The Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI) hosted Pack Expo International in Chicago. I always look upon this event with great anticipation as it is an excellent opportunity to not only meet up with the many people and manufacturers that I have had the pleasure to work with, but it also provides a one-stop venue specifically intended to show the best of what is present in the world of packaging machinery and process engineering.
My one-day exposure to the four-day event is never enough but always supplies enough inspiration to carry the creative juices for months and years to come.
I attended a forum on the state of the industry that brought together manufacturers of consumer packaged goods (CPG) with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The focus of the session was to talk about the challenges faced by makers and users of packaging equipment, specifically in a post-pandemic world. It was reassuring to note that both ends of the spectrum had the same core issue—finding people to do the work.
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Of particular note to those of us who make a living designing and supporting control systems was the length to which emerging technologies are being leveraged to bridge the gap that has resulted in low-skilled workers being asked to effectively operate and maintain ever more technical machines and processes. The key, we concluded, was to use built-in familiarity like the use of smart phones to create a window into the machines we want people to operate.
If we can make the operation of our machines as easy as walking up to a photocopier, we just might make something that today’s workforce would find engaging and worth staying around to use for more than a few hours or days.
Walking about the show floor, there was plenty of mention of cloud computing, digital twins, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industry 4.0. If one could sift through all the buzzwords, the real core of innovation could be found by looking beyond the shiny guarding and Plexiglas enclosures.
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One such encounter with an innovative vendor was a series of machine adjustment points that were networked together using IO-Link. The goal was to electronically record and monitor machine changeover points.
Skilled people would provide the initial machine setup, and then, using the recorded values, less-skilled operators could duplicate the setup during subsequent changeovers by turning the dials until the settings matched the records made by the setup people.
All of this was in a graphical representation on the operator screen. Colors—red for out of adjustment, yellow for a variance from set point but still within operable parameters and green for in specification—were used to indicate the state of the machine and these values could be used by operator and technician alike to enhance current operation and future changeover efforts.
If a machine was operating poorly and a technician was called in to help, a quick view of the graphical state of the machine would quickly identify the adjustments that were out of spec. The operator could be quizzed to determine the need for the adjustment and the technician could decide if the action was contributing to the current state of operation.
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Digital position indicators have been around for a long time. The concept is to attach a device that counts the movement of a piece of a machine. For example, a cartoner has an adjustment to change the overall width of the machine to adapt to different carton widths.
A digital counter is attached to the hand crank that moves the rails in and out to change the product width. Each product width would be represented by a different count on the indicator.
A changeover chart is then developed to list all of the various adjustments, represented by count values, that correspond to each particular product.
With the introduction of on-machine networking, digital indicators have naturally migrated into this connectivity and are used to provide, electronically, the same changeover chart that would have been manually recorded on a piece of paper and then stored somewhere convenient for future use. The operating parameters of the machine in operation are easily accessed and monitored via the operator screen and are visible to all who work with the machine.
The added advantage is that anything that is available as a data point on a machine interface can also be accessed via a network connection to the machine. Remote monitoring of these values allows for the potential for predictive-maintenance activities and support from vendor and engineering teams.
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A new machine, when properly adjusted and running in peak performance has an internal essence, a heartbeat if you will. Talk to any long-term maintainer of equipment, and you will hear them talk of being to walk into a room and instantly know if the process is running well. They will place their hand on the frame of a machine and tell you where something isn’t right.
This skill, seemingly magical, is really just experience in connecting with the physical relationship between person and machine. Sadly, we now live in a world where the long-serving maintainers of equipment are retiring before the new technicians can learn to connect is such ways with the machines they are responsible for.
The use of IO-Link by this particular vendor of digital indicators gave the OEM another tool in the chest by including a vibration sensor in that same digital position indicator. Again, referring to the “feel” of an efficiently running machine, vibration sensors at various points on the machine will record the optimal “vibe” of the machine when running correctly.
From this we get a baseline that can be used to indicate when particular parts of the machine begin to perform out of expected norms. While not yet incorporated by this particular OEM into a useful tool, just the display of the data from the vibration sensor on the operator screen, beside the digital indicator current and recorded values, gives just one more way in which a maintainer can interpret the performance of the machine.
As a designer of control systems for packaging machinery, I found this use of IO-Link to be the first real-life example of where the “blob” of information that is included in an IO-Link connected device could be of value to a user of automation.
This might sound a bit surprising but my viewpoint comes mostly from the position of programmer. With the advent of IIoT, pretty much any device can be accessible to a collector of data. This wealth of information is only valuable if it can be identified by “someone” as being valuable and then presented in a suitable format to “another someone” who might find it of use in daily tasks.
Creating an algorithm to turn inputs and outputs into a functioning machine is a daunting task. Making it easy to use for the person who will operate this machine on a daily basis is even more challenging.
If we are lucky enough to make this same machine over and over again, we might be able to enhance the original programming to include value-added features that are useful to the operator. Hundreds of hours of developer time might condense into a single screen on an operator station.
The feature, once developed, might become a commonplace tool for the end user who has no idea how much time and effort went into bringing that tool to life. Coming from my OEM background, I remember well the admonishment I would get from my employer when I “wasted my time” making something useful for the end user because the development of the feature wasn’t included in the price the owner paid for the piece of equipment.
When IO-Link came around, I was at first very excited about the wealth of information that was now available and then overwhelmed by the prospect of incorporating all this information into my programs and operator screens.
Using tools like the ability to display machine positions on an operator screen, alongside the default settings for a particular product and then adding a display of the vibration experienced by that digital counter at that particular position on the machine takes technology to the next level.
With not too much study, those vibration values could be normalized and then used for comparison to determine when something on the machine wasn’t performing well. We might identify a cycle shaft that has bearings going bad, or we might even use multiple embedded vibration sensors to suggest an area of a machine where something out of the ordinary is going on.
Compare this to the experienced maintenance person putting hands on the machine. Digital data is far more precise of a science than the gut feeling of a long-serving maintainer of equipment. Better yet, the digital device doesn’t get sick, take a day off or take years to develop a feel for the machine in operation.
