The future packaging machine that goes beyond the boundaries of traditional automation?It arises from the integration of digital twin, Industrial IoT, edge and cloud.It is the technology that contributes to the economic and environmental sustainability of the sector.«The times when a line had to produce the same product in large quantities every day are long gone.The new market demand requires dynamic and flexible systems, which must be interpreted with an increasingly present digitization », says Simone Brisacani, Business Developer Manager Packaging - Digital Industries Siemens Italia.OEMs can concentrate on the most technological part of their machine, taking advantage of the integrated functions of the Packaging Toolbox, reducing the Total Cost of Ownership (Tco) through functions such as Intelligent Belt, to evenly space out the products and Intelligent Infeed, to group products which will then be picked up and boxed.With a view to flexibility, with the Multi Carrier System, a linear movement system with independent trolleys, it is possible to create an “intralogistic microcosm” for synchronized and intelligent handling to support diversified and highly customized productions.A shampoo production line where multiple fragrances can be filled?Nothing simpler.The trolley will pass on a path that crosses several stations, stopping at those that release the essence specified by the consumer when ordering.Siemens digitalization puts oems and end users in the position to take advantage of the potential that can arise from virtualized and sensorized machines.To each machine its own digital twin, to simulate the control code, first of all.This is the method by which you can check for errors before going into production, or, as a next step, have a digital twin of performance and implement condition monitoring or anomaly detection algorithms.Innovation, innovation, innovation.In the machine dedicated to the Pharma, with the real use case of Fps di Fiorenzuola d'Arda, Siemens proposes the completely renewed man-machine interface: through a voice assistant it cuts down the dead times and makes the execution of the various operations more fluid. which are in charge of the operator to manage the entire machine cycle.Siemens' focus for packaging is on design and manufacturing efficiency.They can be obtained with big data processing and analysis, to improve the performance of the machine or of the entire production cycle.For the design of the packaging, new technologies such as Star-Ccm + help to use materials with a low environmental impact.Central, in this sense, is the design approach, which starts from the design and arrives at the validation of the packaging, in compliance with the new regulations on the materials to be used.In short, the growing variety of customized packaging requires systems that can offer greater flexibility, reliability in the flow and processing of raw materials.As Brisacani states, «From mass production to batch one production, the Siemens solution portfolio dedicated to automation applications for the packaging industry reduces time-to-market and increases plant availability».In other words, a smart manufacturing declined in the packaging field, where the data is used to automatically generate information to support production optimization.The label, color and design of any package now play a decisive role in the consumer's choice.Mass customization, or the possibility of creating products designed for the individual on a large scale, is the challenge facing the world of packaging machines.A sector, which is of enormous importance for Italian manufacturing, just think that the aggregate turnover of packaging and wrapping machines now exceeds ten billion euros.Production is 60% associated with the food sector and 25% with pharmaceuticals and cosmetics;the remainder is aimed at different sectors, among which the tobacco, chemical and tissue sectors stand out.How can we design systems capable of working with maximum efficiency in a market characterized by extreme personalization of demand?"First of all, we need sensorized machines, increasingly predisposed to predictive diagnostics, which can be reconfigured quickly and at low costs to reorganize the lines according to the type and quantity of the product to be made", explains Brisacani.The imperative is to be able to count on highly configurable machines, modular in all their components, capable of detecting the flow of data collected by an infinite number of sensors and why not, even actuators through an edge infrastructure, therefore on the machine or on the production".It is in this hyper-personalized scenario that Siemens technologies for oems and end users in the sector fall.Starting from the Multi-Carrier-System, a handling system with independent trolleys, where it is possible to carry out the most diverse processes in several areas.It has been a technology that has been around for some time and continues to open up new possibilities in packaging: it allows you to accelerate, move and precisely position different products, independently of each other.The advantages?Making different product formats on a single production line, reducing cycle times and keeping production volumes sustainable.In the plant, containers to be filled - such as bottles, jars or flasks - are moved one by one on an individually controllable trolley capable of handling different formats.Products travel seamlessly from system to system, with seamless loading and unloading, while linear motors ensure free, dynamic movement as well as precise positioning.Furthermore, in terms of adaptability, the Multi Carrier System is an intelligent and chameleonic transport system, as the variety of mechanical systems and installation methods is such that it can be easily adapted to any structure.As Brisacani explains, «By acting on the control software, it is possible to have trolleys interacting with independent stations.In short, an intralogistic and productive microcosm can be created inside the machine, where, for example, a container is loaded with products from different sources ».The Intelligent Belt library can be used to accept incoming products in sequence and supply them grouped in a picking location.The most important feature is that loading and unloading are carried out independently.«Each belt can be moved independently by a separate drive.The module can be made up of one or more groups that prepare the products for the next machine module », explains Brisacani.This means that one group can be loaded while another group is moving into the pickup area.The "Form, Fill and Seal" library contains the functions for the general coordination of sheet feeders, dosing units and sealing units for both horizontal and vertical machines, with a careful eye on the consumption of material, therefore sustainable, such as the " no product no bag ".The Intelligent Infeed, on the other hand, is used to receive products arriving in a continuous but irregular flow and make them available to the downstream station, spaced evenly and defined by the user.With regard to this function, in particular, Siemens is studying reinforcement learning algorithms, which can distance the products by setting the belt speeds independently thanks to artificial intelligence.Siemens makes available various functional and application building blocks that allow you to simulate individual components or even, with Plant Simulation, the entire production line or plant.Alternatively, thanks to Process Simulate, it is also possible to simulate the passage of a fluid through a heating or cooling station.As Brisacani suggests, a digital twin allows you to answer essential questions.How to optimize the planning?What impact will the introduction of a new machine in line have?How to adapt the system for new product variants.And again, how to improve performance without compromising productivity and production costs?What are the best machine and workstation configurations to maximize workflows?Physical reconfiguration of the system and addition of machine modules may be required.All aspects that, if not tested sufficiently, can cause a degradation of productivity and quality.To accurately predict the real performance of a package, you need simulation tools capable of capturing all the physical parameters that affect its performance during its operational life, including those that transcend the boundaries of traditional design disciplines.To improve the packaging it is also necessary to be able to evaluate how the performance changes in response to mechanical, thermo and fluid-dynamic stresses and ultimately to the preservation capacity of the product that the package contains.Simcenter Star-Ccm + is a multiphysics simulation tool useful for testing the complete functioning of the packaging."At a time when the packaging sector is looking for new innovative materials, in a recyclable perspective, having such detailed simulation tools available, allows us to accelerate the sustainable transformation that consumers are demanding," says the manager of Siemens.As emerged in the course of Ipack-Ima, the market priorities of manufacturers of production machines in packaging have changed, and are increasingly evolving with a view to sustainable IoT.In fact, we are moving towards a personalized, connected and automated future.Siemens - thanks to a dedicated team and the packaging competence center in Bologna - responds to these needs by focusing both on efficiency and sustainable design, and on the transformation of increasingly digital processes.Sustainability is the ultimate goal.Three levels on which Siemens is committed to achieve this goal: efficiency of the development tools, which thanks to the packaging toolbox make it possible to make machines more flexible and adaptable;efficiency in design, anticipating everything that will actually be implemented through a variety of simulation tools;finally, efficiency in production, with the use of IoT technologies and industrial edge platforms which, starting from data, create value by improving machine performance, thus allowing less waste and a consequent greater sustainability of the entire production cycle.Save my name, email and website in this browser for the next time I comment.Your e-mail address is used only to send you our newsletter and information, including commercial information, on the activities of Industria Italiana, as defined in the Privacy Policy.You can always use the unsubscribe link included in the newsletter.Your email address is used only for the activities of Industria Italiana and will not be disclosed or transferred to third parties, for any reason.