Fieldbus shrinks bundler's controls, assembly time

A new fieldbus for EDL’s in-line shrink bundler reduces control cabinet size by 50% and reduces wiring time by 30%, while increasing flexibility.

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When EDL Packaging Engineers upgraded its MSI 22-8 in-line shrink bundler with a fieldbus network inside the machine, it was able to halve the size of the control cabinet, which was a big issue with customers. The machine wraps trayed bottles or cans in shrink film.

“We needed to trim down our control cabinet,” says Roger Steinfeldt, EDL’s automation engineer. “Customers didn’t like having a big boxy control cabinet on the end of the machine.”

The solution involved switching from traditional wiring, known as point-to-point wiring, to a fieldbus. The fieldbus is a network within the machine that simplifies wiring of individual components ranging from sensors to motion controllers to human-machine interface.

EDL’s network, which is based on ethernet, uses fieldbus components known as bus couplers from Wago. Eliminating the PLC, and the terminal blocks associated with traditional point-to-point wiring, is what enabled EDL to dramatically reduce the size of its control cabinet, scoring points with customers.

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