Innovation is crucial to long-term success in the manufacturing sector.
Endlessly seeking to evolve and employ new technology is central to continued prosperity.
It enables companies to offer unique solutions and stand-out in the marketplace, while at the same time providing the continual improvements in productivity demanded by manufacturers.
One company with a focus on integrating innovation into its products is leading packaging solutions provider, Foodmach Australia.
Serving industry for over thirty years, today the company provides a range of patented robotic and automated packaging solutions.
These innovations are continually evolving, fuelled by industry's ceaseless drive for faster, more efficient manufacturing solutions. For Foodmach Australia, ongoing innovation is a necessity.
Foodmach Australia recently combined two of its automated packaging solutions to create a unique hybrid palletising machine--the Robomatrix Hybrid.
The new system combines features of Foodmach Australia’s Robomatrix series of high-speed pattern-forming palletising solutions, along with elements of the company’s S3000 floor-level case-palletising system.
Almost all of the Robomatrix Hybrid’s motion processes rely on SEW-Eurodrive electronic drive control technology, as well as SEW-Eurodrive standard and servo gear motors.
The result is a fast and efficient single-level palletising machine, adaptable to nearly anything that comes off a production line in a package.
Hybrid solution Foodmach's Robomatrix Hybrid features the latest in materials handling systems, underpinned by precision automation, and advanced robotic and drive technologies.
Its robotic arm manipulates and orients finished packaged product into pallet layers. Each pallet layer is then hoisted and stacked from the ground up to form a pallet.
In operation, packaged product moves off the production line and is conveyed to the Robomatrix Hybrid’s two synchronised side-grip conveyor belts. T
hese servo-driven belts control the in-feed rate of the unit.
The packaged product is then fed to a 2.5m-wide conventional conveyor known as the ‘pattern-forming belt’, which passes beneath a robotic arm equipped with a servo-driven ‘gripper’.
Individual packaged products are tracked by the robotic arm/gripper and quickly manoeuvred--in two planes--into the desired orientation.
With the packaged product continually moving along the pattern-forming belt at up to 50 metres per minute as they are rearranged, the process resembles an impressive game of high-speed Tetris.
The correctly orientated packaged product continues along the pattern-forming belt until it encounters a vertical divider or ‘layer stopper’.
At this point the positioned cartons accumulate and form a pallet layer--with the pattern-forming belt continuing to move beneath it.
When a layer is completed, the divider is raised and the arranged products are passed along the conveyor to the ‘sweep carriage’ area.
To enable the fully formed layer to be hoisted and set-down onto a pallet, a rectangular sweep carriage or frame, is lowered around the product layer.
Once set around the layer, servo-driven squaring plates--an end stopper, and two side-squaring plates--grip the tightly-formed layer and moves it over a nearby 'stripper plate'.
The stripper plate acts as a support as the product layer is lifted off the sweep carriage area.
The sweep carriage and stripper plate then make a coordinated movement, positioning themselves over the pallet and any existing pallet layers.
This hoisting and horizontal movement is achieved using standard motors powered by drive modules equipped with incremental encoders.
When in position, the stripper plate is withdrawn and the layer is set down. This process is repeated as required to form a full pallet.
Finding the drive With the Robomatrix Hybrid requiring a range of motor and drive capabilities--from simple conveying, to pin-point positioning--Foodmach opted for the advantage of an inverter module that could be used across-the-board to meet each requirement--the MOVIDRIVE 'B' application inverter from SEW-Eurodrive.
Each of the Robomatrix Hybrid system's twelve SEW-Eurodrive motors, whether servo or standard, is combined with the MOVIDRIVE 'B' application inverter.
"The MOVIDRIVE ‘B’ provides users with a valuable combination of versatility and processing power for both standard variable speed drives and sophisticated positioning and synchronous applications,” says SEW-Eurodrive applications engineer, John Gattellari.
"It was this combination that allowed Foodmach to deploy the MOVIDRIVE ‘B’ across the various servo and standard motor drive application on the Robomatrix Hybrid. It was just a matter of which encoder card and application module we used."
According to Ken Orr, Foodmach Australia Software Engineer, the pre-programmed application module libraries were a key feature of the MOVIDRIVE ‘B’.
"We utilised the application modules extensively," Orr says.
"Ten of the twelve drives used in the hybrid Robomatrix palletiser employ pre-programmed application modules."
"For instance, we used a sensor-based positioning module at the in-feed servo-motors, and then a different extended positioning module for the squaring plates, and servo gripper head."
"Basically, it saves an enormous amount of programming. It's just a matter of picking the right application, putting the correct parameters in, and you're up and going."
For Foodmach Australia, capitalising on this flexibility translates into savings in time, and cost.
"If we have to do the positioning programming on a PLC, we could spend two or three days attempting to program that during commissioning on site," says Orr.
"Using the application modules that came with the drive, it's programmed in the workshop and ready to go. For an experienced person it may be a matter of one hour."
"That makes all the difference when it comes down to budget."
Safety and support With application modules helping to handle positioning and conveying tasks, site installation was further simplified with the integrated safety feature of the MOVIDRIVE ‘B’.
"From an electrical engineering point of view, the hybrid Robomatrix palletiser was designed and built from scratch," Orr says.
"That meant we we're able to use the integrated safety features that were built into the drive. In the past we had enormous three phase contactors dropping the power supply to the drive."
"Now we only have to drop off a 24V supply to the drive, and it's Cat-3 safety rated."
According to Orr, SEW-Eurodrive’s after-sales support was a key factor for choosing the drive technology group. SEW-Eurodrive’s comprehensive stock of spare-parts and 24-hour around-the-clock service capabilities, positions the company as Australia’s most dependable drive solutions provider.
"We have received tremendous support from them in the past," he says.
"If we have any questions, all we have to do is make a phone call and we get a solution on the line, or if not, in 15 to 20 minutes they call us back with an answer."
This is music to SEW-Eurodrive’s ears. "Support is something we pride ourselves on,” says John Gattellari.
“Not only is SEW-Eurodrive contactable by phone 24-hours a day, but we ensure a wealth of information and documentation is available through our website and online DriveGate portal."
The completion of the new Robomatrix Hybrid palletising machine has seen Foodmach Australia expand its extensive range of innovative packaging machinery.
With the support of SEW-Eurodrive, Foodmach Australia will continue to integrate innovation into its customised packaging technologies, and provide Australian industry with faster, more efficient manufacturing solutions.
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