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Converter's automation install sweetens the deal
 Not only are robotics being used in the packaging process, but automation is also expanding opportunities in package manufacturing, as well.
Since it opened in 1997, flexible package converter Coating Excellence International (CEI) of Wrightstown, WI, had supplied the pink, poly-coated paper used to make sachets for Sweet'N Low brand sugar substitute. CEI supplied the paper to a printer, who decorated the material for Sweet'N Low.
Several years ago, Sweet'N Low investigated moving their package material sourcing to Korea to save money. "That would have meant that we would have lost the base product," says CEI president Mike Nowak. Instead, CEI entered into an e-bid process to bring printing of the packet rollstock in-house.
It was then that CEI realized that to be competitive, it would have to speed the production process through automation. "One of the ways we found to speed the machines up was to get the rolls off the slitter/rewinder faster," says Nowak. "That's how the robot came into use. When we won the bid, Sweet'N low decided not to move the product offshore." Read the full story.
Servo/software combo brings modularity
 Robotic case packer has a small footprint, simplified wiring, and the capability
of having its capacity quickly doubled.
Pat Reynolds, Editor
Nuspark, Inc. takes a modular approach to machine building in its Model NTL-50 case packer. A Delta-style robotic case packer, the NTL-50's throughput can be doubled simply by adding a second robot arm to the frame and activating a new software module. No additional controls cabinet space is required for the second robotic arm's servo drives because the Elau PacDrive iSH Intelligent Servo Modules from Schneider Electric have servo motor and drive integrated into a single unit.
The controller on the NTL-50, also from Elau, is the Model C-400. Felix Elent, vice president of operations at Nuspark, describes it as "very powerful."
"It's capable of handling up to 16 axes of motion," says Elent. "In this case we don't have a 16-axis robot, but we do on occasion have a two-robot application. And the one controller is powerful enough to run them both. That's a four-axis assignment, and then elsewhere in the machine we can have other servo motors performing other tasks. Still, the one controller is all we need." Read the full story.
Video: Robots cement bagging operations
 Sometimes the best ‘person' for a job is a robot, especially when the job is hefting 80-lb bags of cement.
By Rick Lingle, Technical Editor
Package Pavement is all about concrete results.
The company, a licensee of Quikrete® brand concrete and related products, operates several facilities, including a plant in Stormville, NY, that was visited by Packaging World staff. The plant produces 30,000 to 35,000 bags daily of Portland cement-type products using a workforce of about 40 humans and exactly two robots. The pair of robots from Taylor Products, a division of Magnum Systems, was installed in fall 2007 in Package Pavement's bag-filling operations.
The two Model TRV1000 robotic valve bag placers are mounted directly in front of a dual-head valve-bag filler. The base system is a six-axis Model 6i robot from Fanuc Robotics. Taylor is a Fanuc integrator for packaging-related installations. Taylor also provides the custom-made end effectors, which were switched out for an improved version about a year after the install...view the video.
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