A recent phone conversation with Rolf Geissinger, managing director at Optima do Brasil, suggests that the packaging machinery buyer's preference for servo motors over pneumatics is a trend that is beginning to pick up some steam. Even if there's no particular advantage offered by servo technology, it doesn't seem to matter. Among Geissinger's observations:
• When buyers of packaging machinery look at pneumatics they see the cost of an air cleaner, a dehumidifier, and a compressor, not to mention the cost of generating compressed air. They also see the cost of servo technology coming down. And they see servos delivering actuation that is more finely controlled. But they may be overlooking the fact that servo vs pneumatics is still more costly. And because servo-based machinery involves some programming time, it probably takes a little longer to build a packaging machine that is based on servos rather than pneumatics.
• Mechatronics, in Brazil at least, is clearly a growing trend. "Three years ago, we might have had something like 15 mechanical engineers to one programmer. Now it's more like 10 mechanical engineers to 6 programmers. In a few years it will be all evened up. The need for engineers having both mechanical and software programming skills is clear."
• When buyers of packaging machinery look at pneumatics they see the cost of an air cleaner, a dehumidifier, and a compressor, not to mention the cost of generating compressed air. They also see the cost of servo technology coming down. And they see servos delivering actuation that is more finely controlled. But they may be overlooking the fact that servo vs pneumatics is still more costly. And because servo-based machinery involves some programming time, it probably takes a little longer to build a packaging machine that is based on servos rather than pneumatics.
• Mechatronics, in Brazil at least, is clearly a growing trend. "Three years ago, we might have had something like 15 mechanical engineers to one programmer. Now it's more like 10 mechanical engineers to 6 programmers. In a few years it will be all evened up. The need for engineers having both mechanical and software programming skills is clear."
