Whether it’s coffee, sugar, salt, pepper, or a food supplement, most food and pharma powders today can be packaged in small, convenient, single-serve, and portion-controlled flat pouches. But manufacturers need flexibility to package multiple products at variable speeds and volumes.
Thanks to modularized dosing and cross-sealing units, Bosch Packaging Technology’s new Sigpack VPF (Vertical Platform Flat pouch) machine is freely scalable from two to as many as 12 lanes, while pouch sizes remain adjustable. A new, decentralized product stock system makes it possible to package different products, such as salt and pepper, at the same time on one machine. The VPF uses Festo Motion Terminal VTEM controls for the multi-lane dosing process.
“The Festo Motion Terminal offers key functionalities for reliable process control and monitoring of our flexible, multi-lane powder feed. This is an important basis for the entire feeding process in the new Sigpack VPF. Also, reduced part complexity is another advantage for us,” says Donat Siegler, head of design at Bosch’s Beringen, Switzerland location.
The Sigpack VPF was a pilot project for Festo Motion Terminal technology, so the interpack 2017-debuted machine represents the first application of Motion Terminal technology in the packaging space. With this successful packaging machine project under its belt, Festo will be spotlighting Motion Terminal at PACK EXPO Las Vegas 2017.
Functionally, the Motion Terminal controls the Sigpack VPF’s vacuum-based product feed and distribution, and it features an adjustable cleaning and ejector pulse. Valve control provides processes via pressure testing, and an air jet function monitors and eliminates leakages caused by process-related contamination.
It was important for Bosch to build a machine with which its customers could grow and scale up. With the Sigpack VPF, additional lanes can be easily integrated in the case of increased volume.
“To achieve this flexibility, we had to take a new approach to dosing technology. In this machine, each single dosing unit has an individual, independent product infeed,” says Frank Buhler, product manager, Bosch Packaging Technology. “So we bring the product from the hopper into a single lane for a single-lane approach dosing unit with a vacuum infeed. We’re using the Festo Motion terminal for this. We have different kinds of powders that are being run through a single machine, so we needed a very reliable and stable process. The Motion Terminal module is helping us to ensure this level of robustness and precision to ensure a high OEE.”
Dosing accuracy is a chief consideration for a package that will have so many applications in food and pharma markets—pharma manufacturers have a tiny margin for overdosing or underdosing. This only exacerbates the need for a stable process.
“When we have different kinds of powders on the same line, we need precise control of the entire system with vacuum and air pressure. With Motion Terminal, we are able to measure the different pressures throughout the system,” Buhler says. “That allows us to immediately detect any leakage. For example, if one lane has a leakage, that could influence the robustness of the entire machine given how powders travel in pressurized and vacuum air environments. Motion Terminal minimizes that possibility, and again works towards improved machine OEE.”
Machine modularization
When Bosch Packaging Machinery goes to market with a new machine like the Sigpack VPF, modularization and standardization are important elements as end users benefit from similarities in components and simplicity in spare and wear parts.
“Festo has the same approach to modularization as we do, and I saw that as we worked on this project,” Buhler says. “With the Motion Terminal, we can reduce the number of parts for our customers because one single system or element can handle the many functions that may have required several different modules before.”
Prior to Motion Terminal-powered Sigpack VPF, components had been fit specifically to individual functions, with each pack size and dosage having its own suite of parts. This meant more complexity, longer changeovers, longer parts lists, and less flexibility.
In previous iterations, there were as many as three valves needed for each and every dosage unit. Now, Sigpack VPF contains five valves within the Festo Motion Terminal, and each individual motion terminal valve can control two different dosage units.
“So we can do a lot more with each valve,” says Thomas Ambs, industry segment manager, food and packaging, Festo-Germany. “And what is even more important is it does not have to be adjusted by the end user. Bosch Packaging can input the right configuration, which is tested and saved in the Motion Terminal. Then, when the end customer is changing to a different format, he can just click on format one, two, three, or four to make the change. The configuration is preset and pre-tested so the machine will be working perfectly from the beginning. This allows for a quick format change, and the best quality instantly, without having to hone, adjust, and improve dosages until perfectly accurate.”
“And you can do all of this via Festo’s motion apps, so it’s all done digitally. This is what is new, combining digitalization and pneumatics in another example of the revolution of automation and Industrie 4.0,” Buhler adds.
Motion Terminal currently has 10 functions available via its motion apps, ranging from basic modification of the directional control valve functions to energy-efficient motion, and from proportional behavior to different motion profiles. Uniquely, the same valve hardware is used for everything. Due to the fast activation of new functions via apps, machine developers can create a basic machine type and then select the relevant apps to equip it with different functions and features as per the customer requirements. Further apps are in development.
Assigning functions via software has the added benefit of protecting against tampering and protecting know-how, since it is not possible to tell from the outside which functions the valves are executing.
“When we looked into incorporating Motion Terminal, we realized that there really was no comparable product on the market,” says Buhler. “It’s a revolution in pneumatics.”
Incorporating features that make it possible to take advantage of the IIoT, the Sigpack VPF can be fitted with Bosch’s new Condition Monitoring Platform. The software solution provides real-time information about machines, systems, or process status on site. It does so through continuous data acquisition, which makes it possible to indicate upcoming errors before downtime occurs. Based on pre-defined tolerance levels, for instance, for temperature or cycle time, operators receive notifications of deviations via e-mail. This way, the Condition Monitoring Platform helps to prevent cost-intensive downtime and increase machine availability.
Ultimately, exact dosing, deep pouch filling, and hermetically tight seams reduce product loss and waste in the packaging process while continuing to optimize OEE.
