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The world’s leading packaging industry trade show, interpack, imposed a three-year innovation cycle upon the packaging industry due to its three-year rhythm. Is that still the case today?
Trade shows have taken on a significantly different character in recent years. Innovations are constantly introduced due to more dynamic markets. Manufacturers can hardly afford to wait three years to present a new innovation. Still, several highly interesting innovations will be presented at the interpack 2011, both in machinery as well as in automation sectors.
What new innovations in packaging machine engineering is Bosch Rexroth presenting?
The first one to mention is version 12 of the IndraMotion for Packaging automation solution, which offers new functions for increased engineering efficiency. Some of the new functions include automatic program code generation, object-oriented programming, and multi-user ability for the parallel creation of complex software projects by several programmers.
The decentralized IndraDrive Mi servo drive with integrated electronics, shown by Rexroth for the first time in 2005, will be presented at the interpack 2011 in its second generation. Its highlights include the Multi-Ethernet interface, design optimization, and integrated safety engineering according to EN ISO 13849-1 and EN 62061.
We are also presenting a new program of ball rail systems for the food & packaging industry. The use of food graded greases and plastic parts allow their use in food-related sectors.
We will be demonstrating practical solutions for increasing energy efficiency using three real customer machines at our booth.
New materials and types of packaging, modified consumer behavior due to new social structures such as smaller, older households and the necessity of stronger brand and product differentiation: those were the megatrends that you saw at the interpack 2008. They gave rise of the ability to react with speed and flexibility – all while still remaining cost efficient – to give OEMs a competitive advantage. What has changed in the years from 2008 to 2011 and which advantages in competition have been created?
The aforementioned megatrends have advanced at an uninterrupted pace. And in recent years, packaging machine engineering has continuously been better adapted to those trends. For example, format changeovers, which used to take one to two hours, are now possible in just a couple of minutes thanks to intelligent, automated solutions. In addition, greater emphasis has been placed on the field of resource efficiency. For the End User, the most important resources are raw materials and energy – for the OEM, they are mechanical design engineers and, to an increasingly greater degree, programmers.
What role does intelligent automation engineering play in today’s world?
In terms of functionality, the current state of automation solutions has clearly reached a reasonable level. To continue the aforementioned thought process, automation engineering at the OEM must significantly accelerate and simplify the entire engineering process, instead of making it more convoluted and difficult. At the same time, customer tasks have become more complex, too.
For End Users, that means producing in the most efficient, resource-efficient way possible. In the best case scenario, automation solutions go completely unnoticed in production.
Prior to the interpack 2008, it was said that the importance of robotics for the packaging industry was dramatically increasing due to mounting demands for packaging machine flexibility. Is that still the case, or is a new trend toward more simplicity emerging?
Robotics is in no way synonymous with less simple – that’s an incorrect conclusion. A trend toward “just enough” concepts is undeniably recognizable, but we don’t believe that the result is a reduced importance of robotics. On the contrary: robotics is one of the most substantial levers for more flexibility and productivity.
For that reason, the trend toward robotics, primarily in secondary and final packaging as well as palletization, is continuing at an uninterrupted pace. Modern automation solutions offer key potential for innovation in this field.
Last but not least: the term sustainability is the topic of trade shows worldwide. What does the term sustainability mean from the viewpoint of an automation specialist?
On the one hand, sustainability is the megatrend of the food and packaging industry; on the other, it is one of the terms most commonly incorrectly used. Sustainability originally comes from the forestry sector and describes the principle of harvesting less than can grow back.
Automation specialists for manufacturing and packaging processes can make a number of different contributions, e.g. by increasing energy efficiency in production processes. Numerous energy efficiency consulting projects in the food and beverage industry carried out by Bosch Rexroth have shown that up to 30% energy savings can be achieved by following the systematic approach of the Rexroth-4EE concept (Rexroth for Energy Efficiency), which involves four parts: Efficient Components, Energy Recovery, Energy on Demand, and Energy System Design.
Author
Steffen Winkler
Vice President Sales and Industry Sector Management Printing and Packaging
Bosch Rexroth AG
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