of the pneumatic drives.
“Apart from an ability to supply servo-pneumatic components, the customer chose to work with Festo because it exports 80% of the machines it sells. It therefore needed an automation technology supplier who could support them in every corner in the world. With 250 branches in 176 countries, Festo certainly fulfils that requirement,” observes Smith.
Fit-and-forget solutions
With a selection of 30 000 standard products, Festo can offer servo-pneumatic, electric or pneumatic technology, whichever best suits the customer application. Systems are delivered fully assembled and tested as ready-to-install system solutions – complete with technical user files and system drawings. Users receive not only the hardware in the form of a connection ready module, but also as a complete value creation package in a customised control panel. Turnkey solutions mean less work for the customer, reduced system design costs, and simplified procurement and process costs. “Fit and forget is the objective for our customers,” says Smith.
No two handling systems are the same; they vary from simple pick & place systems to linear and cantilever gantries, 3D gantries and kinematic Tripod robotic systems. “Our customers describe their handling task, and together we design and then deliver a plug and work solution directly to the installation cell – there is no need for complex commissioning,” concludes Smith.
For more information contact Tracey Swart, Festo, 08600 FESTO (33786), [email protected], www.festo.com
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