Controls & Machine Components

Ormec: FireWire digital drives

Ormec (Rochester, NY) ServoWire® digital drives in 25, 35, and 60 amps RMS/phase models provide power from 150 to 15ꯠ watts. Networking capability is IEEE-1394 (FireWire)-based for high speeds and cost-effective industry standard cabling.

August 31, 2001

Controls & machine components: Page 277

Bag/pouch fill/seal (pre-made bags)

Rollstock, Inc: Rollstock, Inc: Rollstock, Inc: Web-enabled hf/f/s machine

Hooper Engineering (Sarasota, FL) touts the N2500 horizontal f/f/s system as the world’s first Web-enabled packaging machine. It packages food, pharmaceutical, medical devices, and other products into packs formed from rollstock.

August 31, 2001

Controls & Machine Components

ProSys Innovative Packaging Equip.: ProSys Innovative Packaging Equip.: Servos speed aerosol filler

roSys Innovative Packaging Equipment (Webb City, MO) has designed a servo-controlled filler for a customer for filling a viscous sealant into a can that’s then pressurized.

August 31, 2001

Controls & Machine Components

Pacific Scientific: Real-time engineering answers

Customers receive instant answers from engineers for questions pertaining to Pacific Scientific’s (Rockford, IL) motion control products or applications through the company’s www.pacsci.com Web site.

August 31, 2001

Controls & Machine Components

Kollmorgen: Interactive Web community

Patterned after a typical design cycle, Kollmorgen’s (Radford, VA) Motion Village™ is described as an online Web community designed to provide resources and engineering solutions as a way to increase machine design engineer productivity.

August 31, 2001

Controls & Machine Components

The Kennedy Group: Nameplate identification

The nameplate identification system from The Kennedy Group (Willoughby, OH) is said to allow users to permanently and inexpensively identify and track reusable containers, racks, pallets, and other products that require tracking and asset management.

August 31, 2001

Controls & Machine Components

Packaging trails the networked future (sidebar)

Methodology

August 31, 2001

Controls & Machine Components

Packaging trails the networked future (sidebar)

Respondents: Machine builders lack networking expertise

August 31, 2001

Controls & Machine Components

Packaging trails the networked future

An astonishing 71% of respondents to an exclusive PW survey report that few or none of their packaging lines are networked. Packagers identify top reasons for wanting packaging-line networks and the major obstacles that hold them back.

August 31, 2001

Controls & Machine Components

Blue Diamond networks coders

Networking multiple coders to a host PC saves time and provides flexibility for nut cooperative Blue Diamond Growers.

August 31, 2001

Flexible packaging

Packaging technologies blossom at seed company

Filling of plant seeds into cans and pouches sold to commercial growers took a big step forward when Seminis built a new plant. Front-and-back labeling systems are standouts.

August 31, 2001

Conveying & accumulation

Furman polishes up brightstock packing

Furman Foods increases output with a new depalletizer, tray packer, tray stacker, film wrapper, and shrink tunnel. Conveyors assist flow control to keep things running smoothly. See in-plant video

August 31, 2001

Controls & Machine Components

OMAC releases position papers, solicits feedback

After 15 months of studying how best to remedy the complexity that results from proliferation of packaging machine controls, the OMAC Motion for Packaging Initiative working group has issued a series of position papers documenting its recommendations. See them at http://omac.packworld.com.

August 31, 2001