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Automation Today

• Overview
  Efficiency - Your key to competitiveness

News and events

• Automation University across the EMEA region
• Automation Fair 2006
• Brau Beviale 2006
• Event diary

Feature story

• Calculating total value of ownership for OEMs

Technology watch

• OEMs benefit from FactoryTalk and Integrated Architecture
• Process control – an integrated approach
• The evolution of machine safety

Product Focus

• Servo drive technology available in expanded power ranges
• Ideal batch solutions for smaller operations
• Drives management goes wireless
• Add more flexibility and reliability

Latest technology enables high speed and high accuracy

Using the latest control technology from Allen-Bradley in combination with close collaboration between its R&D Department and Rockwell Automation, the latest generation of GACELA rotary machines from Auxiemba offers a decisive competitive edge.

Auxiemba unveiled this high-precision, high-speed self-adhesive labeling machine at Hispack 2006. The company, a Spanish manufacturer with more than 40 years’ experience in the bottling and packaging sector, continues to successfully compete in an increasingly competitive marketplace. It does so by developing products with greater added value and by consistently offering quality and service as a means of ensuring a faster return on investment for its customers.

Due to the importance of brand, image and the quality of the labelled product, self-adhesive labelling machines are becoming increasingly important on packaging lines and are now being used for labelling mass-market products at increasingly higher speeds.

Labelling machines play a crucial role on packaging lines. Because they are used towards the end of the production stage, any rejects resulting from quality issues can generate extra costs and result in major production losses – this is why Auxiemba lays down such stringent standards for its development work. For more than 15 years the company has implemented leading-edge technologies in its control systems and Allen-Bradley ControlLogix and KINETIX equipment, from Rockwell Automation, has been used in this new generation of machines.

Logix, a multiple-discipline and multiple-processor operating system, can be used on multiple hardware platforms spanning disciplines such as PLC sequential logic control, motion control, drive control and process control. In traditional architectures, various specialist controllers, each with their own programs and languages are used. These controllers connect to one another using co-ordinated handshake signals that restrict the labelling speed to between 18,000 and 24,000 products/hour. These architectures also require users to have knowledge of numerous programming systems and accessing information from different controllers also adds to the complexity of the system.

A Logix processor is both a PLC and a movement controller – ensuring complete control from a single program. An instruction for an axis to perform a movement is programmed in the same way that a timer is programmed or an output is activated, using the same language and the same program. All program tags are shared and all information is available from a single location – eliminating the handshake signals between controllers and increasing the labelling rate to 72,000 products/hour.

KINETIX is Rockwell Automation’s fully integrated motion control system. In a traditional architecture, servo drives and servo motors are treated as external components that are provided with digital outputs, receive a reference speed signal, rotate the motor and send a feedback signal to the controller together with a fault indicator output. These servo drives require special software for configuration and adjustment. The motion controller cannot access information from these servo drives.

KINETIX 6000 servo drives are considered by the controller to be just like any other module fitted in the chassis and can be accessed via the backplane. They are fully integrated at a functional level using the proven SERCOS communications interface and all the information from the servo drives is available as tags from the controller. The highly dynamic MPL servo motors comprise very high-resolution feedback systems and a Smart Motor Interface (SMI) function that stores all the motor’s characteristics in an EEPROM. This high degree of integration helps the development, implementation and maintenance of a design.

For a machine manufacturer, such as Auxiemba, this control architecture offers numerous benefits. The amount of space required on the installation panel is reduced, installation is simplified and reliability is increased because an optical fibre that connects the servo drives to the chassis merely needs to be inserted in order to establish all the connections. The integration of the PLC and motion control also reduces training, development, commissioning and maintenance costs.

As far as the end customer is concerned, this integrated control architecture means they can access production process information in real time and obtain a direct link to their factory management system at no extra cost. Remote access is another option available with this system, enabling the machine manufacturer to provide an optimum service and the end customer to increase production.

The system’s great flexibility and modularity offer a faster response to the continuous changes demanded by the market. New labelling application heads can always be fitted on these machines, thus protecting the customer’s initial investment.