B&R perfection in automation

automotion SPECIAL EDITION: PACKAGING OCME: Engineering turns green SIG Combibloc: Award-winning design Thinking machine modularity through to the end

Perfection in Automation

www.br-automation.com

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automotion: The B&R customer magazine Online version: www.automotion.info Media owner: Bernecker + Rainer Industrie-Elektronik Ges.m.b.H. B&R Strasse 1 5142 Eggelsberg Austria Publisher: Hans Wimmer B&R Strasse 1 5142 Eggelsberg Austria

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Editors: Andreas Enzenbach, Agnes Hufnagl, Margit MayrbĂśck, Peter Kemptner,Franz Joachim RoĂ&#x;mann, Lukas Maier B&R Strasse 1 5142 Eggelsberg Austria editor@automotion.info Design: Lukas Maier, Cecilia Zimmerbeutel B&R Strasse 1 5142 Eggelsberg Austria

Print: Vorarlberger Verlagsanstalt GmbH Schwefel 81 6850 Dornbirn Austria Publisher address: B&R Strasse 1 5142 Eggelsberg Austria Free subscription To subscribe, simply visit www.automotion.info

Editorial Technology 15

Certified safety in the drive increases employee safety AND productivity

27

Innovative packaging as a crucial distinguishing feature at the point of sale

39

These companies trust in B&R

42

openSAFETY: What's in it for you?

50

ACOPOSmulti65: Thinking machine modularity through to the end

56

Automation Studio - More than just a programming tool

63

Scalable hardware as a key to success

72

Modular hardware for modular machines

74

The automation partner for the food and beverage industry

Interview 10

PackML - The standard for packaging machine automation

11

Functional safety in machine manufacturing: An option or an obligation?

36

A safe start into a safe future

Application 4

R端genwalder M端hle: A rich tradition and promising future

7

SIG Combibloc: Concentrating on the important things

12

CFS: Perfect cut and placement

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De La Ballina: 18,000 baguettes per hour

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OCME: Engineering turns green

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Veltins: Veltins and B&R mix up the beer market

30 Modular Packaging Systems: A strong trend 足toward integration 31 Extreme Packaging: Extreme efficiency with B&R servo technology 32

Ilapak: The future of packaging

40

Blumer: Step by step label production

44

G. Mondini: Handling different formats? That's easy!

46

Hayssen Sandiacre: High-speed packaging

48

Thimonnier: Innovative packaging

53

Graphic Packaging International: Sustainable labeling

54

STM: Grabbing the bottle by the neck

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Fratelli Beretta: A recipe for success

67

Hastamat: Modern automation technology reduces packaging costs

70

Tauras Fenix: Intelligent packaging solutions for demanding products

The way something is packaged sets it apart from similar products from other manufacturers. Not only that, but there's a constant balancing act taking place between function and design as well as technical implementation and cost. Harmonizing these conflicting factors therefore requires innovative, flexible and fully automated packaging machines.

In this special edition of automotion, we will be presenting a wide spectrum of the most advanced technologies currently being used in this industry.

The growth being experienced by the packaging industry throughout the world is largely due to the explosive growth of the world's consumer class.

It was exactly this reason that led B&R to form the Packaging Solutions division, an international group of experts who are specifically focused on the needs of multinational packaged goods manufacturers and packaging system suppliers.

From rapidly emerging markets to fully industrialized economies, B&R is always standing by with the latest automation technology, engineering expertise and an international support network.

Whatever your requirements, we have the solution.

Have fun reading!

Sincerely,

Maurizio Tarozzi Global Technology Manager Packaging Solutions, B&R automotion

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Application

A rich tradition and promising future Products from the Rügenwalder Mühle are making mouths water. The renowned sausage and ham producer, together with its products, has remained one of Germany's most well-known and enjoyed brands for decades. Rügenwalder has achieved this position through exact processing and excellent product quality. In order to honor this tradition and to maintain the highest possible standards, the company invests in state-of-the-art, safe production systems. To make the vision of integrated visualization, optimum production resource management and marked cost-savings a reality, Rügenwalder opted for B&R technology for a wide range of uses.

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Even today, the over 170-year-old recipes from the early days of the Rügenwalder Mühle form the basis of the company's products, which includes such well-known products as Schinkenspicker (ham sausage) and Rügenwalder Teewurst (tea sausage). Even with today's modern manufacturing methods and the company's annual production of many million packages of sausage, this sausage and ham product producer has steadfastly honored its skilled tradition and meticulous processing.

Those responsible insist upon using the best ingredients and strict quality controls, and they also strive to run an environmentally-friendly manufacturing process in compliance with

up-to-date guidelines and regulations.

With their decision to replace existing visualization and control technology with B&R technology on a broad scale, Rügenwalder Mühle has laid the foundation for meeting the highest future demands.

Comprehensive system

visualization

The technical director at Rügenwalder, Horst Jacob, states the determining factors for discontinuing the use of the prior technology: "In the future, we want to control our systems more precisely, comprehensively display and document the interrelation of machines and systems and further improve production resource man-

Application agement. Without discontinuing the use of the visualization and control systems from our previous supplier, this would be nearly impossible due to the high costs involved."

A considerable amount of water leaves the sausage during this process. This water loss must be compensated for by adding an additional quantity when filling the skin.

This is not surprising because many factors influence the quality of a sausage. Recognizing the potential for cost reduction in all production areas

"If we can reduce the weight by just one gram and still guarantee that the consumer receives the declared nominal filling quantity as required

"We wanted to control our systems more precisely, comprehensively display and document the interrelation of machines and systems and further improve production resource management."

Horst Jacob Technical Director Rügenwalder

and further optimizing the process control system places high demands on process visualization and control.

A further intricacy is that particular procedures must be implemented in order to achieve the desired result that significantly influence the quality of the sausage (smoking, curing).

To produce spreadable, raw sausage, the meat is minced in a meat grinder, spices are added, it is put in skin and then smoked over beech wood fire in special smoke chambers with a capacity of several thousand sausages. Then the sausage is allowed to cure for a certain amount of time in climate-controlled rooms with tons of other sausages in order to develop their characteristic taste.

by the pre-packaging authorities, then that naturally results in significant cost reduction for our company," emphasizes Horst Jacob.

Cost cutting through precise process control This type of filling process optimization requires precise control of the drying process. "For this, many cubic meters of air with the correct temperature and humidity must be circulated and distributed in elaborated steps," states Holger Landwehr, business manager of Landwehr GmbH, Rügenwalder's supplier of cooking and smoking systems and the person responsible for modernizing the current systems using B&R technology.

"The old control system for the curing chambers has reached its limits.

It was not freely programmable and, as a result, lacked the desired degree of flexibility. It also lacked sufficient precision and computing power," explains the smoking system specialist with 30 years experience in the field of "smokers". Many parameters (e.g. temperature and humidity) must be accurately measured and monitored, and the air circulation precisely controlled in order to ensure that the sausage is evenly dried and is not damaged. If external air is used in the drying process to save energy costs, which Rügenwalder has planned for the future, additional parameters must be considered and the air management system must be refined.

"It is no longer acceptable to simply open or close ventilation flaps or just measure the relative humidity of the air as it once was in the past. We have welcomed the fact that Rügenwalder has taken the initiative and are ready to forge new paths with B&R technology." The controllers used until now are not the only technology that does not meet the demands of the future, as Host Jacob emphasizes: "The extremely limited visualization and documentation options of the solutions used until now also do not fulfill our requirements."

Insufficient visualization options were the actual cause for Rügenwalder Mühle's reorientation of its control and visualization technology.

In the first step, a new visualization system based on B&R products was connected to the control system used previously. In a second step, the control system itself was replaced. "We've chosen the complete solution from B&R because of the openness of B&R controllers and especially the B&R product policy, which encompasses their own manufacturing facilities and, as a result, ensures long-term availability."

Competitive technology

Temperature, moisture and airflow are precisely monitored and controlled by the Landwehr solution, all using B&R hardware.

edge

with

B&R

Holger Landwehr, who together with his team developed the new controller for the smoking systems based on the B&R Power Panel, is excited by the options B&R technology offers: "With B&R products, we were able to increase the effectiveness >> automotion

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Application

Rügenwalder's diverse products are subject to stringent inspections during production in order to ensure the quality and excellent taste of the sausage.

of our systems, which gives us an advantage over our competition. But not only that: We also receive better service than before and can provide the new controllers at lower prices."

At Rügenwalder, Mr. Jacob is also

about the future: "The implemented B&R technology allows the integration of additional areas of Rügenwalder's operations. Product safety and process monitoring can be optimized and improved on a continuing basis. The openness of the controller and B&R's long-term product policy

"Using the implemented B&R technology allowed us to optimize and improve product safety and process monitoring on a continuing basis. The openness of the controller and B&R's long-term product policy guarantee the sustainability of the solution."

Holger Landwehr Business Manager Landwehr GmbH

convinced of the new control system: "Installing and commissioning the new system took very little time and ran without any problems whatsoever. As we expected, the panel we implemented still operates without any problems.

From the very beginning, the operators, some of whom have worked for decades with other controllers, experienced no difficulty familiarizing themselves with the new devices."

This operators' positive experience bolsters management and those responsible for technology at Rügenwalder to further pursue the path they have started. "We now have a controller that offers us more freedom and allows us to raise the bar with our visualization.

The integration of several system components in a new visualization or control system based on B&R technology is within reach," remarks Horst Jacob.

Holger Landwehr is also optimistic 6

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guarantee the sustainability of the solution. The problems we faced with prior solutions—cancellations and exorbitant procurement costs for replacement devices—are now part of the past."

Rügenwalder:

Established: 1834 in Rügenwald Locations: Bad Zwischenahn (Germany) Products & Services: Specialty sausage products like Rügenwalder Teewurst (Rügenwalder tea sausage), Pommersche Gutsleberwurst (Pomeranian liver sausage), Schinkenspicker (Pomeranian ham sausage) and Pommern Spiess (Pomeranian boiled ham) www.ruegenwalder.de www.landwehrgmbh.de

Application Operating complex processes around the clock—easily and without accidents—is the ultimate challenge for owners and users of modern machines and systems. This is especially important when they're operating highperformance systems for processing foodstuffs. A manufacturer of cardboard packaging and filling machines has therefore made user-friendliness and reliability a priority when developing the latest human machine interface (HMI) for its filling machines. This new system, developed in close cooperation with B&R and the usability expert Prof. Hofmann, has proven itself under demanding operating conditions and received several awards.

Concentrating on the important things "For companies producing and filling foodstuffs, even a few hours of machine downtime per year is unacceptable," explains Peter Holzkämper, who is responsible for the visualization systems at SIG Combiblock.

This is not a case of users being nitpicky, but rather a matter of survival in an intensely competitive international market, which quickly becomes clear when one takes a closer look at modern production systems and their high level of output.

As one of the worldwide leading manufacturers of cardboard packaging and filling systems for foodstuffs and beverages, SIG Combibloc's portfolio also includes high-speed solutions capable of aseptically fill-

ing up to 24,000 small-format packages per hour.

"If the human machine interface used with the high-performance machine fails, the entire system goes down.

Exchanging the operating unit can quickly cause delivery bottlenecks to develop, which in the worst case could result in empty shelves at the supermarket," says Holzkämper, illustrating how a defect in the visualization system can tarnish the reputation of a supplier or even result in the termination of a contract.

Absolutely moisture resistant: The integrated display The company defined the list of requirements with exactly this in mind

when it began redesigning their HMI systems from the ground up. One of the central requirements of the new operating solution was to eliminate the observed weaknesses of the previous system with regard to construction and production while ensuring that no new problems were created in the process.

By selecting the automation specialists B&R as the hardware supplier and using B&R's combination of a 19" panel and an industrial PC, this goal was achieved, concludes Peter Holzkämper: "At the time of the evaluation, not only did B&R have a completely integrated display with the large dimensions we were looking for, they also had a very impressive amount of >> automotion

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Application experience and the capability to innovate very quickly."

Winner of multiple awards The display, winner of the coveted IF Product Design Award, fits into an extremely slender housing, distinguishes itself with its minimalist design and, thanks to a swing-arm, can be moved by the user into an optimal reading position. "B&R accommodated our special requests by modifying a standard display to match our requirements.

This further increased the user-friendliness and functionality of our HMI," adds Holzkämper.

The visualization expert from SIG Combibloc also gives a positive review of the industrial PC used in SIG Combibloc's new user interface: "The APC from B&R is extremely compact and definitely lives up to the title 'Industrial PC'." In addition to the robust design of B&R's industrial computers, Holzkämper was also impressed with B&R's inhouse industrial PC assembly, includ-

ing the ability to develop and produce customized circuit boards, not to mention the well as the all-around expertise of the automation supplier. "The whole package just works for us," summariz-

es Holzkämper. "And the B&R computers have long-term availability—over 10 years. This is a requirement that no other supplier had been able to offer with such matter-of-factness."

The industrial PCs run a visualization application based on the Zenon HMI/ SCADA software from Copa-Data, which was developed together with Prof. Thomas Hofmann. "In addition to reliability, the user-friendliness of the human machine interface was extremely important to us," explains Holzkämper. "This is why we brought in Prof. Hofmann as a design and usability expert. The cooperation was clearly fruitful: the HMI was distinguished with the reddot design award. The jury thus recognized the logical menu structure, the graphic implementation and the resulting user-friendliness of the communication platform, which were all oriented around the user's habits."

Retrofitting customers

With the development of high-speed filling machines, SIG Combibloc can fullfill the market's demands for speed and high output - while keeping up maximum quality and flexibility.

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Even in demanding practical situations, the new communication platform has already proven itself a success, as the visualization expert from SIG Combibloc reports: "We have equipped prototype machines ordered by two of our most demanding customers with the new human machine interface. So far everything is running smoothly and reliably." On one occasion a converter board did need to be exchanged, Holzkämper admits: "But the problem was corrected with exemplary service quickly, reliably and with high-quality."

Application

Award-winning design

Through modification of the display, B&R provides a product solution that meets the special requirements of SIG Combibloc. The minimalist design and a support arm assembly are now features of the innovative HMI from the German machine manufacturer.

With the new operator terminal consisting of three illuminated square keys, SIG Combibloc expands its HMI product line with an additional functional operating element.

"B&R accommodated our special requests by modifying a standard display to match our requirements. This further increased the user-friendliness and functionality of our HMI." Peter Holzk채mper Visualization Systems Specialist SIG Combibloc

Because of the positive experiences so far, the company is already integrating the new HMI into another series of machines.

SIG Combibloc now has a standard interface that optimally matches the requirements of a filling machine and its operators. "However, the entire line is composed of multiple machines," emphasizes Holzk채mper. The machines that come before and after the filling machine perform less complex tasks and therefore do not require the numerous functions and display options provided by the SIG Combibloc standard interface. "That would be like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut," says the visualization expert. "We therefore decided to develop an entire HMI kit that covers all the various requirements of the machines that make up the line."

As a second step, SIG Combibloc designed an operator terminal based on the B&R X20 System with three illuminated ring keys to cover the lower end of the HMI system.

SIG Combibloc:

Established: 1853 (Schweizerische Industrie-Gesellschaft) Locations: Packaging plants and subsidiaries in 40 countries Products and services: SIG Combibloc is a worldwide leading manufacturer of cardboard packaging and filling machines for beverages and foodstuffs. www.sig.biz automotion

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Interview

PackML - The standard for packaging machine automation Requested by end users and developed with the use of substantial technical resources provided by system suppliers, the PackML standard developed by OMAC ensures maximum system efficiency. Leading packaging machine manufacturers—companies like ADCO, Ilapak, Pearson and Pro Mach—already rely on this standard and are promoting its use throughout the entire packaging industry.

John Kowal OMAC

In addition to important interface descriptions for packaging machines, PackML also includes classifications of line types and defines machine states and modes.

Another advantage is that—as with OPC guidelines (OLE for Process Control)—it defines uniform data acquisition for important trends such as safety and MES (manufacturing execution systems). This results in a much tighter integration of packaging guidelines and leads to a substantial increase in the total efficiency of the entire machine or system.

Since 1994, OMAC has endeavored to develop and implement standards that reach across the packaging industry. One of the chief aims of the OMAC Packaging Workgroup is to optimize the total business value of packaging machines through improved automation guidelines. Machine manufacturers and end users are thus able to profit from the highest levels of flexibility and the increased power of their packaging solutions while considerably reducing system integration costs at the same time.

The following are some of the main goals set forth by the OMAC: ■■ To improve flexibility and interoperability through the use of Connect-and-Pack guidelines in order to better meet the needs of end users and machine manufacturers ■■ To encourage automation suppliers, OEMs, and trade groups worldwide to support these Connect-and-Pack guidelines in their products and practices ■■ To address the educational and training needs of the automated packaging machine industry ■■ To create a win-win-win situation between end users, technology providers and packaging machinery OEMs ■■ To work with industry groups and standards bodies to have Connect-and-Pack guidelines implemented as industry standards ■■ To develop Connect-and-Pack guidelines that provide easier horizontal integration between processing and packaging machines and lines, as well as vertical integration to MES, OEE and related production management systems

PackML 10 automotion

Connect and Pack

Interview

Functional safety in machine manufacturing: An option or an obligation?

Peter Fr端auf VDMA

Directive 2006/42/EC obligates manufacturers and operators of machinery and systems to ensure that their equipment does not pose a risk to humans. It requires them to take measures to prevent accidents. Systematic risk assessments play a large role in this.

Certification for the applicable standards significantly increases legal certainty with regard to conforming to the machinery directive and fulfilling the burden of proof. However, this does not free the individual from his or her responsibilities. After all, standards have certain tolerances when evaluating risk or planning and implementing the actual safety functions. Even product-specific Type C standards don't dictate clear-cut rules for each and every situation.

A successful safety solution must also prevent safety functions from being circumvented. What good is a safety gate if the operator can simply climb over it to perform his task? This not only risks human injury and damage to the machine, but also carries additional financial consequences. An accident can result in long production downtimes and negative publicity that can damage a company's image.

In the worst case, the company can end up spending years fighting legal battles.

Some companies view safety measures as a necessary evil that does

The increasing level of automation in machines and systems makes it more and more essential to create flexible links between individual safety functions. Open, standardized communication solutions are becoming increasingly important. Peter Fr端auf, manager of the Electrical Automation division of the German engineering federation VDMA, explains why. nothing but cause complications and increase expenses. Yet more and more machine and system manufacturers are beginning to recognize the competitive advantages that can be gained through a modern safety solution: Integrated safety solutions with improved error localization and diagnostics can reduce failure rates and lend the production process a flexible new design.

Safety technology often has a misleading reputation as a conservative affair. Yet it thrives on the experiences of users who have discovered that certain practices have proven themselves over time. Safety technology utilizes rules and techniques derived from user feedback to define the requirements for high-quality safety technology. This is one reason why technical trends often appear later in this area than they do in conventional automation.

Early on, for example, safety relays were used to implement individual safety functions such as E-stop switches. As time passed, however, the demands placed on the automation, personnel protection and functional safety have continually increased. A scalable range of powerful, flexible and adaptable components consequentially took the place of the safety relay.

cause the increasing level of machine automation demands flexible links between individual safety functions.

Here it helps to evaluate existing findings, such as the VDMA guide on the use of programmable safety technology in the field of mechanical engineering. Close cooperation between machine and system manufacturers as well as suppliers of automation components and solutions results in a wealth of experience and successful approaches that can help identify and eliminate risk. Managers and supervisors in electrical and mechanical fields must be able to evaluate safety technology, make decisions and do what is necessary to implement a technical solution. These days, companies cannot afford to do without programmable safety technology.

However, developing safety-related software and hardware involves long development times and high investment with a comparatively low return. From a cost perspective, then, a safety solution with open communication is the optimal answer.

Today, programmable safety controllers are state of the art, chiefly beautomotion 11

Application Applikation

Perfect cut and placement Ready-packed sliced sausages and cheeses are strong consumer favorites. Yet despite this, manufacturers in the food processing branch remain under considerable price pressure in retail markets, making it important to seek innovative ways to increase production performance. The renowned slicer manufacturer CFS continues to raise the bar. They offer a complete portfolio of slicers—from manually loaded slicers to automatic high-performance slicers—that feature the highest degree of flexibility and productivity for the production of sliced sausages.

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The corrugated blade on the CFS MegaSlicer rotates around its axis up to two thousand times, cutting easily through lunch meats and cheese. Perfectly cut slices fall away faster than the eye can see. Speed is important, but not everything, as pointed out by JĂśrg Schmeiser, Director of Product Management at CFS: "Whenever we start out designing a machine, we take the entire production process and advancement of performance into consideration. Therefore, in addition to increasing throughput, we also concentrate on maximizing the yield while

minimizing the 'give away' and ensuring simple and safe handling."

A similar approach to increasing throughput is increasing the speed of the blade. Of course, the properties of the products that have to be cut can vary greatly. In addition, the decisive parameters are usually temperaturedependent. Therefore, the rotational speed of the blade must adapt to the product and can only be increased within certain limitations. Cutting speed is also restricted by the feed and portioning procedures as well

Application

The MegaSlicer from CFS permits an output rate of up to 600 cuts per minute.

put by raising the blade speed while also having to add blank steps.

When operating at a speed of 1,200 RPM, there are only a few milliseconds between the withdrawal of the corrugated blade from the meat and its re-insertion. "In this brief window of time, the blade must be clear from the product area for the addition of blank steps. When the cutting process starts again, it must also be positioned in such a way that the blade cuts off a slice that has exactly the same thickness as before the gap, without wasting any of the product," explains Jรถrg Schmeiser.

as the removal procedures whose speed must be regulated according to the mass being moved. "However, the MegaSlicer does the job without interrupting the cutting process, even at a throughput of 600 cuts per minute," explains Jรถrg Schmeiser. "To increase throughput, we simply add blank steps in the cutting procedure to allow enough time for accumulating portions and transporting them from the machine. To do this, our slicers use the rotating blade to slice the product in mere thousandths of second. This requires high precision and highly-dynamic drive technology, in which up to 17 servo motors have to work together accurately," says the product representative from CFS.

dynamic properties of the positioning axes. POWERLINK is a manufacturerneutral, high-speed, real-time communication bus. It features an extremely short cycle time and a low amount of jitter. This is necessary in order to achieve maximum synchronization and repeat positioning precision.

Maximum synchronization and repeat positioning precision

If this high level of performance is still not enough, Interpack 2008 definitely provided the answer. With their latest innovation, CFS presented select machines from the company's wide range of products, including packaging materials, individual machines and even complete production lines for preparing, marinating, further processing, slicing and packaging primarily meat, poultry, fish, sea food and cheese products. Another debut presented was the high-capacity slicer, which set new standards in regard to throughput performance and "give-away" and which no longer has to move the meat backwards when adding blank steps thanks to a patented cycle rotor procedure. >>

Repeat precision is of particular importance when increasing through-

For this very reason, the company uses drive technology from the Austrian automation specialists B&R for their drive system. Servo drives from the ACOPOS series, networked via POWERLINK, drive the servo motors and provide the required precision and

Dynamic motion technology from B&R guarantees maximum precision.

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Application

A high-performance PLC from B&R guarantees exact dosage and maximum yield.

Compliance with pre-packaging guidelines guaranteed Even with regard to yield, CFS has again managed to raise the bar set by the MegaSlicer. Whereas the MegaSlicer was able to process meat and cheese sticks with a length of up to 185 cm, its new "big brother" can handle products with lengths up to 3.2 m. "This directly affects the yield because the front and end tips of the sticks cannot be used for slicing," states the product manager from CFS. "For example, customers can increase their yield by approximately 1 to 1.5% by extending the stick length from 180 cm to 250 cm."

Minimizing the "give-away," which affects the filling weight, is an additional approach for preventing loss and thereby improving the machine owner's performance. "Our slicers have such a high level of precision that, in principle, the 'give-away' could be reduced to zero. However, machine owners will generally run production with approximately 0.2 to 0.3 percent give-away in order to ensure that the specifications set by the pre-packaging authorities are fulfilled," explains Jörg Schmeiser.

Exact measurement of give-away is possible by weighing each portion before it leaves the slicer. The integrated controller—based on a soft PLC—in combination with an industrial PC from B&R reacts immediately when specified tolerance values are exceeded and makes necessary adjustments within milliseconds. "We make highly precise adjustments to the slice thickness by changing the offset at a hundredth of a millimeter," stresses the CFS expert.

Despite the high level of performance, however, the machine must remain flexible and easy to operate, as explained by Tilmann Näher, Software Conceptual Designer at CFS: "Flexibility is important because, particularly in the area of private label products, hard discounters often only offer contracts that bind the customer to a few months of supply."

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That's why the food processing company needs a particularly productive machine that can also be quickly and easily changed over to new appearance and packaging formats. In addition to the usual presentation forms, the machine owner can also use a B&R touch panel on the MegaSlicer to generate portion forms and thereby create letters or customer logos.

"This degree of flexibility is largely made possible by the drive technology from B&R," reveals Tilmann.

Operating the machine only requires setting a few input values. "When changes are made, the controller automatically checks whether the changes are feasible and then makes the calculation and settings for all other parameters required for production," shares the software expert from CFS. "The closely-knit integration of PLC, drive and visualization technology as offered by B&R made it considerably easier for us to implement an online help system, diagnostics, remote maintenance and other additional functions. Based on B&R technology, we are able to equip our machines with characteristics that are decisive to staying competitive."

CFS:

Established: 1997 (management buy-out of the Convenience Food Division from Tetra Laval) Employees: 2,200 Locations: More than 60 worldwide Products & Services: Packaging materials, individual machines and complete production lines for preparing, marinating, further processing and packaging primarily meat, poultry, fish, seafood and cheese products. www.cfs.com

Technology

Certified safety in the drive increases employee safety AND productivity Providing employees optimum protection against injury or death and maximizing machine capacity seem to be conflicting goals. Nevertheless, the safe servo drives from B&R's ACOPOSmulti series can be seamlessly integrated in POWERLINK-based networks via openSAFETY and used to monitor motors in real time. This allows B&R to reduce reaction times to errors by a factor of 10—and the resulting maximum impact energy by a factor of 100—compared to traditional safety circuits. Improved machine dynamics with increased safety is no longer a contradiction. >>

automotion 15

Technology When it comes to protecting the lives and well-being of their employees, companies must make no compromise. That compromises are made nonetheless can be attributed to several factors: The workers themselves are confronted with a choice between operating machines more safely and operating them more efficiently. Secondly, there is an even broader conflict of interest for a company's management. A company must not only protect its qualified workforce and capital investments, but ensure that both are able to provide maximum productivity. Furthermore, there's no such thing as a perfect technical solution or a moving machine part that can be stopped instantaneously.

Safety Functions

B&R

Even traditional safety circuits with cut-off relays are subject to response times inherent in the system, comparable to the moment of shock a driver experiences before slamming on the brakes. The error detection and response time, for example when the safe maximum speed is exceeded in setup mode, is generally around 80 ms. If the error was caused by an incorrect setpoint from the control system, this delay would be sufficient for the drive to accelerate to its maximum speed before the usual torque cut-off and any additionally activated short-circuit breaking procedure is initialized. This affects the amount of force with which an obstacle would be hit, and of course lengthens the total stopping distance. The permissible maximum speed must therefore be set accordingly in order to maintain the necessary level of safety.

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Seamlessly integrated in POWERLINKbased safety networks, SafeMC rounds off the safety system as a complete solution without complicated wiring.

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Technology

Object-oriented safety programming with SafeDESIGNER in B&R Automation Studio.

ror, the motor now has less than a tenth of the time to accelerate and to gain hazardous momentum.

Because the kinetic energy and corresponding response distance increase with the square of the speed, these two critical characteristics are reduced to less than 1/100 compared to conventional solutions. "This not only improves workplace safety, it also increases productivity on the machine," states Dipl.Ing. Alois Holzleitner, business manager for motion products at B&R. "Depending on the priority, the reduction of these characteristics and the resulting shorter braking distances make it possible to reduce the safety distances, thereby allowing for smaller machine dimensions and/or increased permissible speed limits during operation with Safe Limited Speed."

Seamless integration in existing systems The safety logic included in the ACOPOSmulti servo drives is identical to the proven Safe I/O components from the X20 series. "This gives users the peace of mind that comes with using electronic components that have proven themselves thousands of times in the field," says Holzleitner. "Plus, the resulting synergy has a direct effect on costs and uniformity during system development."

ACOPOSmulti with SafeMC can be seamlessly integrated into the existing system with the SafeLOGIC safety controller and the X20 Safe I/O system. For developers, the ACOPOSmulti with SafeMC units are addressed no differently than the X20 I/O channels. Of course, they are also managed within the same development environment: SafeDESIGNER in B&R's Automation Studio. Autonomous configuration of the SafeMC components and the embedded parameter chip allow quicker and easier configuration during maintenance. Logging and password protection make it possible to track maintenance actions.

A major advantage of B&R's "Integrated Safety Technology" is the elimination of redundant cabling and external monitoring modules for the safety technology. Data is transferred with virtual wiring via the machine bus system in an intrinsically safe protocol called openSAFETY, which enables easy data communication with the control system while reliably excluding feedback. B&R automation solutions do this using >>

In February 2010, B&R received certification from TĂ&#x153;V Rheinland for the safety-oriented drive system.

automotion 17

Technology

"The reduction of kinetic energy and response distance to less than 1/100 compared to conventional solutions not only improves workplace safety, but also increases the productivity of the machine."

Dipl.-Ing. Alois Holzleitner Business Manager Motion B&R

POWERLINK. As the name implies, openSAFETY is not tied to a specific manufacturer and can be used on any fieldbus system, preferably in industrial Ethernet networks. This makes it easy to integrate the safe drives regardless of the controller being used.

A further advantage of virtual wiring over the network is the possibility of designing modular machine concepts. Without the complicated wiring of Estop chains, it is simple to connect ready-made machine parts, including safe drives. This allows a single safeLOGIC safety controller to access up to 80 safe drives from our ACOPOSmulti series, which ranges up to 120 kW.

Certified intelligence In February 2010, B&R received certification from TĂ&#x153;V Rheinland for the safety-oriented drive system and its intelligent safety functions, which B&R calls Smart Safe Reaction and which helps ensure optimum usage of safety equipment. This was followed by the certification of the functions STO (Safe Torque Off), SBC (Safe Brake Control) and SS1 (Safe Stop 1) up to Cat. 4/ PL.e in accordance with EN ISO 13849-1 and up to SIL 3 in accordance with EN 62061/IEC 61508. Certification up to Cat. 3 PL.d and SIL3 is sufficient for the remaining functions SOS (Safe Operating Stop), SS2 (Safe Stop 2), SLS (Safety Limited Speed), SMS (Safe Maximum Speed), SDI (Safe Direction) and SLI (Safety Limited Increments).

A clear benefit of the system intelligence in ACOPOSmulti SafeMC is the universal availability of diagnostics provided by the integrated trace and oscilloscope functions. Together with the control and status functions, these can be used to display the monitored safety limits and speeds. Thanks to the simple data transmission to the process control system provided by the bus connection, the diagnostics can also be integrated in the machine's visualization and control systems. This provides machine operators and supervisors with in-depth, easy-to-understand information about the cause and type of safety violations as well as the system's response, and enables them to respond immediately.

"SafeMC with ACOPOSmulti and B&R synchronous servo motors are based on the open network-based safety standard openSAFETY. This combination is the logical complement to the portfolio of integrated safety components for machine and systems manufacturing, which has proven itself in the field and has been certified for quite some time," says Alois Holzleitner. "This makes B&R one of the first manufacturers to provide a fully network-integrated safety system including intelligent drive safety functions. Such a system increases machine efficiency and productivity, while at the same time improving workplace safety."

18 automotion

About the author: After completing a degree in electrical engineering, Alois Holz­ leitner began his career in Switzerland developing machine tool controllers. Upon joining B&R in 1992 he first served as product manager for positioning controllers. Since 1998, Holzleitner has led the Servo Drive Business Unit at corporate headquarters in Eggelsberg, Austria.

Application

18,000 baguettes per hour Aveyron, in the southwest of France, has a distinct agricultural tradition. High-quality products, such as the famous Roquefort sheep's milk blue cheese, have established the region's reputation around the world. Thanks to this tradition and the beautiful landscape, Aveyron radiates a sense of authenticity. As an origin of the finest pleasures, the region is also home to a successful high-tech industry specializing in food processing and machine manufacturing.

De La Ballina, a supplier of packaging products located in Villefranche-deRouergue, specializes in the packaging of industrial baked goods such as unbaked, prebaked, and frozen baguettes, croissants and various rolls.

From development to production, the company handles all steps inhouse. Throughout the entire manu-

facturing process, there is a special emphasis on packaging processes such as quality control, sorting and movement of food products, as well as the various types of packaging (bulk and case packaging as well as pallets). The company supplies important food companies such as Boulangerie Paul, Brioche DorĂŠe, IntermarchĂŠ, Panavi and Bridor, just to name a few. >>

The modern transport mechanism from De La Ballina can handle up to 18,000 baguettes per hour.

automotion 19

Application

"The high performance of POWERLINK and the open structure with remote X20 I/Os were the deciding criteria for us."

Fast product data acquisition thanks to a sophisticated computer-aided system. For years, De La Ballina has been a pioneer in this field.

Thanks to a concentration on research and development, De La Ballina's innovation gives it a clear competitive advantage. Strict quality control requirements are an equally important factor in the company's success. For example, the company uses a special visiometric system that utilizes imaging to monitor the shape and texture of baked goods.

For years, De La Ballina has been a pioneer in the area of quality control using computer-aided visualization.

Numerous patents are a testament to the company's innovation in this area.

considerable increase in product diversification. Thierry De Lazzari, Technical Manager at De La Ballina, is convinced that customers will be making configuration changes more and more frequently in order to continue to develop their range of products. The operation of production lines therefore has to be designed as simply as possible.

100% quality control To be able to meet these expectations, De La Ballina recently developed a new generation of machines equipped with modern counting, monitoring and conveying functions. These ma-

Thierry De Lazzari Technical Manager De La Ballina

chines can handle 18,000 baguettes per hour. With a three-dimensional visualization system, the machine guarantees 100% quality control. Using a valve controlled suction pump and five axes, products that pass inspection are picked up and moved to subsequent conveyor belts for packaging. All machines are equipped with full automation solutions from B&R. In addition to a PC-based Power Panel as the central control and monitoring unit, the solution uses ACOPOS servo drives on a POWERLINK network for axis control and XV modules for valve control.

Increased requirements Over the past few years, the requirements placed on the baked goods industry with respect to packaging, performance and flexibility have increased drastically. As a result, the use of computer-aided, highperformance quality control systems has increased in importance. "Due to the increasing price of raw materials such as wheat, our customers are being forced to reduce their production costs. On top of this, production volume in Europe is increasing by 10% every year; therefore, higher production rates are absolutely essential. In light of this development, fully automated packaging lines are taking on a central role," explains De La Ballina's CEO, Benjamin De Chilly. With respect to future market demands, the company expects increasing production rates and a 20 automotion

The innovative visiometric system recognizes shape and surface of the baked goods and ensures seamless quality control.

Application

Fast configuration changes and increased capacity of De La Ballina's manufacturing lines ensure full customer satisfaction.

According to Thierry De Lazzari, the high performance of the POWERLINK network and the open structure of the architecture with remote X20 I/Os, which permits distances of up to 100 meters between stations, were the deciding criteria that led to the selection of B&R as the supplier of automation equipment. The simple integration of valve blocks into the control system using XV modules, along with the wide selection of I/O modules, proved to be the perfect solution for the special requirements of the application. One of the greatest challenges was the integration of the visiometric quality control system and the Modbusbased frequency inverter into the conveyor system.

The flexible integration options provided by the Automation Studio programming tool from B&R, as well as the open communication provided

by B&R's X20 System with an integrated TCP/IP interface and a Modbus interface, made it easy to connect additional peripheral devices.

One of the improvements made to the machines, according to Thierry De Lazzari, was the ability to perform remote maintenance via TCP/ IP while also being able to store data centrally in a single controller.

Project success with B&R De La Ballina now feels well-prepared for future market demands. Modern B&R technology supports the company in adapting to ever-changing customer needs. The new machines allow for quicker configuration changes and increased production volume. These new developments from De La Ballina will ensure that their customers will move into the future ready to meet the competition head on.

De La Ballina:

Established: 1962 Locations: Corporate headquarters in Villefranche-de-Rouergue (France), subsidiary in Pointe Claire (Canada) Products & Services: Design and manufacture of complete packaging lines for baked goods (quality control, sorting, conveying, bulk and case packaging, palletization). www.delaballina.com automotion 21

Application

Engineering turns green The increased sensitivity in the packaging industry for environmental issues was the catalyst for Italian machine manufacturer OCME to develop a new shrink wrap packaging machine concept that saves energy and valuable raw materials. Initial testing carried out in cooperation with the well-known Italian mineral water bottler Fonti di Vinadio produced outstanding results with regard to energy returned on energy invested.

For more than 50 years, OCME has been counted among the leading packaging machine manufacturers in Italy. 400 employees at their headquarters in Parma provide comprehensive customer support in the food, beverage, textile and chemical industries. In addition to supplying machine components that can be integrated into 3rd-party applications, OCME offers complete solutions at an optimal price/performance ratio. "In a very competitive market like this, the added value cannot be limited to low price," says Antonio Mosca, Technical Manager at OCME. "Other aspects like constant service availability, complete reliability and consistent production capability are also critical throughout the long service life of the application." Satisfying customers abroad is very important in this regard, as a full 70% of the company's total revenue is currently achieved in foreign markets.

Modular packaging solution In recent applications, OCME has been trying to increasingly modify its own technology to replace heavy mechanical parts related to axis movement with electronic parts for axis control. This step has become necessary as explained

by Mosca: "Our applications cannot be considered flexible if the gearing and cams are implemented using a mechanical approach. That's why we decided to introduce electronic components into our motion control systems. A few years ago, we adopted B&R as our main supplier of motion technology since the automation solutions they offer were the best fit for our high end machines and could best be adapted to our own particular wishes. We were particularly impressed by the modularity of the ACOPOS drive system as well as the X20 and X67 I/O modules; these factors played an important role in our decision to go with B&R as a supplier."

B&R servo technology conserves resources Maximum flexibility and conserving valuable energy were the most important aspects of a new project to upgrade the VEGA HT shrink wrapping machine. To increase machine efficiency, OCME relied on a large selection of B&R servo motors. Servo motors with direct drives replaced the older chain

22 automotion

Application

"B&R components are extremely modular, which worked out great for us while we were upgrading to a more flexible and energy-efficient machine solution for manufacturing shrink wrap packaging machines."

Antonio Mosca Technical Electrical Manager OCME

drives, which also made it possible to eliminate the gearboxes. A total of 17 brushless motors are now being used.

The infeed and and collating sections have been completely redesigned so that two operators can complete a format change in five minutes or less. Another important advantage is that the new VEGA HT machine can handle very thin film (down to 30 microns) to save costs and protect the environment.

Thanks to the new, flexible machine concept, format changes are a matter of mere minutes.

30% energy saved Over a period of three hours of testing at Fonti di Vinadio, a long-time customer of OCME, the new VEGA HT produced outstanding results. It was able to produce 3,922 bundles while consuming 145 kWh for heating, which is equal to about 30% less power consumed in comparison to the previous VEGA generation. With these results extended over 3 shifts for 6,000 hours per year, Fonti di Vinadio will be able to save 120,000 kWh of heating power.

In recent years, OCME was pushed by end users to improve their HMI systems, which were previously based on operator panels. OCME therefore decided to implement a new Windows-based visualization system. For this new HMI project, OCME adopted a B&R Panel PC solution, which is now being used for every machine series.

Ocme:

Established: 1954 Locations: Parma (Italy), Locations in France, UK, USA, China Products & Services: Packaging machines and bottling lines www.ocme.it automotion 23

Application

Veltins and B&R mix up the beer market The C. & A. Veltins brewery and B&R set themselves an ambitious goal: Together, they wanted to establish the APROL process control system as a standard solution for the brewing industry, while simultaneously implementing the new system in sections of the private brewery's production facilities without interrupting production. And they wanted to do this during the World Cupâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a seasonal highlight for the brewing industry. The two companies succeeded in this mammoth task thanks to their flexibility, innovative spirit and future-oriented thinking. At the same time they managed to bring the APROL process control system an important step forward. B&R now sees itself as a serious competitor for the brewing industry's traditional standard solution suppliers and looks forward to mixing up the market. Veltins is the first brewery to implement the B&R solution.

24 automotion

"Of course we could have chosen an existing process control solution from one of the established suppliers to modernize our systems. But we made a conscious decision to take a new approach," explains Dirk Bartmann, who is responsible for process control technology at Veltins.

"We have always been convinced that a new, innovative supplier can bring new insight and stimulate fresh ideas," the Veltins expert con-

Application tinues. "B&R seemed to be just the right partner for this task. On the one hand, their APROL process control system was well suited to be developed into a standard solution for our industry. On the other, we found that, as a mid-sized company, B&R had the flexibility and innovative spirit it takes to handle such a daunting challenge."

Shared effort: APROL solution for breweries These attributes were most certainly tested, as B&R was faced with not only adapting APROL to the needs of the brewing industry, but also with modernizing Veltins' fermenting and storage cellar as well as the neighboring processing facilities.

All in all, 50,000 image macros, more than 11,000 function diagrams and nearly 2,000 process images needed to be created. In addition, the majority of the outdated automation technology, including the control room, was to be replaced by B&R products, and the rest of the equipmentâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;mainly PROFIBUS components such as frequency inverters and other PROFIBUS devices such as cooling controllersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;was to be integrated.

A total of 25,000 hardware I/O channels were replaced with the B&R's System 2005 I/O system, and 30 stand-alone and 50 wall-mounted control cabinets were rewired and equipped with the new technology, including 13 B&R System 2005 controllers. Experienced B&R system

partner Actemium was brought in to help plan and implement the project, including the construction and installation of the switching cabinets.

The extensive design specifications were to be implemented without hindering Veltins' operations, and only short breaks in production were available for switching connections.

To make this possible, the project was divided into several phases. In areas of the facilities that Veltins needed during the week for beer production, a single weekend without production was utilized to rewire the entire electronic infrastructure managed by the controllers. To start, the I/O channels were then reconnected to the old controllers, and they continued to use the old automation programs for the time being. Later production phases were then used to gradually transfer the functionality from the old systems to the new controllers.

A visual inspection confirms: Production continues without missing a beat.

A clear victory

processes and limited diagnostics, the project was very sensitive during the transition phase.

Overwhelming evidence that the phased switch-over was a success: the peak production during the 2006 World Cup didn't create a single bottleneck at the Veltins brewery, although the event took place right in the middle of the modernization project.

Veltins recognized quickly that the B&R automation solution, with its reliable products and long-term availability, would not only solve the known problems, but also create many new opportunities for improvement.

"Even while the transition was still underway, we were able to avoid what had been one of the main reasons for the modernization: production downtime," explains Bartmann. Due to the interconnected production

"In the fermentation and storage cellar, APROL made it possible for us to automate many production areas that had previously still been controlled manually. This allowed us to eliminate all manual operation entirely, which further improved product quality," illustrates Bartmann. "A deciding factor was that APROL is based on LINUX, which as an open source solution gives it a high degree of flexibility. It was therefore no problem to integrate Profibus automation components with S5 and S7 controllers into the system via TCP/IP, or industrial notebooks that communicate with APROL via WLAN."

An eye on the process - Anytime, anywhere

The integration of the company's EPLAN data directly into the APROL system resulted in a fast and virtually error-free commissioning process.

The robust notebooks give the operators an overview of the entire process and allow them to make any necessary settings, even when they're not in the new control room with its nine operator stations and >> automotion 25

Application tion that we can access much more quickly. This allows us to identify and correct errors sooner and makes it easier to optimize processes," adds Bartmann.

Service and maintenance have been greatly simplified since Veltins took advantage of the modernization and reorganized the automation technology so that equipment and automation components with common functions are now arranged in decentralized groups.

With the APROL system's "concurrent engineering," up to 10 engineers worked in parallel to implement the specified processes.

separate monitoring station. The system keeps the operators informed about all processes, so they are even updated about events that occur far from their current location.

"And I don't just get an error message - I can immediately check what caused the error. For example, I can see what caused a valve to lock up without having to first go get the programming device like I used to. The employees really like that," reports Bartmann.

Another popular feature is that the APROL system makes it relatively easy to create interfaces with software tools from other manufacturers in cases where they weren't already available. "The seamless integration of tools such as EPLAN View or CADISON simplifies engineering

The clearly organized and maintenancefriendly System 2005 - B&R's modular I/O and control system - in action at Veltins.

26 automotion

since data, symbols and names don't need to be converted. This certainly contributed to our ability to process higher volumes at shorter intervals through the individual steps of the transition," reasons Bartmann. "What is more, the maintenance personnel can determine where an error occurred and what replacement part is needed without having to flip through ring binders or walk all the way down to the fermenting and storage cellar. All they have to do is call up the CADISON database from the APROL application."

Using data already provided within APROL and collected with internal functions such as Audit Trail—at Veltins APROL manages more than 7.5 million process variables—the brewery has extensive information about the brewing processes and production at its fingertips. This brings clear advantages, as Dirk Bartmann can confirm: "Much of this information was available before we switched over to APROL, but often only in the form of Excel tables or hand-written logs. Extracting this data to create documentation such as inventory reports was understandably time-intensive. APROL enables us to automate many of these tasks and easily group and link data together."

Veltins is now able to trace individual batches back through production, and if there were to be a customer complaint—which has yet to occur— Veltins could find out where the problem occurred and determine if any other batches were affected. "APROL gives us considerably more informa-

In light of the many benefits and new possibilities provided by APROL and B&R automation technology, Dirk Bartmann has these positive words to say in closing: "We have created a uniform solution from the control level to the field level, with unrestricted access and high availability and adaptability. I am confident that we have brought APROL a tangible step forward and established it as an ideal system for the brewing industry."

Veltins:

Established: 1824 Locations: Meschede-Grevenstein (Germany) Products and services: Premium beers and beer-based mixed drinks www.veltins.de

Technology

Innovative packaging as a crucial distinguishing feature at the point of sale

Around the world, entire armies of branding and marketing experts are involved with the purchasing decisions we make daily at the supermarket. In addition to a product's price, brand recognition and position on the shelf, product convenience and its appearance play a major role. For the last two factors, packaging plays a central role.

As requirements increase with regard to product convenience, product traceability, packaging functionality and design, the demands being placed on packaging machines have risen dramatically. In order to compensate for the additional costs of new packaging solutions, today's packaging machines must be able to offer maximum product output while keeping material waste to an absolute minimum.

In addition, a single machine very often has to be able to handle several different product types, which means that changeover times also have to be reduced as much as possible.

And if all of that weren't enough, strict governmental safety regulations and carefully thought out safety concepts need to be implemented in order to avoid hazardous situations for production personnel and consumers. A simple E-stop button to bring the entire machine to a standstill is simply no longer sufficient. When it comes to safety-oriented functions, the machine must be able to differentiate between maintenance and configuration work being carried out by trained experts and actual production by personnel who might not be as technically knowledgeable. >> automotion 27

Technology

Technology standards instead of manufacturer specifications It's no wonder, then, that these demands have resulted in enormous changes in the automation paradigms that currently exist in production plants. It has become increasingly rare, for example, for local technicians to intervene in the core areas of machine controllers, primarily owing to the complexity of modern packaging machines. Instead, overarching in-

100%

Product price

On top of that, the packaging machine must be able to record important production data for every single package in real time and pass this information on to the higher-level production planning and control systems. This includes being able to clearly identify whoever happens to be working with the machine at any particular time.

With all of this complexity, machine operation itself needs to be kept as simple as conceivably possible—ideally, this would entail intuitive operation that doesn't require an excessive amount of training for operating personnel.

0%

Phase 1 Mechanics

Mechanics

Phase 2 Electro-mechanics

Electro-mechanics

Phase 3 Mechanics, Electro-mechanics, Electronics Electronics

Phase 4 Mechatronics

Software

Transition to next product generation Software is increasingly replacing expensive mechanical components, thereby reducing product costs.

dustrial standards have arisen that govern everything from the basic behavior of production machines, their integration into machine lines as well as how data is exchanged between the control level, the line level and the machine itself, all the while trying to make overall configuration even easier. Organizations like OMAC, ISA and IEC were established as venues where the technology standards of the future could be discussed and refined (e.g. PackML). Represented in all of the relevant committees and bodies, B&R has been an active participant in this standardization process for many years.

B&R Inside In the last ten years, more and more leading packaging machine manufacturers have decided to go with B&R. As a result, machines with "B&R Inside" can be found in a large number of innovative plants around the world. These machines are typically the result of an intensive, mechatronics-oriented process of optimizing performance and costs. More often than not, this optimization leads to close cooperation between packaging machine manufacturers and B&R. That's because B&R is able to offer the following unique advantages to the innovative machine manufacturer:

Connect and Pack

■■ Engineers with outstanding expertise in the industry ■■ Direct access to PackML technology functions and know-how ■■ Seamless integration of operation and control, data management and communication, safety technology, motion control, robotics, CNC and visual inspection ■■ The option of using model-based design for simulation and automatic code generation based on MATLAB/Simulink as well as the possibility to easily combine object-oriented programming in C/C++ with classical IEC languages ■■ Powerful software functions geared toward the packaging industry that reduce time to market by allowing the development of reusable software for modular, scalable machine solutions ■■ One network for everything: POWERLINK offers the fastest cycle times—in the µs range—with synchronization < 100 µs AND high data throughput rates ■■ A complete line of modular hardware for modular machines

Software: The decisive element While packaging machines in the 1970s were purely electromechanical in nature, today the focus is definitely on the software.

Qualitatively high-grade software is generally based on the core expertise of the machine manufacturer—the actual process engineering—that has been implemented in the software.

28 automotion

Technology From "One machine - One software solution" to mechatronic building blocks The entire B&R software environment contributes decisively to reducing costs. It is able to achieve this by eliminating the need for expensive mechanical components such as vertical shafts, cams and cam switches while increasing both flexibility and process quality. The ability to reuse individual software modules—regardless of the hardware being used—and to combine them in any way depending on the machine type or customer demands represents the challenge of the future. Where others are only talking about the trends of the future, B&R Automation Studio has provided a way to develop application software in this vein for years. Ready-made technology functions for flying saws, registration mark control, winders/unwinders and many other applications are based on the PLCopen interface, thereby accelerating their implementation into the software itself.

Hardware-independent programming Automation Studio makes it possible to develop software independently of the hardware platform being used while also allowing it to be reused as often as necessary in a project. In turn, this allows different machine types or different variations of a single machine type to be managed in a single project.

The demands being placed on application software continue to increase. As a result, a state-of-the-art software solution combines motion control and robot-

The full range of diagnostics options is available—again, without limitations—either locally or from a remote location. Integrating vision systems anywhere in the process, a very powerful tool for product inspection, for example, also presents no problem whatsoever for POWERLINK. Consistent integration and maximum flexibility are also achieved with the network-based openSAFETY standard. With this technology, there are no technical limitations on the placement of sensors and actuators. This allows the safety technology to only intervene when it's actually necessary.

The use of state-of-the-art technologies such as Safely Limited Speed, Safe Direction, Safely Limited Increment, etc. make it possible for personnel to work in high-risk areas of the machine in a way that is monitored to ensure safety.

Automation Studio Application software User point-of-view

Machine variant 1

Machine variant 2

Machine variant 3

With Automation Studio, software can be developed independently of the employed hardware platform and reused as often as necessary.

ics into a single application. A single PLC can thus handle motion control and robotics tasks and, depending on the machine variation, enable/disable individual drives or groups of drives during development or even during runtime. Automation Studio is able to handle these tasks using Generic Motion Control (GMC). The different areas—motion control, robotics and CNC—can thus be tuned perfectly to customer requirements using a single integrative application. This also allows different axis types, such as those controlled by stepper motors, servo motors, DC motors, etc., to be coupled using GMC, which provides another level of consistency in the process. The application designer can therefore concentrate fully on developing the actual machine processes while leaving the control of the different hardware devices completely up to GMC.

Consistent integration establishes trust and guarantees investment security Consistent integration means reducing the number of interfaces, optimally matching hardware and software and taking command of the process to be implemented. This also makes the use of consistent fieldbus technology essential. In this regard, POWERLINK becomes the backbone of the machine. Short cycle times and jitter less than 100 µs in no way impede high data throughput and complete diagnostics down to the drive—without limiting performance a single bit.

About the author: Christoph Trappl International Applications Manager B&R Eggelsberg Christoph Trappl has been working at B&R since 2000. Thanks to extensive international projects, he has gained precise insight into the demands of B&R's customers and their solutions. Currently, Trappl is responsible for the International Applications department. automotion 29

Application

A strong trend ­toward integration With its full focus on tablet counting and bottle filling, Modular Packaging Systems has emerged as the authority in turnkey line integration. From engineering development and layout, mechanical assembly and testing, and installation and training, they provide extensive customer support over the entire life cycle of their machines. The company's products range from small clinical lines to high-speed automated filling and packaging systems.

As engineering resources become more constrained, particularly among pharmaceutical producers, Modular Packaging Systems' integration capability has risen to center stage. Its ability to tie each of the machine controls into a productivity-enhancing central monitoring system has become popular. Due to the ease with which all B&R components could be integrated into their existing systems, Modular Packaging Systems selected B&R as its partner for automation products.

Well sorted and selected The EC-12 uses Modular Packaging Systems' newest technology to achieve up to 55 100-count bottles of Âź" tablets per minute. The EC-12 is capable of discriminating oversized and undersized product from good product. This makes it possible to track unwanted product and reject it from the line. A reject station will take any bottle off line that contains a product that does not fall within a specified tablet "size" range. Customized visualization devices such as the B&R Power Panel, compact X20 I/O modules and high-performance drive components such as variable frequency drives, stepper motors and servo drives ensure maximum reliability and processing speed for the electronic EC-12 counting controller.

Another machine from Modular Packaging Systems is the MC-2, a semi-automatic dual lane vibratory counting machine for small production runs or check counter applications. It provides accurate counts into hand-fed bottles and can handle a large range of product sizes and shapes. The machine can also be fitted to an automated base, with a conveying system delivering bottles to the machine automatically. This compact bench-top machine can run at speeds of up to 8 bottles per minute for 100 count bottles of Âź" tablets.

Critical to its systems integration business, Modular Packaging Systems offers a wide variety of container handling options designed to customize conveying and optimize efficiency and speed throughout the line. All conveyor and container handling equipment is constructed with high-grade stainless steel and designed to integrate easily and seamlessly together. Designing or redesigning a packaging line with conveyor systems from Modular Packaging Systems is very straightforward. The adjustable components require no tools to adjust, making changeover fast and simple.

www.modularpackaging.com

30 automotion

Application

Extreme efficiency with B&R servo technology

The combination of slender design and maximum performance makes the new servo shrink wrapper from Extreme Packaging an extremely efficient solution. Modern B&R servo technology helped boost processing speed from 70 to 100 cycles per minute. End users benefit directly from shortened cycle times and increased machine productivity. For the first time, visitors at the PACK EXPO 2010 had the opportunity to experience the advantages of the new machine solution firsthand.

Servos replace pneumatic axes The previous solution was composed of a controller and a separate visualization device, as well as two separate temperature controllers, each programmed with different software. These four devices have been replaced with a single compact Power Panel. In order to speed up the cycle time, the pneumatic cylinders for the horizontal and vertical seal belts were replaced by servo motors. The high-performance Power Panel controls the position of the servo drives and regulates the dwell time and contact pressure. Three variable frequency drives control infeed, side seal and the traveling cross seal belt. The real-time operating system allows all the axes to be synchronized.

With these upgrades, the Extreme Packaging engineers were able to replace the entire pneumatic solution (the pneumatic hoses, compressor, air filters and pneumatic controller), thus simplifying The use of cutting-edge B&R technology allows machine production to be raised up to mechanical fabrication and reducing 200 cycles per minute. costs. All of the axes can be equipped with servos as needed. This makes it possible to boost production up to 200 cycles per minute.

One software platform Automation Studio makes it possible to program and configure all components using a single tool, which eliminates inconvenient interfaces. B&R's software tool also helps reduce commissioning times and simplifies maintenance work for the end user.

www.extremepkg.com

automotion 31

Application

The future of packaging Reprint from Packaging World Magazine, Dec. 2010 Author: Pat Reynolds, Editor-in-Chief

In some parts of Europe, frozen pizza is being replaced by fresh pizza. It's typically brought to market in a vacuum-packaged format. While this approach is satisfactory enough from a shelf life standpoint, it isn't the most pleasing from a presentation perspective. Consumers just aren't wild about the "crushed" look that comes with vacuum packaging. So flow wrapping has emerged lately as an alternative.

Among the packaging machinery builders that have come up with flow-wrap systems for fresh pizza is Ilapak. The firm is now in its second or third generation of a system that is essentially a three-legged stool: infeed conveyor, evacuation system, and back-flush/flow wrap. Called the Delta Vac-Map, the 17-axis servodriven system relies on motors, drives, and controls that are all supplied by B&R. While infeed and flow wrap are essential, it's the evacuation/backflush system that is most innovative. This is a rotary machine with nine stations that operates at 60 pizzas/min. Individual pizzas on paperboard sheets are conveyed into the evacuation/backflushing carousel on a flighted conveyor that maintains the necessary spacing. In each vacuum station, the top and bottom halves of the vacuum chamber close on a pizza. Then, as the closed chamber moves around its circular track, ambient air is evacuated and carbon dioxide and nitrogen are backflushed in. The chamber opens and the pizza enters immediately into the film tube of a flow wrapper that again backflushes carbon dioxide and nitrogen before using 32 automotion

heat seal tooling to enclose the pizza in its modified atmosphere. Refrigerated shelf life is about three weeks.

Standardized controls According to Flavio Cecconello, R&D software engineer at Ilapak, a key goal behind the development of this pizza-packaging system was to use widely accepted standards wherever possible. So PLCopen is the programming language standard that Cecconello relied on in this implementation.

Focused around IEC 61131-3, which

Application is said to be the only global standard for industrial control programming, PLCopen harmonizes the way people design and operate industrial controls by standardizing the programming interface. Cecconello provides this example as a way of illustrating the benefits that PLCopen brings.

"Take a standard function, like 'turn power on,' for example. I can use a standard PLCopen function block as my interface for that function. I select which axis of motion I want, the way in which I want to turn on the power, and the 'execute' command to the right PIN [Pulse Input] to turn the power on.

Not only is this programming standard successful with the platform I'm using in this particular implementation, it's also suitable for other technology suppliers who support this standard way of programming machines. If I stay within the PLCopen standard, I should be able to migrate the code from one technology supplier's platform to another without a complete rebuild of the software or the control."

In addition to relying on the PLCopen standard at the motion control level, Cecconello also wanted a standardized way of handling how machine state transitions are implemented within his code. He liked what he saw in PackML, the "Packaging Machine Language" developed by the OMAC Packaging

Pizzas on paperboard sheets are conveyed into one of nine vacuum stations so that oxygen can be evacuated from the pizza itself.

Workgroup. It was adopted as part of the ISA88 industry standard in August 2008.

"PackML gives us a couple of benefits," says Cecconello. "First, the steps a machine has to follow in the various phases of operation are already definedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;startup, for example, or during a package format change or during maintenance or during standard running time. All of this is documented and specified within PackML, so it's a guideline to help us organize the way we interface, for example, the standard HMI with the machine controls. It's a three-layer organization. The upper layer is the interface with the operator, the second layer is the logic we implement to our machine, and the third layer is the PackML state model. If I ever need to change the controls platform, because I'm organizing the machine based on PackML, the only thing I'd have to change would be the lower layer of the interface, where >>

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Application

Another view of the machine controls Additional insight into how Ilapak's standards-based Vac-Map system was programmed comes from Lorenzo Passaglia, a Ph.D in engineering and technical manager at B&R. "All machines need modes and states. On this machine I wanted them based on standards.

I remembered a presentation on OMAC Packaging Guidelines and decided to apply the concept.

"Ilapak agreed to use structured text as much as possible because it is well accepted in Europe and it is flexible. The application could just as readily be developed using Ladder Diagram if a customer preferred it.

"We needed manual, production, setup, and several other modes, and all are implemented with OMAC's PackML standard states. Ilapak's engineers liked the ability to split the project into modules with references. We began with a 'virtual' OMAC mode, called 'base,' as a template where we defined all the state transitionsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;idle, start, executing, aborting, etc.

We were then able to create references to the basic mode file and make only the changes required for the new mode.

"Ilapak was surprised how easy it is to create software libraries in Automation Studio, the B&R software development environment. For example, parameters for interpolation required some complex calculations. By using libraries, complex software routines can be hidden behind a simplified user interface so that the software can be optimized without the end user needing to be a programming expert. Visual Components allowed a direct link from the HMI project to the machine project since the same database is shared.

"Axis control is performed using the PLCopen library. In addition to standard PLCopen motion function blocks, we drew from a set of fully PLCopen-compliant function blocks developed by B&R that provide additional functionality. In this way, the standard allows a common look and feel without sacrificing competitive advantage.

"For example, the 'Cam automat' function block is a tool unique to B&R for interpolating a slave to a master axis. It defines interpolation states with a cam and allows you to define events. Let's say you want to interrupt the motion but the slave needs to reach a specific position. The automat function block is a state machine that automatically performs these control tasks."

you have the interaction with the address, with the drives and so on. But even there the amount of rebuilding or reprogramming would be minimized because of my reliance on PLCopen. If another supplier is using PLCopen, even that lower level would not have to be completely rewritten. So from a development point of view, that is the first benefit of PackML. "Second is the standardization of interface and communication to other systems.

This means our PackML-compliant machine and other PackML-compliant machines will have the same kind of interface, so it will be easier to debug problems and investigate errors. This is the first time we've used PackML and PLCopen to this extent."

Cecconello notes that the B&R controls package makes a significant contribution.

"The B&R components support the PLCopen programming standard," says Cecconello. "Programming structures are there for us, so we don't have to build them.

It's a well designed, well thought out interface." Also a welcome feature, notes Cecconello, is that one software program covers motion, logic, and HMI.

Remote accessibility When widely recognized standards like PLCopen and PackML are made part of a packaging machinery system like this one, it paves the way to things like Web-enabled remote access via Virtual Network Computing (VNC). In Ilapak's case, for example, the control platform makes it possible to have a secure VPN (Virtual Private 34 automotion

Application Network) connection over the Internet that Ilapak engineers can use to access the pizza-packaging system from any location where an Internet connection is available. Flavio calls this remote access capability "one of the major benefits of open architecture."

"B&R pays close attention to this," he continues. "They have inside their controls platform two important features.

The first is the VNC server. It gives us a graphical laptop sharing system to remotely access our machine and see exactly what the machine operator is seeing on his HMI. All we have to do is install freeware that is downloaded at no cost. The second feature is the OPC server that's already installed on the controls platform. OPC is commonly used by SCADA or ERP systems to connect to machines and extract data.

Typically it's a standard that is only Windows-based, so up until about a year ago you needed a dedicated PC to serve as a bridge between Windows and your SCADA or ERP system. B&R lets us do away with this bridge because they are one of the first to integrate the OPC server directly on their platform. With just the B&R platform and an OPC client, a customer can provide packaging machine states to his SCADA or ERP system. On these particular packaging machines, this is accomplished using the PackML standard, so our customer's IT department already has everything they need for them to get data out of our machines.

It's all documented in a standard way."

A final note on why this Ilapak system points the way to the future. It takes advantage of the latest in mainstream computing rather than following a traditionally industrial approach where dedicated hardware and software are more typically the norm. One look at its graphical user interface makes this clear. It looks more like something out of the gaming world than the manufacturing scene.

Ilapak:

Established: 1970 Locations: Head office in Lugano (CH); manufacturing facilities in Switzerland, Italy (2 plants), China, USA Products & Services: Industrial wrapping machinery for primary packaging using flexible wrapping materials www.ilapak.com automotion 35

Interview

A safe start into a safe future Leading up to the implementation of the new machine guidelines, safe data transfer via industrial networks dominated discussions. Since then things have quieted down a bit. automotion caught up with Franz Kaufleitner, and asked him where B&R's Safety products stand on the market, and what developments we can expect in this area in the near future. Franz is B&R's product manager for Integrated Safety Technology. automotion: Around the turn of the century, the topic of network-based safety technology first entered industry-wide discussions. When did B&R start thinking seriously about this subject?

Kaufleitner: Safety technology has existed at B&R since the year 2000. It was then that the first concepts were developed for equipping the ACOPOS motion control devices with safety functions. Today this first safety function is called STO - Safe Torque Off. 36 automotion

In 2004, B&R's technology development department formed a project team for safety-oriented control technology using POWERLINK and began development in this area. In the early definition phase, the group agreed that a safety system can only be successful in the long-term if it is not tied to a specific bus and transfer protocol. After all, machine manufacturers aren't always free to choose which controller and which Industrial Ethernet system they use. That's why we defined a safety protocol that is completely independent of the transfer mechanism and can travel on any bus system. Today this concept is well-known under the name openSAFETY. automotion: How long did development take, and when did B&R products for functional safety actually become available as easily integrated hardware?

Kaufleitner: From start to finish, projects in the area of functional safety must be executed with precision, documented in detail and certified by the TĂ&#x153;V. As a result, new developments are known to take much longer than normal.

Interview

All products enhanced by B&R's Integrated Safety Technology are internationally recognized and have been certified by the respective governing bodies.

It was especially important to view the safety technology as an integrated component of the overall system. Our design would have to work under all circumstances and be compatible with various control systems. Additionally, we had to ensure compatibility with future components, whose exact specifications we had no way of knowing.

The programming environment needed to be seamlessly integrated in Automation Studio. In order for the real wiring to be replaced by virtual wiring, we needed certified function blocks. Here, too, we committed to creating an open standard from the very beginning and were one of the first manufacturers to implement the PLCopen Safety specification.

Since 2008, B&R offers a complete system of fully certified safety products. These include a line of SafeLOGIC safe controllers, the SafeIO modules integrated in the X20 System, the SafeDESIGNER development add-on for Automation Studio, and of course the openSAFETY safe network protocol. automotion: These days, there are hardly any control systems manufacturers who don't offer some sort of integrated safety technology. Where is B&R in comparison?

Kaufleitner: The new machine guidelines appeared in 2009, and leading up to that we saw a burst of announcements from various manufacturers from 2007 to 2009. The safety technology offered by many of our competitors is at about the level B&R was at in 2008.

Our developers, on the other hand, haven't rested on their laurels. The work continued, and still does. A whole line of new safety-oriented products has already been certified and introduced to the market. Since early 2010, B&R now offers IP67 versions of the X20 SafeIO modules. Safe motion control based on the ACOPOSmulti servo drives with SafeMC is also fully certified and available in series production. In cooperation with the high-precision, fully digital encoders for B&R motors, they make it possible to respond to safety violations with Smart Safe Reactions rather than a hard machine shutdown.

Compared to B&R, hardly any other company on the market offers such a broad spectrum of completely certified safety technology. And none of them comes close to the level of integration in the control technology or the development environment as B&R does. automotion: Yet network-based safety technology is not only offered by control system manufacturers. There are certainly solutions available from suppliers in the safety sector. What's the advantage of B&R compared to these systems?

Kaufleitner: Independent safety systems all share the disadvantage that they can only utilize network communication on the safety bus internally. All decisions must be made by a separate safety component. This component alone is responsible for initiating all actions. A standard controller (without safety functionality) must use additional communication services to read status information from the safety application or to read keywords for switching actuators in the individual safety components.

With integrated, network-based safety technology, functional control has direct read access to safety-related data. This completely does away with additional wiring and interfaces.

Furthermore, this type of data access is also available for diagnostics tools. The profile and trace tools integrated in Automation Studio are therefore suitable for analyzing problems in the safety products. None of the independent safety systems available on the market offers these types of convenient diagnostics options without additional work and expense. automotion: B&R is always emphasizing the issue of short response times. Why is this so important?

Kaufleitner: In safety technology it is key that the safe response occurs as quickly as possible. Just like with driving a car, what matters is the total stopping distance, which includes both the distance traveled before a response and the actual braking distance itself. This determines the required safety clearance. In the case of production machines, this affects the overall size of the machine, and in turn its footprint, manufacturing cost and energy consumption. With >> automotion 37

Interview

Intelligent, decentralized and integrated safety technology that is simple to operate and that achieves extremely high response times opens up an entirely new range of machine safety concepts.

openSAFETY via POWERLINK we achieve 10 times faster response times. This allows our decentralized, network-based safety technology to compete with the few high-speed systems on the market with a purely monolithic design and no network.

labor back in 2004, when we first set our course towards a high-performance platform.

The safe motion control provided by SafeMC, which reaches from the ACOPOSmulti servo drives to the servo motors, is a decisive advance. The focus here is on live monitoring of setpoints. Every reduction in the response time results in an exponentially higher reduction in the braking distance and impact force.

Kaufleitner: One of our priorities during development is to keep the entry threshold as low as possible. One way we do this is by creating compact units that allow smaller safety applications to be implemented at minimal cost. At the same time, however, we ensure that the solutions are scalable enough to handle large networks and any conceivable topology. This gives users the advantages of B&R's integrated safety technology consistently on all versions of their machines.

automotion: What does the future of openSAFETY look like?

What products can we expect to see next?

automotion: What are the benefits for machine manufacturers and users?

automotion: Thank you for the interview.

Kaufleitner: Safe analog inputs are currently in very advanced stages of development. These can be used to safely integrate analog sensors into the B&R system. This ability to process analog signals especially highlights how powerful our safe control products are, as well as the flexible programming options of SafeDESIGNER. And in the end, it's openSAFETY that makes it possible to safely transfer analog data, with considerably larger amounts of reference data, over the network. This is where the wheat is separated from the chaff.

The second thing you'll be seeing in the near future are safety functions for robotics. The idea here is to combine the existing safety functions of multiple individual axes and provide safety monitoring of the entire axis group in kinematic space. Here, too, the computational and bus performance requirements are higher than most other available systems can handle.

And again, we at B&R are building upon our solid foundation of SafeLOGIC and SafeDESIGNER products, along with the openSAFETY protocol. We're now enjoying the fruits of our 38 automotion

About the author:

Franz Kaufleitner Product manager for Integrated Safety Technology B&R Eggelsberg Franz Kaufleitner has been at B&R since 2004 and has played an important role in the development of B&R's safety technology since the very beginning.

He is a member of the PLCopen Safety workgroup and head of the Ethernet Powerlink Standardization Group's openSAFETY workgroup.

UNIVISION INSPECTION TECHNOLOGY

20(*$ '(6,*1 &25325$7,21

Modular

These companies trust in B&R

Technology

Packaging Systems, Inc速

automotion 39

Step by step label production When shopping, consumers tend to orient themselves to the information provided on the label, but hardly anyone thinks about the production of the labels themselves. Blumer Maschinenbau AG, based in Otelfingen, Switzerland, is one of the leading worldwide manufacturers of systems for label processing. They produce, for example, special systems that cut or die-cut various forms of labels from printed stacks of strips.

In particular, labels for the food and beverage industry as well as telephone cards, ID cards, game cards or loyalty cards made of plastic and cardboard are die-cut to the desired form and banded for further use using card and label production systems manufactured by Blumer Maschinenbau AG. When building these types of systems, quality and cost-effectiveness are at the top of the priority list. Users appreciate systems from Blumer because, for one, their advanced developments continually provide possibilities to further optimize processes on the machines.

The company places high demands on itself and also on its suppliers, such as B&R, regarding the modularity, uniformity and reliability of systems and components.

The degree of automation on the systems is mainly determined by the type of products being manufactured, the printing process used and the infrastructure available to the user. In 2003, Blumer had already started changing over the control systems for their entire machine manufacturing line to products from B&R. PLCs, drives, operator interfaces and visualization systems now come from a single manufacturer. And since the changeover, all devices can be programmed with the uniform programming tool Automation Studio. Training of customers and employees was also significantly simplified by the uniform programming interface.

From stacks of strips to bundles of labels The modular line of Atlas systems, which can be adapted perfectly to specific conditions, was designed especially for the efficient processing of labels, for 40 automotion

example for beer and mineral water labels or aluminum foil bottle neck labels, and has already been successfully implemented by over 400 users. For example, the Atlas1110LS label die-cutting system mainly consists of a loading table, strip feed unit, cutting unit, break-through die-cutting machine and banding module. On this system, the labels, which have been printed but are still connected in strips, can be cut and die-cut into all conceivable forms.

Application

Strip feeding, stack separation, banding, output: the new machine concept allows complete processing, from strip stacks to label bundles.

Automation components from one source The entire control system comes from B&R, including the PLC functions, drives and visualization systems for the machines. And this is not only the case with all of the new machines and systems because machines that have already been in use for years are also retrofitted with the current automation system.

Products from B&R's ACOPOS servo drive line are being used, for example, for positioning the paper strips. With their 400 Âľs scan times, these servo drives are able to react to application-specific events very quickly. Because they use the embedded parameter chip on the motor with all the relevant mechanical and electronic data, it's not necessary for machine manufacturers to make time-consuming and error-prone parameter settings, which shortens commissioning times substantially. During service work, additional relevant data can be queried. The servo drives perform outstandingly well for precise measurement tasks with two highly precise trigger inputs. A servo motor with an ACOPOS drive is used on each machine on the back gauge feed unit where the strips are pushed under the pressing bar and the cutting blades. Because the multi-turn encoder for the motor is capable of absolute position measurement, lengthy homing procedures are no longer necessary and no additional measuring systems are needed on the workpiece.

development of control systems.

The company counts on the professional expertise of its technicians for the successful development, construction and manufacturing of its products. Of course, they handle all engineering in-house, including the implementation of the control systems. In this regard, Roger Loeliger, who is in charge of the electrical systems, stresses the fact that Blumer's clear machine concepts and B&R's equally clear automation concepts are designed with a very straightforward structure and therefore harmonize excellently.

The system has approximately 80 digital and analog I/O modules as well as temperature modules from the X20 System for querying sensors and movements as well as for controlling pneumatic and hydraulic valves.

The X20 System is more than a remote I/O system, it meets all requirements for a complete control solution. Especially for modularly designed systems, it is a huge advantage if the software for the bus module automatically detects the components in the system and provides the necessary functions. Since the terminal blocks can be separated from the electronic module, complete switching cabinets equipped with X20 System devices can be pre-wired.

Convenient visualization and operation In order to be able to set various parameters individually, Blumer uses a Power Panel as the central operating and control unit. The individual control, drive and visualization components are networked via the CAN bus and X2X bus.

Power Panels like the PP41 are especially suited for automating small and mid-sized machines and systems that require maximum component density. In addition to a powerful PLC, they also include a visualization system and digital I/O.

A clear automation concept for a clear system concept Blumer Maschinenbau AG has many decades of practical experience in both the manufacturing of mechanical equipment and the

Blumer:

Established: 1897 Locations: Otelfingen (Switzerland), subsidiaries in the USA and Hong Kong Products & Services: Blumer builds production lines for labels and cards satisfying the most varied requirements www.blumerag.com automotion 41

Technology

openSAFETY: What's in it for you?

POWERLINK

SERCOS

Modbus

EtherNet/IP

PROFINET

Machine 1

Machine 2

Machine 3

Machine 4

Machine 5

In the young field of network-based safety data communication, openSAFETY is a response to the long-stated demand for uniformity and interoperability across all systems. This level of openness and independence is considerably more useful than proprietary systems, and not only for machine manufacturers. The manufacturers of sensors and actuators as well as safety-related end devices profit from only having to invest once in development and certification. However, machine users benefit the most from cost advantages and the possibility of seamless safeguarding of entire production facilities.

Meanwhile, safety systems triggered a sweeping revolution with safe signal transfer via the fieldbus, primarily via Ethernet-based networks such as POWERLINK. The advantages over traditional systems are hard to ignore: The elimination of the majority of cabling significantly reduces costs and removes a notorious source of errors. At least in safety systems that use direct communication without detouring through the controller, the required safety standard can be achieved at significantly higher movement speeds, which in turn increases productivity. Last but not least, the integration of drives and motors, as in B&R SafeMC, shortens the stopping distance and allows for smaller safety clearances, making it possible to build smaller and more economical machines.

This makes it easy to see why all leading manufacturers of control and automation technology advocate Safety over Industrial Ethernet. "There's only one catch," says Stefan Schรถnegger, B&R Business Unit Manager for Open Automation, whose job it is to make B&R technologies as easy as possible for other system manufacturers and integrators to use. "With just one exception, all of these systems can only be operated together with the control hardware or field network system from the respective manufacturer. This is due partly to technical reasons, but also other unnecessary factors such as monopoly-driven market politics." This can cause headaches for machine manufacturers because they aren't always able to choose which controllers to use in their products, but instead must often follow their customers' demands. This highlights the only real advantage of hard-wired systems: Installed once, certified once, the solution remains the same regardless of the controller that is being used.

42 automotion

Interoperability thanks to Black Channel "A network-based safety system doesn't offer this independence, which is too high of a price to pay for its other advantages," explains Stefan Schรถnegger.

"One of the central development goals for openSAFETY was to not compromise this autonomy of the safety system from the system bus." The solution was found in the Black Channel principle, which enables safe data transfer that is independent of the transport protocol being used, also allowing it to be carried out on any fieldbus.

This benefits more than just the machine manufacturers. Device manufacturers also get a headstart with shorter timeto-market since they only have to go through development and certification once. In addition to being time consuming and expensive, a uniform solution

Technology owners can also benefit directly from openSAFETY. The uniform nature and universal application possibilities also limit the expenditures for technician training courses and the cost for procuring replacement parts. "However, a completely new possibility also opened up that reaches much further," says Stefan Schรถnegger. "Thanks to openSAFETY's independence from the system bus, they are able to efficiently equip entire groups of different machines, robots and handling equipment with one comprehensive, shared, modern safety system, thereby creating new benefits for productivity, that could not be achieved in the past using conventional technologies."

Proprietary is yesterday. The future belongs to manufacturer-independent, open solutions like openSAFETY.

also requires less special knowledge and limits the logistical expenditure that comes with a bloated range of variations.

Dr. Georg Plasberg, division head for the development of industrial safety systems and member of the management team at Sick AG, a renowned German manufacturer of sensors, agrees: "In many other electronic applications, interoperability of different systems has become practically a requirement. Although we will continue to integrate the full range of proprietary solutions in our products, I believe that only those who can overcome network limitations using open communication standards will have long-term success in industrial applications. Of course, we strive for this level of openness beyond the specification level and right up to the interface level of the engineering systems."

Benefits for device and machine manufacturers

About the author:

As managing director of the worldwide exporting company TRUMPF Maschinen Austria Ges. mbH & Co. KG, Dr. Alfred Hutterer knows the disadvantages that stem from the lack of interoperability seen in most safety systems. "This lack of interoperability between different systems is not only expensive, it also lengthens the time-tomarket and prevents a reasonable second-source policy on the purchasing end," he recently stated at a discussion held by a leading Austrian trade magazine regarding current technology. He continued, "The different schools of thought evangelizing their individual technologies make it difficult for manufacturers of field devices to develop hardware that is compatible with the different networks."

Machine manufacturers such as TRUMPF also benefit from the standardized openSAFETY product portfolio with fewer devices compared to proprietary solutions and from the ability to use alternative suppliers when necessary. "This is no minor factor, because availability always plays an important role in making sales and ensuring continued customer satisfaction," explains Stefan Schรถnegger. "The topic of know-how also comes into play for machine manufacturers because with openSAFETY, service technicians only need to be trained on one technology."

Benefits for production plants as well In addition to the cost advantages that device manufacturers are able to pass on to the machine manufacturers and their customers, production companies and machine

Stefan Schรถnegger (30) began working at B&R in 2006. After working as product manager for POWERLINK technologies, Schรถnegger has been managing the Open Automation Technologies Business Unit at B&R since the beginning of 2010. He also serves as Managing Director of the Ethernet POWERLINK Standardization Group. automotion 43

Application

Handling different formats? That's easy!

In today's fast-paced consumer goods market, a key factor for the success of food corporations is flexibility throughout the entire production chain. Being able to quickly and easily adapt production to meet the market's "just in time" requirements is now a must. With their new tray sealing machine concept, G. Mondini has developed an innovative solution to handle different packaging formats with a single system.

In 1972, Giovanni Mondini revolutionized the international packaging market by introducing an innovative rigid container for packaging food. The advantages were threefold: simplified logistics, improved product quality and a considerably longer shelf life.

Today, Mondini employs 160 workers and has become a leading manufacturer of packaging and dosing machines with more than 6,000 systems in use all over the world. From complex lines for producing and packaging ready-made dishes to single-tube filling machines in simple or modified atmospheres, G. Mondini ensures superior machine quality and reliability. One particular innovation is the Fresh M.A.P System, a complete packaging line for meat and fish. Through the use of a new type of container and barrier film, products are packaged in a vacuum or an atmosphere that extends the shelf life of the product considerably. The user profits from this extended shelf life as well as the fact that the taste, smell and color of the packaged products are not affected in any way.

44 automotion

One system, many formats Food producers are increasingly demanding more flexible machine solutions; as a result, it has become important that machines are able to be retooled as quickly as possible. The new EVO 384 offers exactly this kind of flexibility: a tray sealing machine that can handle many different kinds of packaging formats. In addition, the EVO machine series is able to achieve a high level of productivity while not taking up a lot of space.

Advanced ACOPOSmulti servo drives are used to control the servo motors.

Power regeneration capabilities, which

Application Visual Components supported the implementation of an intuitive user interface.

prevent kinetic brake energy from being converted to heat, allow users to profit from an energy-efficient and environmentally friendly solution.

The use of powerful industrial PCs means that different automation tasks such as motion control, visualization, etc. are combined on a single system platform.

Communication between the control system and the new EVO 384 is handled using POWERLINK. This allows food manufacturers to profit from high-speed data exchange and maximize their network performance in real time.

Adherence to international packaging standards The software solution used for motion control conforms to PLCopen standards (in accordance with IEC 611313). In addition, the machines meet the requirements set forth by PackML guidelines, which clearly define possible machine states as well as the changes they undergo. In this regard, the EVO 384 complies with the most important international standards relevant to the packaging industry.

User-friendly operator interface In order to meet customer demands for a simple, intuitive operating concept, Mauro Cocchetti, manager of automation at G.Mondini, decided to introduce a new PC-based visualization system. A completely customized touch screen display with integrated RFID technology provides secure access to the system.

B&R Visual Components for Windows also makes it possible to integrate a comprehensive PDF-based help system. Recipe management is supported with corresponding high-resolution JPG images. Integrated videos also aid in operation and maintenance. In addition, all system parameters can be exported to and imported from a CSV file on a USB flash drive. Video and audio files can be played using Windows Media Player, and Internet Explorer can be used to display HTML files; both of these programs are integrated in the Runtime Visual Components for Windows environment, which doesn't require a license to operate. automotion 45

Application

High-speed packaging Fast product throughput in a packaging process requires a control system that is reliable and robust.

The integration of B&R technology ensures the English manufacturer HayssenSandiacre maximum reliability with significantly reduced maintenance costs.

HayssenSandiacre Europe Ltd, located in Nottingham (UK) and a member of Barry-Wehmiller Companies Inc., develops and produces flexible packaging machines for the international market. The machine lines Hayssen, Sandiacre and Rose Forgrove are designed either as vertical form-fill-seal

machines or as horizontal tubular bag machines, depending on the application.

The main market is the foodstuffs industryâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;especially applications for filling and packaging candy, snacks, frozen foods and various drinks. Customers for pharmaceutical and medical care products also utilize this sophisticated technology.

Increased performance The integration of B&R control components into the horizontal tubular bag machines from Rose Forgrove made it possible to further expand the product pallet. "Over the last two to three

Through the use of B&R control technology, Hayssen Sandiacre was able to reduce the number of interfaces and clearly reduce cabling requirements.

46 automotion

Application connection. An Ethernet connection provides high-speed exchange of production and machine data with SCADA systems.

The user-friendly operating concept allows charges to be changed quickly, which makes it possible to set up the machine in the shortest amount of time.

Each Automation PC is equipped with application-specific software. The operator is led through the program intuitively and can easily set important process parameters such as product size, machine speed, bag length, foil orientation, etc., while also being able to store and retrieve recipes. "All processing parameters can be changed on the fly by the operator. For our customers this means machine setup times are minimized when changing batches," explains LaPare.

Worldwide support years, sales of machines have steadily increased," says Mike LaPare, Director of Rose Forgrove proudly. "This growth can be attributed to the increased reliability and optimized performance of our machines."

Cost efficiency through reliability "Downtime during production can be extremely costly for the producer.

Food producers are especially sensitive in this respect," explains LaPare.

He continues, "As the machine provider, we must therefore be confident that our suppliers are providing us with high-quality, reliable control components that aren't going to fail."

In the various packaging machines, ACOPOS servo drives are used for all movement tasks, as well as the X20 System in combination with the robust 10.4" APC. With the use of Automation Studio for programming, HayssenSandiacre profits from a short commissioning time and considerably reduced maintenance costs.

Fewer interfaces means less cabling An important advantage of B&R products is the level of integration in the system. The controller and HMI are combined in a single compact unit.

This significantly reduces the amount of cabling required. "Fewer connections on a machine means fewer potential sources of error during production. Machine downtime can therefore be prevented at the machine build stage," says LaPare.

Quick parameter entry thanks to intuitive HMI The experts from HayssenSandiacre decided on the powerful Automation PC to handle the machine's visualization since this device is able to handle all the demands for control and operation in a single unit. The Automation PC is also equipped with additional interfaces that make it easy to connect devices from other manufacturers. Analog signals such as those for equipment production rates can easily be transmitted as I/O or via a fieldbus

"The high throughput speeds of our packaging machines require reliable control solutions. B&R offers components that meet the highest industrial standards and guarantee top quality."

Mike LaPare Director Rose Forgrove

"When we need new functions, B&R Support is always quick to respond.

Our customers around the world also benefit from the worldwide presence of our automation partner, who provides fast local support on-site. For us this is a valuable addition to our international sales efforts," says LaPare in closing.

HayssenSandiacre:

Established: 1906 Employees: 120 Annual revenue: ÂŁ20 million Locations: Nottingham (UK) Products & services: Development and production of flexible packaging machines www.hayssensandiacre.co.uk automotion 47

Application

Innovative packaging In 1830, the famous inventor of the sewing machine, BarthĂŠlĂŠmy Thimonnier from Lyon, France founded the world's first machine-based clothing factory. The company exists to this day and is located in the town of SaintGermain-au-Mont-d'Or. After entering the raincoat business shortly after the Second World War, the company began shifting focus to the plastics industry.

With Thimonnier's specially developed high-frequency sealing machine, which uses heating pads to fuse plastic pieces together, the importance of the sewing machine gradually faded. Today, Thimonnier now has a comprehensive assortment of sealing and filling machines for the foodstuffs and medical industries.

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As in the early days, the company's recent history is also marked by numerous innovations: In 1957, Thimonnier introduced the first machine for packaging pasteurized milk in polyethylene "pillow" pouches to the market. Just five years later the well-known Doypack, a flexible stand-up pouch, was invented. In 1998 the company once again attracted attention by introducing the first non-PVC medical bag producing machine for IV solutions, blood bags and CAPD bags.

Yet another innovation came with the first sterile high-speed packaging machine for UHT milk (ultra heat treated milk) with a volume of 12,000 bags per hour.

Application

Sterile packaging With a strong foundation built upon nearly fifty years of experience in the field of packaging and filling technologies, the French machine manufacturer continues to successfully develop new market trends. "The use of flexible bags has everincreasing importance from both an economic as well as an environmental standpoint: They are more cost-effective than other types of packaging and create less waste. What's more, the demand for extremely clean and sterile technologies continues to grow, particularly in the milk industry," explains Eric Duhoo, Sales Director at Thimonnier. In order to meet these market demands, the company worked together with B&R to find a reliable high-performance machine solution.

Complete solution provides high efficiency Based on the target markets—mainly emerging markets in North Africa and South America—a cost-effective and flexible automation system was needed that could lower costs while increasing the ability to compete. "By integrating controller functionality, visualization and drive technology into a single device, choosing the right machine architecture was not too difficult. Furthermore, the complete integration of all automation tasks in a single Power Panel as well as the use of POWERLINK significantly reduced our automation costs," explains Eric Duhoo.

Another decisive factor was the seamless integration of different drive technologies. B&R servo drives feature highly dynamic properties for the control of sealing pads. With the compact ACOPOSmicro, Thimonnier is able to utilize all of the benefits of stepper motor technology for simple and dynamic movements.

"B&R enabled us to significantly lower the machine's total costs. Our machines are exported to nearly 100 countries and can be quickly adapted to meet the respective customer requirements," adds Frédéric Roumanet, Manager of the Design Department.

"B&R enabled us to significantly lower the machine's total costs.

Our machines are exported to nearly 100 countries and can be quickly adapted to meet the respective customer requirements."

Frédéric Roumanet Manager of the Design Department Thimonnier

Thimonnier: Established: 1830 Employees: 55 Locations: Germain au Mont d'Or (FR) Products & services: Molding, filling and sealing machines, primarily for the foodstuffs industry www.thimonnier.com automotion 49

Technology

ACOPOSmulti65: Thinking machine modularity through to the end From the very beginning, motion control devices in the ACOPOSmulti family from B&R have focused on the issue of modularity. But if modularity in machine manufacturing is carried through to its logical conclusion, it becomes clear that inverters also need to leave the control cabinet behind and migrate to where the action takes place. This would allow configurable modules to become easily connected mechatronic devices. It would also make it possible to reduce delivery times, free up valuable floor space and simplify commissioning. With the ACOPOSmulti65, B&R has now introduced a decentralized inverter for motion control onto the market that meets all of these demands.

Just like in the automotive industry, the desire for adapting systems to individual requirements while adding different modular options is becoming increasingly prevalent in machine and systems manufacturing. The idea of a series production machine has degenerated to the point where it nearly no longer exists.

The strong trend towards modularity From a control point of view, it is only possible to take advantage of the full benefits of optional devices and machine components if they can be easily connected with the primary machineâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;ideally with a single plug. In this case, the automation hardware would have to be integrated in the respective device from a location outside of the control cabinet. This is the only way to free up the valuable space inside the control cabinet as well as add expansions later in the gameâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;or even 50 automotion

Technology after the machine has been commissioned. Once this has been achieved, machine customers do not need to know every single aspect regarding possible machine options, and the time pressure involved in production and commissioning is reduced.

POWERLINK

Power Panel ACOPOSmulti

This trend towards machine modularity has been underway for quite some time at B&R with regard to control technology: the modular X20 system, which makes it easy to implement decentralized control zones, is a perfect example. This is also true for motion control. ACOPOSmulti drive systems can power servo, torque and linear motors, making them a universal solution for any automation task in machine manufacturing. This particular drive solution is especially cost effective when used with machines that have several axesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the plastics, packaging, printing and textile industries are prime examples. By tailoring the power supplies, cooling and scalable IGBT inverters to the application, the perfect drive solution can always be configured.

ACOPOSmulti power supply and expansion module in the switching cabinet

It used to be the case that optional modules always meant having to install separate control cabinets or panels. But decentralized I/O modules and drive controllers can only reach their full potential with regard to cost effectiveness if they completely rid themselves of these additional distribution panels. This not only reduces costs, but the space needed by the device as well. For these reasons, machine manufacturers have longed for liberating control and drive components from the control cabinet for years.

Hybrid cable connection includes power supply (24 VDC, DC bus), network connection and STO

Switching cabinet

Hybrid cable

$&2326PXOWL

$&2326PXOWL

$&2326PXOWL

ACOPOSmulti65 - The decentralized inverter

Hybrid cable

Connections for local I/O nodes X67

Breaking free from the control cabinet

Motion control

Control system Visualization and operation

X67

X67

Sensors Actuators

X67

Sensors Actuators

Decentralized system architecture with the ACOPOSmulti65

In the area of control technology, the X67 System has long been an alternative to rail-mounted input and output modules for evaluating and controlling sensors and actuators. This system includes I/O modules with IP67 protection and can be used outside the control cabinet in harsh industrial environments.

Part of the proven ACOPOSmulti family, the robust external characteristics of this system allow it to be mounted anywhere on the machine. And you guessed correctly: the number at the end refers to its level of protection. In accordance with this standard, the device is fully protected against contact and dust ingress; in addition, it can withstand powerful water jets from any direction. Nevertheless, the device is still called ACOPOS and not AQUAPOS, as was heard a few times at the last SPS/IPC/DRIVES fair in Nuremberg.

Motion control is now the next area to experience this liberation. Here, B&R's answer to the trend towards increased, simpler modularity in machine manufacturing is called ACOPOSmulti65.

The device's decentralized mounting reduces the amount of space needed in the control cabinet, a true advantage for machine users. The ability to easily connect auxiliary components,

handling equipment or other small devices simply by plugging them into the CPU makes it possible to upgrade the machine over time to optimize production processes.

A conscious decision was made from the start to not mount the inverters directly on the motors they would be controlling. Although the motormounted approach may seem to make sense on the surface, the thermal conditions are such that the performance of the motor is degraded. In addition, the mounting position itself is often hidden, making it difficult to perform maintenance. Nevertheless, one of the biggest challenges when developing these new devices still involved how to dissipate the heat to prevent any loss of performance whatsoever. >> automotion 51

Technology SafeMC and energy efficiency included One of the things that simplifies setup and commissioning the most is the fact that these inverters can be wired together in a line structure using only a single hybrid cable for the supply voltage, DC bus, POWERLINK and STO, the safe torque cutoff function. In addition to this hard-wired safety function, the network-based SafeMC functions STO, SBC, SOS, SS1, SS2, SLS, SMS, SLI, SDI and SLP will be offered in the future, just as they are available now for existing ACOPOSmulti devices in the control cabinet.

It also goes without saying that these new decentralized devices also come equipped with the full range of energy options available for the ACOPOSmulti series. These include power factor correction, which considerably reduces the connected load or current consumption of the machine, as well as constant DC bus voltage to ensure optimal performance of the inverter modules and motors. In addition, all active power supply modules have the ability to return braking energy back to the power mains (power regeneration).

The seamless integration of the ACOPOSmulti65 into a POWERLINK network allows the device to serve as a central node for implementing additional expansion options while also being able to connect inputs and outputs via its own interface. In this case, it is sufficient to simply connect I/O modules from the X67 family to the ACOPOSmulti65 directly on-site.

It is clear to see that the additional price of this robust decentralized device is more than offset by the savings achieved in the control cabinet as well as in the wiring itself. That the total

POWERLINK connection for external X67 nodes POWERLINK input 1

POWERLINK connection for external X67 nodes

Hybrid cable output 2

POWERLINK input 2 Hybrid cable output 1

Hybrid cable output 4 DC bus supply Hybrid cable output 3 STO 1 connection

STO 2 connection

24 VDC supply

The decentralized 8CVE connection box features IP65 protection and can be mounted directly on the machine.

area required by the entire machine is reduced is another undisputed advantage. And the ability to add expansion options as completely autonomous devices is one more feature that illustrates the pioneering nature of the ACOPOSmulti65. Without making modifications in the control cabinet, without having to deal with difficult wiring and without having to worry about when to upgradeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;even after commissioning.

About the author: After completing his studies in electrical engineering, Alois Holzleitner (48) began his career developing controllers for machine tools in Switzerland. Hired by B&R in 1992 as product manager for positioning controllers, Alois has managed the business unit for motion control at B&R headquarters in Eggelsberg, Austria since 1998.

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24 VDC output for external X67 nodes

Application

Sustainable labeling

Finally a modern heat transfer decorating system for plastic containers that delivers brilliant and durable image quality at low costs. At PACK EXPO 2010, Graphic Packaging International demonstrated the DI-NA-CAL® heat transfer decorating system, their exclusive process for labeling plastic containers. The labeling is 100% recyclable, making this an optimal addition to a sustainable packaging concept.

Branding with a no-label look Labels that are optically matched to the plastic improve the overall impression of the packaging and attract the attention of potential customers. That's why consumer marketers and brand managers recognize the competitive advantages of the seamless no-label look. With the new DI-NA-CAL®, label images physically bond to the surface of the container and maintain excellent brilliance and clarity without cracking, scuffing or peeling.

Graphic Packaging International—the leading supplier of heat transfer labeling systems in North America—trusts in modern servo technology from B&R. This assures precise, consistent label positioning within 1/32 inch and virtually eliminates label mismatches, even on oddly shaped or sized containers. Oval or conical, square or round, wide mouth or narrow neck, with or without handles, from one ounce to 12 gallons, the automated system assures perfect labeling.

Heat transfer label application systems from Graphic Packaging are available in a range of line speeds, allowing labels to be applied on the front, the back and even all four sides in a single pass. They can also work in-line with blow molding or filling machines.

Innovative heat transfer technology DI-NA-CAL® uses reverse printed graphics using up to 9 colors. Labels are delivered in roll form and transferred using heat and pressure. The end result is a highly decorative, durable and permanent label.

See-through heat transfer labels on PET containers offer exceptional product visibility and aesthetic appeal. Hot fill label technology is available for 200+ degree Fahrenheit filling temperatures.

www.graphicpkg.com

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Grabbing the bottle by the neck For 25 years now, the Polish production company STM with headquarters in ZĹ&#x201A;ocieniec has been providing filling systems for the foodstuffs industry. The new ARROW machine series is an innovative solution for handling bottles by the neck, which allows for variations in the size and shape of the bottles. Integrated automation technology provides support for configuring all machine functions and offers the flexibility needed to react quickly to changing market demands.

ARROW is a compact system used to fill carbonated and non-carbonated beverages as well as various vegetable oils for the foodstuffs industry.

The machines fill both PET and glass bottles as well as large volume containers that hold up to 7 liters.

Developed for a large range of filling speeds, the ARROW machines achieve a throughput of up to 14,000 units per hour. They can adapt to the different requirements and process various types of bottles. In addition to the broad pallet of filling machines, STM also offers various components for efficient bottle handling.

This includes rinsing equipment for cleaning the inside of the bottles and capping machines for applying many different types of caps.

Machine parts that come in direct contact with liquids during filling can be cleaned at CIP stations (cleaningin-place). The entire cleaning process is contained in a closed system.

The main element of the rinsing system is a central washing station.

Equipped with a time, temperature

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and opacity check as well as a flow check, the CIP stations ensure fast and easy cleaning of the respective machine parts.

Higher flexibility - Lower costs The integrated rinsing system on the filling and capping machines was

Application originally operated using relay-based control with a synoptic table. Today, a Power Panel handles centralized motion control and visualization of all parts of the machine. The Power Panel visualization system makes it simple and intuitive for service personnel to enter all the necessary process parameters. Various alarm systems and monitoring functions allow seamless error diagnostics, which results in significantly reduced machine downtimes.

"Thanks to a uniform automation platform and the ability to connect B&R components to systems from other manufacturers, we are now in the position to optimally meet the individual requirements of our customers."

Tomasz Socik Technical Manager STM

Motion control was implemented efficiently with Automation Studio.

Thanks to the use of highly modern I/O systems like the X20 as well as the X67 and XV modules that are mounted directly on the ARROW machines, the installation and wiring costs were able to be considerably reduced. The compact modular construction of the B&R components also considerably reduces the amount of space required in the switching cabinet. This results in significant potential for reducing costs for the end user while at the same time increasing flexibility and line speed.

Because B&R components are open with respect to systems from other manufacturers, STM profits from quick installation of its machines and equipment in its customers' production lines. "Through implementation of the B&R control system, we were able to significantly increase the production capacity of our filling systems. Thanks to a uniform automation platform and the ability to connect B&R components to systems from other manufacturers, we are now in the position to optimally meet the individual requirements of our customers," explains Tomasz Socik, Technical Manager at STM.

Fast reactions to market demands In the future, STM would make supplying and installing complete production lines a priority. Thanks to the use of B&R technology, the Polish supplier is now able to quickly adapt its filling, capping and cleaning systems to current market demands.

"We are an especially service-oriented company. Ensuring an outstanding price/performance ratio is there-

fore one of our top priorities. Thanks to the combination of STM and B&R technology, we're able to provide internationally competitive niche products for the foodstuffs industry," stresses Tomasz Socik.

STM:

Established: 1984 Employees: 40 Locations: ZĹ&#x201A;ocieniec (Poland) Products & Services: Filling machines for water, vegetable oil, juice; auxiliary equipment such as CIP stations, saturators, mixers/ saturators, integrated systems for material handling www.strzala.com.pl automotion 55

Technology

Automation Studio - More than just a programming tool Integrated automation has become a buzz word in the field of automation technology. So often used, it typically refers to the ability to start multiple software tools from a single program. For B&R this represents but one of the many features of a perfectly integrated solution. In the following, we will illustrate how Automation Studio supports a machine through its entire life cycle, laying the foundation for the complete integration of a development tool into all business processes.

Not too long ago, controllers were programmed using special programming devices. These were separate electronic devices that combined a PC and a programming application. Quite a lot has changed in the automation industry since then. Simply programming the controllers - today using software packages on conventional computers - is no longer sufficient to automate a machine or system. Today, visualization applica56 automotion

tions, drive technology and safety systems have become essential components of a modern automation solution.

However, simply integrating all these components into one tool falls far short of providing the best possible support for machine manufacturers. In order to pursue the idea of integrated automation even further, the following trends in the field of machine and systems manufacturing must also be considered.

Technology Reduction of time to market Technology-oriented consumer markets tend toward increasingly faster cycles of innovation. To feed this hunger for new technology, machine and systems manufacturers must develop and automate new machines in ever shorter intervals. As a result, the development tool provided by their automation partner must be able to keep up with this trend. In addition to integrating the various tools, we also understand the importance of perfectly adapting the development tool to the line of automation products. This is the only way to utilize the full performance of the products (be it the classical controller, Automation PC or visualization), and to avoid time-consuming compromises.

The architecture dictates the possibilities.

Batch size = 1 - For series machines For some time, we have been observing a trend toward ever smaller batch sizes. Here, too, changes in the consumer market with respect to product variety and customization have a direct effect on machine manufacturing.

This "mass-customization" requires machines that are highly flexible. This begins during manufacturing with custom options packets for end customers and continues on-site at the end customer, where the range of functions is expanded by enabling further options. The development tool must be able to handle all these machine variants efficiently. Open interfaces to ERP systems are indispensable.

turers with the best possible support, a modern development tool must be able to integrate standard fieldbus systems and offer affordable and direct access for proprietary protocols in the form of libraries.

Incorporation into the machine manufacturer's processes Even though the development tool plays an important role when auto-

Total value added versus list of features

The machine as a link in the value creation chain A single machineâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;however flexibleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; is rarely responsible for manufacturing a complete product. Generally, it is only one link in the value creation chain. This chain is created either by the addition of half-finished components that are produced separately from the machine or through line integration, in which different machine generations are connected directly to the respective machines. In this case, it makes sense to link them in order to optimize the overall capacity. In the past this was done with electrical signals (digital or analog), but today's fieldbus systems open up efficient new ways of linking machines to optimize data flow and streamline cabling.

In order to provide machine manufac-

mating a machine or system, it is not a central element in the machine manufacturer's process landscape. It would be inappropriate and impractical to ask machine manufacturers to adapt their processes to their automation supplier's development tool. It must nevertheless be made as simple as possible to incorporate this tool into the processes. The development tool must have an open architecture with individual files in plain text format as well as universal access to the programs, data and configuration options of the automation project.

"The development of Automation Studio is guided by the goal of supporting machine manufacturers in the implementation of an idea, which means through all stages of the life cycle."

Werner Paulin System Architect B&R Headquarters

When development tools are compared with one another, the focus is usually on the individual functions.

Conflicting philosophies make a debate based solely on functions pointless. Instead the focus should be on a concept borrowed from economics: "total value added". This involves consideration of the added value throughout the entire area of use. Doing so opens up entirely new perspectives.

Where previously the discussion focused only on the areas of programming and visualization, this more holistic approach accounts for the entire life cycle of a machine. The development of Automation Studio is guided by the goal of supporting machine manufacturers in the implementation of an idea, which means through all stages of the life cycle. >> automotion 57

Technology

Life cycle of a machine

Added lifecycle value thanks to Automation Studio The figure above shows the general life cycle of a machine from the perspective of the automation manufacturer. The life cycle is divided into nine phases and illustrates the potential for support from the development tool.

Design The blue curve shows that during the design phase is where the development tool traditionally provides the best support. The ability to work in a team using a simple server connection, to select any version management system, or to group a machine's components into function units and initially develop them with a non-hardware-specific configuration all contribute to a more effective kind of support.

the process, it is possible to generate added value in this phase as well.

Web-based diagnostics make it easy for the electrician or mechanic to perform the initial commissioning. Software developers aren't required until much later in the commissioning process. This saves time and costs.

When the machine is on-site at the end customer's location, process analysis and configuration support is sometimes part of a maintenance contract. For this to be possible, you need a powerful remote maintenance concept that can be configured using the development tool.

Field test

Conclusion

In the field test phase, the precision of the analysis tools determines the quality of the tests. There's no smoothing signal curves here. All tools must therefore perfectly coordinate with the runtime system.

A modern development tool must support the machine and system manufacturer in the implementation of an idea. Using programming standards guarantees long-term investments.

Open architecture enables the direct connection of ERP and CAD systems.

This saves resources and reduces fixed costs in the design phase as well as variable costs during machine production—a key competitive advantage for machines.

Commissioning

Production Simulation Usually, additional tools are used during the simulation. What's important in this phase is that theses tools are connected seamlessly. For example, linking to MATLAB/Simulink enables the correct simulation of complex models.

Automated code generation then ensures that the controller also behaves according to the specifications during the real process.

Construction The construction phase of the machine is usually outside the scope of a development tool. Nevertheless, with the direct connection of ECAD systems and the corresponding ability to set or change I/O assignments very late in 58 automotion

Support & service

As in the construction phase, there is limited opportunity for using a development tool during production. Nevertheless, with the direct connection of ERP systems and the corresponding ability to activate options packages dynamically, it is possible to generate added value in this phase as well.

Automation Studio highlights ■ Open architecture ■ Flexible project organization ■ Hardware-neutral software design ■ Open for any version management system ■ Increased efficiency with automatic code generation with MATLAB/Simulink ■ Team-oriented approach ■ Web-based system diagnostics

Application

A recipe for success

The continued commitment of the Beretta family, united by a love of tradition and authentic tastes, has created a brand recognized worldwide as a leader in the production of sausages and cured meat. Today, after nearly two hundred years in business, Fratelli Beretta has maintained its dedication to high-quality production and the constant pursuit of innovation. This is shown in the search for new products designed for markets that are becoming increasingly large and complex while never losing sight of the importance of attention to detail.

Two centuries of tradition Fratelli Beretta S.p.A. was founded in 1812 as a small butcher shop in Brianza, near Milan. Over the years, they took on the responsibilities of cattle herding while establishing 16 new locations around the world, including one in China and two in the USA. By developing new technologies, improving production processes and adding a wider range of service companies, Fratelli Beretta was able to make a qualitative leap. >> automotion 59

Application "Despite the importance and number of business graduates, Beretta Group companies still rely on Beretta family members," explains Stefano Giovannoni. "They are still present today holding active roles in production management as well as in the decision-making process for new product development."

From selecting raw materials to inspecting the final packaged product, family members are involved along every step of the way. Giovannoni explains further, "This constant presence at the forefront of our operations has allowed us to not only pass down the requisite expertise from generation to generation, but also the culture of our products as well. This includes high-quality workmanship and precision while pursuing the modernization of our production system by streamlining the production chain. It is the goal of the Beretta Group to manufacture innovative products with our traditional brand and style while maintaining our high quality standards."

Wuber: Quality and craftsmanship The Wuber company is a division of Fratelli Beretta S.p.A. that specializes in manufacturing sausages, hams and snacks that cover a wide range of food tastes and follow the latest market trends. "Wuber's flagship product is a sausage that enjoys a greater share of the market than any of our competitors," explains Giovannoni.

"The main customers for Wuber's products are large retailers who require a constant high level of product quality at an acceptable cost all the way down to the end customer.

We achieve this through a strategic manufacturing policy and efficiency that is shaped by our long experience and know-how in the area of foodstuff production."

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B&R's stainless steel panels with special hygienic design guarantee sterile and safe operation in challenging conditions such as those found in the foodstuffs industry.

Continuous optimization of a product's m a n u f a c t u ring process is not an easy task, especially when the high quality standards of the Beretta Group are on the line.

One reason for this is that quality and efficiency sometimes represent conflicting goals. Market success is therefore determined by a company's ability to balance a consistent level of quality with increased efficiency.

analysis before a new supplier is chosen. "For us, choosing a supplier means choosing a long-term partner," states Giovannoni. "We are basically choosing to establish a relationship that goes beyond the mere provision of goods and services. Our suppliers assist us in implementing a wide range of different projects.

This cooperation therefore extends anywhere from introducing a new product to developing new methods of production. In any case, collaboration never ends after delivery; it continues over many years. This approach might mean a drawn out selection process, but it ensures that the right decision is made in the end."

Solid partnerships are the key to success

Maximum reliability with the most modern PC technology

The Beretta Group has established close partnerships with several suppliers over the years. In order to keep this tradition going, Beretta makes sure to perform a thorough

In recent years, the Beretta Group has sought to change the methodology used to manufacture their products. "Particularly in the food industry, the manufacturing process

Application changing customer demands. The question then arises as to the tools best suited to reach this goal. "In the foodstuffs industry, about 70% of all downtime is related to electric or electronic problems," says Giovannoni. "This percentage is growing with the increasing presence of control elements based more on electronics than mechanical components."

The Beretta family has been producing top quality sausage products for several generations.

also involves the need to monitor production costs and efficiency standards," says Giovannoni. "It must be possible to collect a range of real-time data from every part of the system. This includes important information about feedback strategies, 'dashboard' control efficiency standards and quality requirements."

The resulting data provides essential information that can be used to establish a standard that can be repeated, along with the ability to adjust productivity according to constantly

This fact led directly to the selection of a PC solution with a maximum degree of reliability as being the best option for collecting essential data for analysis. Nonetheless, it was still an important requirement for the production analysis that no new control elements be introduced that would cause downtime in either the plant or the production line itself.

PC solution to be used. The most important factor had to do with reliability; introducing weak elements into the production system was to be avoided by all means. A second requirement demanded that the PC be able to provide the versatility needed by the application. "The choice of an industrial PC from B&R was not based on its price," says Giovannoni, "but mainly on its technical features, such as remote monitoring over long distances, fan-free and disk-free systems, and the ability to use displays with compact, rugged front and back covers with IP65 protection." In addition, he emphasizes the importance of having a customized product with the Beretta logo, which emits the feeling of being "home". This avoids giving an impression of invasion or

"We especially appreciate the strength of these panels. The machines are constructed in such a way that they can be used in our often damp environments where we use high-pressure water jets for cleaning."

Stefano Giovannoni Technical Manager Fratelli Beretta

B&R as a strategic choice When the Beretta Group decided to implement a production data collection system at Medolago, they had some essential requirements for the

interference by other companies in the production cycle. "This customization is not limited to the use of our logo and corporate colors, however.

B&R was also able to mount a stainless steel add-on keyboard that can be used by the operator to enter data into the PC."

Application for controlling production Medolago currently has about 60 PCs located in rooms with a controlled temperature environment; they are remotely connected to control panels from the Automation Panel series. The stainless steel 15" and 19" panels meet the stringent hygiene regulations of the food industry and are distributed across all lines and departments.

By analyzing data at regular intervals, Beretta has been able to further develop the industrialization process for their meat and sausage products.

Customized Beretta controllers are located throughout the plant, from the loading and storage of raw materials to palletization, along every step of the way: grinding, mixing, cooking, quality control, packaging, >> automotion 61

Application

B&R Industrial PCs are used to collect and analyze production data. Top reliability and a wide range of functions are important characteristics for a modern industrial PC solution.

marking and final testing. Every PC runs software for monitoring specific data, which is exchanged over a fiber optic Ethernet network. All data is then transmitted to the data center.

"We especially appreciate the strength of these panels," says Giovannoni. "The machines are constructed in such a way that they can be used in our often damp environments where we use high-pressure water jets for cleaning. This is a significant advantage, especially because a hygienic environment is our absolute first priority! With B&R, we have achieved objectives not just limited to the Medolago location, but which we will be able to implement at other locations as wellâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;both in Italy as well as abroad."

Fratelli Beretta:

Established: 1812 Locations: Trezzo sull'Adda (Milan province), 16 subsidiaries in PDO (Protected Denomination of Origin) and PGI (Protected Geographical Identification) countries (Italy) Products & services: Manufacturer of packaged meat and sausage products. www.berettafood.com

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Technology

Scalable hardware as a key to success In today's market, automation software must be able to quickly and reliably adapt to a broad range of customer requirements. Classic automation solutions do this by simply transferring the respective project to the hardware. This takes place using different programming tools for the controller, visualization and drive technology. However, as soon as additional customer options enter the equation, this process becomes overly complex and prone to errors.

This is why some automation suppliers suggest transferring the entire software, with all options included, to the controller and only activating those options that the customer actually needs. Depending on the machine structure, this may indeed be a practical solution. However, while this is convenient for the control supplier, the machine manufacturer is stuck with the extra expense of the full software, which means paying too much for the controller.

Details such as I/O mapping are either disregarded altogether or are only accounted for minimally. Machine manufacturers are left to cover the cost and effort on their own.

How well do you know your customers?

Knowing the exact machine structure is a crucial requirement for understanding the machine manufacturer's demands. Let's take the automotive industry as an example.

Essentially, the products being offered are divided into three categories: compact, mid-sized and luxury cars. In order to remain competitive, manufacturers must offer a basic package for each class with an attractive set of features at a competitive price. At an added cost, optional features can be added to meet the customer's specific needs.

This example can be applied to machine manufacturing by considering the three >> automotion 63

Technology different machine types on the market: Economy (abbreviated ECO), medium range (MED) and high-end machines (HIGH).

This means that the basic software for automation always has to be the same for all machine typesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;from ECO to HIGHâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;because certain basic functions (such as machine logic, recipe management, alarm handling, remote connection and much more) are identical for all machine types.

Therefore, a function that has been tested once can be used reliably for all machine models and the function and operating philosophy will always be the same. The ECO, MED and HIGH models generally differ by their display size, production speed, machine size and available range of functions.

There are two variants to consider when looking for the right controller.

While the first variant uses just one type of controller for all machine designs, the second involves using a controller that best matches the machine's requirements according to the machine type. A comparison shows that, with the first variant, the machine manufacturer is always forced to pay the price for the high-end machine because it determines which equipment is used. Savings are only possible when choosing the I/O. The optimum adaptation of the automation technology provided with the second variant enables the machine manufacturer to benefit from considerable price reductions and increased efficiency. Manufacturers pay only for the performance they really need. While this may sound

Even the visualization can have a modular design that allows it to be easily adapted to the unique requirements of a specific machine.

like a useful solution, experience shows otherwise. Managing conventional controllers introduces a whole new set of problems due to high maintenance costs. This is a major drawback for machine manufacturing.

Scalability provides cost advantages Thanks to a long history in the field of automation and extensive knowledge in a wide range of industries, B&R customers benefit from scalable solutions, which cover the full scope of machine manufacturing requirements.

But how exactly does B&R meet the demands of the market using a scalable automation solution? Let's have another look at the three machine types mentioned earlier: In order to remain competitive, the economy-level machine cannot exceed a certain price level. It must have comparable performance and a similar scope of functions as the MED. The differences are in the display size and the number of additional functions. To keep costs as low as possible, a compact controller with integrated 5.7" display is used in the ECO. The MED uses a PC-based controller with integrated 10.4" display. The high-end machine has a PC-based controller with Windows XP and a remote 19" touch screen display.

The decisive factor is now based on the use of different technologies, which

With a controller that is adapted to the specific requirements of a machine, customers benefit from optimally scaled solutions for economy, mid-range and high-end machines (shown here symbolically). Pay only for the power you need.

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Technology enable scaling and therefore price optimization and the right level of performance within the different machine classes. Ideal scaling is provided by the compiler, which compiles the source code in an Intermediate Language (IML) that is then converted to machine code (processor language). This is a decisive step that makes it possible to transfer the same source code to the different control technologies used on the ECO, MED or HIGH machine.

Why can't a PC-based controller be used in all cases? There is a natural price resistance curve that creates a lower limit for any PC-based controller. This minimum price level can only be overcome using other processor technologies.

Reusability for investment security The IML makes it possible to use software on different control technologies and for many controller generations to come. This is particularly important in regard to the total cost of ownership.

The existing software cannot be reused for conventional controller solutions. The entire software must be rewritten and tested again. Moreover, the company must also commit further resources for the maintenance of the software.

B&R, on the other hand, enables software that was developed just once to be reused for many controller generations. Newly created function blocks are even integrated into the old controller. This is known as backward compatibility. With this

solution, the machine manufacturer profits from a high level of investment security without having to repurchase different programmed applications for each new generation.

The fastest cycle times for all machine types The B&R real-time, multi-tasking operating system guarantees that a machine function that has been tested once will run on the ECO, MED and HIGH using the same cycle time. The cycle times needed for the machine functions are mapped directly in Automation Studio. This means, for example, that axis loop control or axis synchronization should run in the microsecond range and the machine logic should run in the millisecond range, while a temperature loop controller should run in the 100 millisecond range. Other administrative functions such as recipe management are processed during idle time. >>

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Technology The modular structure of the X20 system makes it possible to match the I/O solution to the required range of functions.

Functions that have been tested once perform the same on all machine types. These cycle times are guaranteed during operation, regardless of the controller that has been selected. This saves time during integration, which must be considered when determining the total cost of ownership, and shortens time to market for new developments.

The right software package for any machine Incoming orders for machine production are entered in the ERP system (Enterprise Resource Planning).

This records all of the relevant data from the machine type to the options that were ordered. The right software must then be quickly and correctly installed with the scope of functions that have been ordered.

This is made possible by exchanging data between the ERP system and Automation Studio. The EPR system stores information about which software packages are required for which machine type.

The respective option packages are added according to the options that have been ordered. The integrated I/O mapping in the B&R real-time operating system makes it possible to allocate variables and the physical I/O on the controller in accordance with IEC standards. ePLAN can also be used instead of the allocation list.

The software is generally installed directly via the LAN, and a special tool allows the controller to obtain the software from a server via LAN.

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Hot-plugging for seamless machine operation B&R stores all software components and parameters on one mass memory medium, typically a CompactFlash card. When the machine is started, all of the necessary software components (firmware) and parameters are automatically distributed to the automation components connected to the bus. This method makes it possible to replace hardware at any time without having to stop the machine. Even complex devices such as servo drives can be replaced in this manner.

time investments and existing intellectual property for the long-term.

Automatically generated software and easy replacement of hardware also provide enormous potential for significantly optimizing machine production. This ideal combination of automation strategies ensures that all B&R customers are provided the greatest possible competitive advantage.

Thanks to the success of a highly coordinated market strategy, B&R is in the position to provide scaled automation solutions. This means having the highest level of efficiency while also saving costs at the same time.

Reusability of the software for many future machine generations secures the machine manufacturer's one-

About the author: Walter Burgstaller International Sales Manager B&R Walter Burgstaller has been at B&R since 1990. After working in Applications and as a Key Account Manager for international customers, in 2005 Burgstaller began his current position as International Sales Manager for Italy.

Modern automation technology reduces packaging costs A further reduction of costs for plastic packaging by lowering packaging densities is hardly possible anymore. This is why rationalization potentials in the manufacturing and operation of packaging machines are taking more of the spotlight these days.

Hastamat, the well-known German manufacturer of packaging machines, also has a solution for this situation: Reliable machines customized directly to the application and highly-integrated systems that offer higher performance without unnecessary costs. The foundation for the achieved savings is the high-performance automation technology from B&R.

Production of machines for packaging such fragile products as salted bread sticks, potato chips or chocolate-covered baked goods is a task strictly for specialists. In order to achieve optimal results when weighing/portioning the products as well as during the actual packaging process, specific requirements for both the product and the machine owner must be considered. The packaging system must be customized accordingly. This requires extensive application and machine know-how as well as the utmost flexibility when planning, commissioning and manufacturing a machine.

Custom costs

solutions

help

cut

Even packaging machine manufacturers cannot elude the noticeable pricing pressure of the food industry in Germany. This demand for customized solutions means that machine and system functionality is tailored directly to the application without costly features that remain unused in the actual application.

Hastamat achieves this by modifying field-tested standard solutions with a modular design and making >>

Hastamat Verpackungstechnik GmbH, based in Lahnau, Germany meets these high demands and sets an exemplary standard. "Packaging of bar-shaped products is one of our main areas of expertise," explains Andreas Hollmann, manager of Hasmat Verpackungstechnik GmbH. "Not only do we possess the required knowhow and resources for developing and producing individually customized machine and systems solutions for the packaging of superior products, but we have also known the demands of different applications for decades." automotion 67

Application them available with numerous options. "We are also known for finding and implementing custom solutions for applications that other companies would not dare address," explains Dipl.-Ing. Peter Lökös, head of marketing at Hastamat.

Accordingly, the implemented automation solution must also prove flexible and efficient while not putting extra pressure on the budget.

"The product portfolio of the automation technology manufacturer must, on the one hand, offer all the products needed for all applications at an attractive price, but also must not hinder the selection process with undue complexity," says Dipl.Ing Martin Otto, manager of electrical construction at Hastamat. "The same applies to the automation components. Consistency with our requirements is indispensable so we can avoid expensive detours."

These criteria form the core of the performance catalog that Hastamat has chosen in evaluating the control solutions of several well-known providers of automation technology, as they are seeking to modernize their packaging machines.

"We have defined separate required and desired criteria in a points system by comparing the prices of each controller manufacturer," explains the manager of electrical construction. B&R emerged at the top of this evaluation.

A complete automation system simplifies system integration Hastamat has created a complete automation system using B&R technology. "We can accomplish typical PLC tasks as easily as those requiring a great deal of computing

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power or multi-axis applications," says Martin Otto. "Without B&R, that would not have been possible."

Today, the packaging specialist has implemented its new automation system on a broad scale.

Using B&R technology, Hastamat is advancing with the integration of various packaging system components. Recent results of this integration were showcased at Interpack

the packaging machine controller.

Thus, the company with roots in scale technology fulfilled its customers wishes and implemented a cost reduction. "Customers do not want to keep many system replacement parts and want the ability to remotely operate the system," explains to Peter Lökös.

"The tight connection required between the two system components is difficult (i.e. expensive) or impos-

"We are known for finding and implementing custom solutions for applications that other companies would not dare address."

Peter Lökös Head of Marketing Hastamat

2008. There, the company put one of its packaging machines from the new RB series on display, which further consolidated the Hessians product portfolio. The amply-sized touch panel immediately grabs the eye, masking a Panel PC from the B&R Power Panel family that controls the machine. This machine also offers exceptional user-friendliness and a safe accompanying process configuration and guide. "This is especially important for sensitive products, so the user can quickly and easily select an optimal setting," according to the marketing leader at Hastamat.

The advantages of the automation system are best utilized in practical applications that use a scale. A multiheaded scale, normally combined with a packaging machine, can be operated and controlled via

sible to achieve if controllers from different manufacturers are used," says Martin Otto. There is also the fact that many companies in recent years (unlike Hastamat) have focused solely on one system component—either the scale or the packaging machine—and have taken separate paths. Additionally, both of these system components place different requirements on the controller regarding performance and the particular algorithms used.

Today—unlike a decade ago— modern standard controllers offer sufficient performance to replace special controllers. "This is one of the reasons why customers are not often dedicated to one specific control systems manufacturer," states Peter Lökös. "Today, solutions for task management and costreduction stand in the foreground."

Application New maintenance concepts reduce running costs Because modern controllers handle such a large number of tasks, the best solution is one that rarely requires on-site maintenance by service technicians. For the same reason, users seldom require a specific brand or type of control system, but instead rely on the support of the machine supplier. Knowledge of new maintenance concepts are needed for this. "The B&R technological concept is a perfect fit for us," according to Martin Otto. "On the one hand, an employee of the machine owner without extensive technical knowledge should be able to change an ACOPOS drive, for example, because all required configuration and application data is stored on a flash drive that is inserted in the new drive. Shipping the drive for software instal-

"We can accomplish typical PLC tasks as easily as those requiring a great deal of computing power or multi-axis application. Without B&R, that would not have been possible."

Martin Otto Electrical Construction Manager Hastamat

lation is thus unnecessary. On the other hand, B&R technology offers the option of remote machine and drive maintenance and diagnostics, so our experts can offer direct and comprehensive support at any time."

For the same purpose, Hastamat offers a hotline and support services that are available 24 hours a day, all year round. Hastamat relies on the worldwide network of B&R networks for availability of replace-

High-performance multihead combination weigher from Hastamat from the CP series for weighing oddly shaped products, such as snacks, confectionery, granulates, metal or plastic parts etc.

ment parts. "B&R has accomplished a lot in this area in recent years and can now supply replacement parts to remote parts of the world in the rare event of a component failure," Peter Lökös said of the automation specialist.

The Hastamat business manager is convinced that, with Hastamat entering new markets with its new and innovative machine family RB, it will generate additional growth.

"This machine family is characterized—thanks in part to B&R technology—by a very attractive price/ performance ratio that will serve to ensure and increase sales. Hastamat has room for further expansion in an additional building at their headquarters: administration, along with sales and support are now located in this facility. Plans are also in the works for a new production hall in Lahnau.

Hastamat:

Established: 1953, a member of the Piepenbrock Group since 1986 Locations: Lahnau, Germany; locations in more than 40 countries Products & Services: Hastamat develops and manufactures scales, dosing devices, filling and sealing machines as well as packaging machines. www.hastamat.com automotion 69

Application

Intelligent packaging solutions for demanding products Different companies choose different development strategies when facing shrinking demand on the market. Many decide to reduce personnel and total production output. Only a few companies increase their competitive edge by continuing to invest in research and development during difficult times. And Tauras-Fenixâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a major Russian packaging machine manufacturerâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;is one of them. They decided to expand their product range to provide their customers with machine models that have different production capacities. A B&R automation solution was successfully integrated into a new machine concept that is based on the following core elements: modularity, flexibility, scalability and openness.

Over the last 30 years, the Russian machine industry has changed dramatically. During the Soviet era, the leaders couldn't adapt their production facilities to satisfy the demand from new private companies that required packaging machines with low and medium production capacities. At this point in time, new machine manufacturing plants were founded that formed the foundation of the modern Russian packaging machinery market.

In 1987, the young Lithuanian entrepreneur Sigitas Mitskus founded a private company in St. Petersburg for manufacturing packaging machines. To ensure the success of his company, Mr. Mitskus specialized in manufacturing vacuumforming machines. There were no other similar machines on the market, so they were very successful.

The company that was founded more than 20 years ago is now called TaurasFenix and is a major manufacturer of packaging, filling and sealing machines and food packaging equipment in Russia, the CIS and the Baltic countries. The 70 automotion

product range currently consists of more than 100 machine models. In addition to customers in the food industry, Tarauras-Fenix also supplies end users in the chemical, construction, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries.

Developing machines that meet customer needs Increased requirements in the packaging machine market as well as the

Application specific needs of customers from different industries mean that more flexible machine concepts must be developed. "In 2008, we faced the task of modernizing our range of machines to optimize technical solutions for various types of customers," recalls Nikolay Zalomov, Head of Control Systems Department. "When doing this, we had to consider the variety of products to be packaged, the raw materials used in the products and the size of the company. We also decided to concentrate on the development of in-house application software solutions. This allowed us to increase our company know-how and also expand our product range."

Scalable costs

hardware

reduces

Tauras-Fenix took total cost of ownership into consideration when selecting an automation partner. "The modularity and scalability of the B&R hardware allowed us to reduce the cost of the automation system throughout the entire life cycle of the machine," explains Nikolay Zalomov.

"In addition, the simple integration of auxiliary equipment helped TaurasFenix to design multi-purpose machines that can be quickly and easily adapted to various product formats."

The production capacity of a packaging machine is a significant factor for end customers when selecting the equipment. The wide range of B&R hardware allows Tauras-Fenix to choose the optimal technical solution for machines with different production capacities. The Pastpak-R rotary fill and seal machine line, for example, with a production capacity of 35 units per minute, is based on an induction motor controlled by an ACOPOSinverter plus a Geneva drive for table rotation. The Pastpak4R model, the high-end product in the rotary machine family, is based on an ACOPOSmicro servo drive, which allows it to reach a production capacity of 120 packages per minute, comparable to much larger linear machines.

Efficient development tool "Thanks to the ANSI C programming language implemented in B&R's Automation Studio software tool, we can generate efficient software applications for all of our machine

lines. A single programming tool can be used to develop all of our application software, which allows us to reduce the total time-to-market for new machines," says Nikolay Zalomov.

B&R technology is now used for various types of machines such as fill and seal machines, horizontal and vertical packaging machines and feeders. "The next step is to integrate a new safety system based on openSAFETY. We will also finalize adapting our application software solutions to PackML standards, which will allow us to strengthen our technical leadership in the packaging machine market," concludes Nikolay Zalomov.

Tauras-Fenix:

Established: 1987 Locations: St. Petersburg, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, Samara, Saratov (Russia), Cherkassy (Ukraine) Products & Services: Packaging machines, bottling and capping machines, machines for the food industry www.taurasfenix.com automotion 71

Technology

Modular hardware for modular machines What good is the best modularization in the software if the hardware is limited to central system architectures or module hardware is only available in parts of the system? For many years now, B&R has already been providing the full bandwidth of products for module machine manufacturing, such as their own line of Automation PCs and control panels, innovative controllers, flexible I/O nodes, servo drives, variable frequency drives, stepper motor solutions, and much more.

Example of a modular filling line Entire line

Labeller

Capper

Machine vision Internet

Visualization

Remote access Light curtain Remote I/O Sensors Actuators

Stepper motors

Safety CPU

$&2326PXOWL

Remote I/O Light curtain Remote I/O

Remote I/Os

$&2326PXOWL

ACOPOSmulti

ACOPOSmulti

ACOPOSmulti

ACOPOSmulti

ACOPOSmulti

Servo drive

Servo drives

Servo drive

Torque motor

Servo drive $&2326PXOWL

$&2326PXOWL

Torque motor 2nd encoder connection

Machine

Machine

$&2326PXOWL

Servo drive

Remote connection box

Servo motor

$&2326PXOWL

Switching cabinet

ACOPOSmulti

E-stop

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2 Trigger inputs

Servo motor

Servo drive

Linear motor

Technology

Until now, it's been exactly these electronic components that have posed the most difficult problem in modularizing machines because they needed to be placed in switching cabinets to be protected from the surrounding conditions in a production plant. In modularly designed machines, this problem meant that either a separate switching cabinet was required for each mechatronic module or that the central switching cabinet needed to provide enough space for all potential machine options. B&R offers a solution to this machine manufacturing problem with a wide range of products ranging from IP67 I/O modules, IP65 servo drives, IP67 stepper and DC motor drivers to IP67 vision systems.

Palettizer

Maximum modularity through decentralized IP65 servo drives The new IP65 B&R ACOPOSmulti servo drive is fully compatible with the standard IP20 model and is also available with network-based safety technology. The modules can be combined with both passive and active rectifier units. Using the active version can significantly increase the machine's energy efficiency because the energy generated while braking an axis is made available to other electrical consumers instead of being converted to heat.

In the specific case of a pharmaceutical packaging machine, the average amount of recovery power is 1,300 watts. That's 82% of the power that was previously lost in braking resistor heat. Together with the DC bus connection, this equals energy savings of at least 90% of the braking energy, or 46% of the total energy.

Master encoder and registration mark data can be read by other POWERLINK stations with Âľsec resolution, without significant delay and 100% in-sync. Depending on the characteristics of the packaging machine, this is done either right on the ACOPOSmulti65 or using cross-communication via POWERLINK. Furthermore, the ACOPOSmulti65 modules are also equipped with an output for supplying external components as well as a POWERLINK hub for connecting additional POWERLINK stations such as X67 I/O modules, variable frequency drives or vision systems.

ACOPOSmulti

ACOPOSmulti

ACOPOSmulti

ACOPOSmulti

ACOPOSmulti

ACOPOSmulti

ACOPOSmulti

ACOPOSmulti

ACOPOSmulti

ACOPOSmulti

ACOPOSmulti

Switching cabinet

Servo drives

Not only does it eliminate the need for a power supply and reduce the overall wiring, but the 24V from the DC bus network connecting the servo drives also ensures that the servo axes as well as the DC motors, stepper motors and I/O connected via IP67 modules are all shut down in sync when a power failure occurs.

Synchronous control of valves and other actuators is also possible. This helps to prevent tearing of the continuous packaging material feed and reduces waste.

This in turn increases machine availability and productivity.

Servo drives

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Technology

The automation partner for the

Constant innovation and rapid internationalization are two areas that have characterized B&R for over 30 years. By offering fully developed complete solutions and a full range of products based on internationally recognized industrial standardsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the company's strategy since its founding in 1979â&#x20AC;&#x201D;B&R has become an expert partner across all industries.

The extraordinary commitment of more than 2,300 employees has made B&R one of the largest international private automation companies and a trendsetter whose innovations in the area of automation and process control technology have become mainstays of the market. A global sales and support network in 70 countries makes it possible to provide comprehensive customer support anywhere in the world.

The close relationship that exists between development and production at B&R headquarters in Eggelsberg, Austria ensures cost-effective manufacturing as well as extremely short innovation cycles. Efficient methods of manufacturing are considered early on in the product development stage. Thorough functionality and quality inspections guarantee maximum reliability of all automation components.

Integrated complete solutions reduce costs From control, drive and visualization technology all the way to a comprehensive software platform, B&R offers a complete range of products that are based on international industrial standards. Because all components are fully integrated into an efficient automation system, customers profit from added value during development as well as over the entire service life of the machine. Special attention is given to making sure that hardware and software are harmonized perfectly. In addition, the integrated software tool Automation Studio provides customers with completely tailored software solutions with the highest degree of efficiency.

International expertise, training and support at the local level In order to provide comprehensive support to customers around the world, cultural understanding is just as important as the expertise needed to find the right solution.

An exceptionally trained sales team that is highly experienced in international applications is more than capable of handling both of these demands. Engineers are always standing by to provide fast support for questions that arise from different countries.

Long-term partnerships based on mutual trust are the key to every customer relationship. That's why a primary goal of B&R is to offer solutions that provide customers with a competitive edge by fully considering their individual requirements and wishesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;this is an essential part of developing complete solutions for each and every manufacturer. 2,500 machine manufacturers throughout the world in industries like packaging, plastics, textiles, printing and paper, just to name a few, work hand in hand with qualified B&R technicians on the development and implementation of efficient automation concepts.

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Technology

food and beverage industry

Innovation vs. hype Over 350 development engineers work around the clock to move ideas from the drawing board to the marketplace as quickly as possible. This has very little to do with keeping up with shortterm trends, however; instead, the focus is on recognizing the long-term needs of machine and system manufacturers so that innovative solutions can be designed and implemented. To realize this ambitious goal, B&R currently reinvests around 17% of their total revenue into research and development every year. The most important aspect here is the development

of consistent product concepts that offer the highest degree of design freedom while also contributing substantially to reducing costs for the machine or systems manufacturer.

Decisive industry expertise In addition to a highly trained application team, B&R also relies on the expertise of industry specialists who are familiar with the expectations and concernsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;down to the slightest detailâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;of customers in individual sectors such as food, packaging, filling, cosmetics, health care, pharmaceuticals, robotics and process applications. This is just another of the many ways that B&R provides outstanding expertise when it comes to creating solutions for all industries while still ensuring comprehensive and individual customer support.

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