The production plant in the packaging industry is being digitized with 4.0 technology to improve its processes

Submitted by Serena Rebollo… on 09 July 2020

The trend in the packaging industry in recent years has been the automation of industrial processes, becoming a fundamental element for improving the competitiveness of companies in the packaging sector. The cluster opted to offer an inspiring talk on the 7th of July on technology 4.0. applied to the packaging production plant, with the member companies TAI Smart Factory, KUKA and AIS Vision Systems.

Tai Smart Factorya multinational that manufactures and develops software for the management and capture of data from the production plant (access control, quality, maintenance and technology), works on the cases of each company to offer a customized solution. In this case, Pol Barceló presented four success stories with transversal solutions, which can be found in any packaging company, the cases were: Renolit, Saplex, Pipex and Mondelez.

The four examples captured the applicability of process digitization through unattended traceability -no operator is needed to perform the operation- to control finishes, tailoring, competencies, and manufacturing order planning, reducing downtime and defects.

Josep Amatller, from KUKA, shared with those present an innovative application aimed at Pet Food created to automate the end of two production lines of pet food bags, a market that has an annual turnover of 1,200 million euros nationwide.

The solution adopted, after analyzing the process through simulations to see which was the most suitable robot for correct manipulation, was to install two packing cells using two robots and a second part, with a palletizing cell with a robot, to the end of the line. Solutions that are complemented by other disciplines such as artificial vision, with 3D cameras, which allow the object to be easily identified, regardless of the design, thus guaranteeing product quality and adaptation to future formats.

KUKA, which started its activities in 1898 with an acetylene gas plant, today has various solutions for Industry 4.0., such as robots, autonomous transport and connectivity, in strategic markets such as auto, aeronautics, e-commerce, health or goods of consumption, as we mentioned.

Finally, Jose Racionero explained in a practical way how recently, from AIS Vision Systems, they have developed a project, installed in the packaging sector, which consists of a prospectus printer for the pharmaceutical sector, Pharma Prospect, which needed a control system quality for its production team.

The GlobalVision Print Inspection solution has allowed them to control print proofs, even large format ones, which were previously very laborious and time consuming to review. They can now automatically compare digitized artworks or print proofs, scanning offline and protecting themselves from all errors no matter how small. The objectives achieved have been: to distinguish itself from the competition with technology that modernizes the testing process; offer peace of mind to its customers by ensuring high quality standards without the risk of withdrawals, returns or complaints; and speed free from costly errors, thanks to automatic error detection before they leave your production plant.

For the people who missed the presentation, we leave here a short summary of some of the topics that were discussed in the session, available in our Youtube profile.

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