• Control Techniques India Limited

Servo Drives & Motors for Box Packing Machine

Control Techniques, part of Emerson Industrial Automation, an Emerson business, is supplying Digitax ST servo drives and Unimotor FM servo motors for a new design of packaging machine, Cartonwrap, manufactured by Italy-based CMC Machinery, improving reliability and precision accuracy.

Cartonwrap machines use an inexpensive corrugated cardboard roll to make boxes to pack any kind of product, adapting the container to the size of the item to pack. Products are fed into the packaging machine on a conveyor and the box is formed around them.

The Digitax drives use multi-network management via central PC and Ethernet for coordination of all production menus and motion parametric equations on the individual process components. CMC machinery uses SM Applications Plus modules in each drive - these are automation controllers with integrated fieldbus communications and I/O. Using the modules avoids the need for an external PLC allowing reduced wiring which increases communication speed. The modules are running bespoke software that has been designed specifically for Cartonwrap machines with the assistance of software engineers from Control Techniques.

Giordano Ceccarini, Technical Manager at CMC Machines says: “We chose servo products from Control Techniques because of their reliability and high precision accuracy. CMC has been using Control Techniques drives since the early 1990s and engineers from the company have consistently been closely involved in the creation of the specific software needed for our always-complicated motion control systems.

“I am really excited about our revolutionary new packaging machine which is designed to address the needs of shippers, such as e-commerce and fulfilment companies, that need to procure and stock multiple size boxes. Our system eliminates the need to stock pre-formed boxes. By making the boxes the right size for individual products, Cartonwrap also leads to a drastic reduction of filling materials inside boxes, reduces material costs and environmental impact and increases productivity and efficiency.”

Each Cartonwrap machine uses 22 Digitax ST servo drives and 075U2C/095U2B Unimotor FM servo motors, as well as six Unidrive SP and 5 Commander SK drives, also from Control Techniques.