In a growing global market, food processing companies need to package their products with bags and other flexible packaging materials, including fresh and frozen vegetables, frozen boneless poultry, rice, beans, and other dried foods. . They all hope to have an economical, reliable, easy to operate and maintain, automatic high-speed packaging system. BluePrint Automation, which designs and produces automatic packaging equipment, and Sew-Eurodrive USA, which has been working on the design and production of drive systems, are collaborating to meet the demand for automated equipment in the food packaging market.
The challenge is how to mechanize and electronically integrate this economical, independent, self-contained material, 300 bags per minute, small footprint, and any device that can be placed anywhere. The speed of machines that used to feed on their own weight was far less than 300 bags per minute. The goal of the cooperation between Blueprint Automation and SEW-Eurodrive is to produce a durable and reliable device that can be successfully used in domestic and foreign markets without the need for highly skilled or highly trained field operators, control technicians or programmers. . The mechanical structure of this device must be simple, but it can make the machine run smoothly through a simple, easy to understand and operate control system. Finally, the machine must be low cost, and the food packaging industry can afford it. The key to judging the success of machine automation is to show substantial cost savings and directly reduce labor and maintenance costs.
With the help of SEW-Eurodrive, Blueprint Automation's revolving door package RP type system is equipped with a minimum of electronic and mechanical components. The RP Packaging Machine places a wide variety of packaged products directly into the secondary packaging container at a specified speed. The product is fed into the RP through a conveyor belt. If it is at a low speed and only one bag at a time, the product is sent directly to the revolving door. For high-speed cases where multiple bags fall each time, there is a guide door that groups the products and then enters the revolving door as a whole. Then, when the revolving door rotates, the whole row or the entire product is directly put into the container. If desired, the containers can be formed in multiple rows or at higher speeds.
With SEW-Eurodrive's experience in control systems and design drivers, Blueprint Automation was able to design a packaging system without the use of expensive PLCs or co-controllers. The technologies used to automate this machine range from simple variable-frequency drive technology to high-performance, closed-loop, AC brushless servo systems.
SEW-Eurodrive series of mechanical and electronic products and a common programmable platform together provide a one-stop service system. The RP's drive system includes Movitrac 07 sensorless vector, Movidrive Compact, AC brushless servo system and Movidrive Compact AC closed-loop vector drive. Its control system consists of a brick-shaped, DeviceNet-compatible PLC and a single SEW-Eurodrive UFD11A DeviceNet path interface through which communications can be controlled to eight SEW-Eurodrive devices. The motion control system operates with the IOPS+ software application module integrated in the Movidrive processor.
The result was a great success. The use of the Fieldbus interface and matching SEW-Eurodrive electronic and mechanical components not only reduces component costs, but also significantly reduces wiring, drive optimization and program development time. Moreover, the application of modular software design can also ensure that all the machine's program structure is the same.
Today, RP systems have been widely marketed in the North American market, where the simplicity of packaging machines and the low cost of maintenance are valued, such as packaging frozen vegetables, boneless chicken, biscuits, and potato chips. The highly concise RP system makes it easy to modify the configuration to fit any packaging operating system layout.